Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/209

 g>s. vm. SEPT. 7, i9oi.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

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even right belief. Theology must yield the first place to morals." " The Rabbins were the jnost enthusiastic preachers of the gospel of work that the world has ever seen." " Great is labour." "For it honours the labourer. " Greater even than the God-fearing man is he who lives by his toil." " Manliness " is the dominant note of the Jewish ethics. " It is a good sign when a man walks with his head erect." " If you have a grievance against any one, go to him and tell him so face to face. Honour the virtuous Gentile, not the irre- ligious Israelite. The worst failing is in- gratitude ; it must not be shown even to a brute. Pay your debts before you give alms." " The alms given in health are gold ; in illness, silver ; left by will, copper." The foregoing extracts are from a lecture on 'Jewish Ethics,' by the Rev. Morris Joseph ('Religious Systems of the World'), and are translated from Zunz, 'Zur Geschichte und Literatur.' Judaism also teaches that citizens of a state must take their proper share in all work for its welfare. Patriotism must be evinced when the state is in danger. " All our means, our physical and intellectual faculties, must be at the disposal of the country in which we live as citizens." "There is no difference between Jews and their fellow-citizens with regard to the duty of loyalty."

The Jews in England have for more than fifty years gone far beyond the call of mere duty, and none of their fellow-subjects have exceeded them in their support of the Gov- ernment or in affectionate fealty to the throne. In a sermon delivered by the Chief Rabbi during the dark winter of 1899 he referred to the fact that " among those who had fallen in the battle, dying a soldier's honourable death, there have been a goodly number of our brethren in faith who have cheerfully sacrificed their lives in the service of their Queen and of their flag"; and he closed with an exhortation to the young men to grow up honourable and pure, truth- ful and diligent, worthy citizens of England, and true sons of Israel. The Rev. Morris Joseph has said : ** If the lifelong anguish of Israel excites the most profound pity, only admiration can be yielded to that greatness of soul which is the fairest gem in his crown of martyrdom." The Jew, patient in suffer- ing, forgave, and preserved his integrity in spite of his suffering. There is but little desire among the Jews for a return to Pales- tine, for the lands where they were formerly persecuted they now look upon as permanent homes, and among these homes there is none regarded with greater love and affection than England, N. S. S.

CHOCOLATE. (See ante, p. 160.) N. S. S., in his interesting notes on ' Bevis Marks Syna- gogue,' is surely in error as to the introduc- tion of chocolate, for it was a common drink in Spain in the seventeenth century. Stevens, in his ' Spanish- English Dictionary,' which appeared in Queen Anne's time, says, " Choco- late, well known, and therefore needs no more to be said about it." Y.

HARVEST BELL. I copy the enclosed from a recent number of the Yorkshire Herald :

" There is now being observed at Driffield a custom which has prevailed timeout of mind, and the origin of which is lost in the mists of antiquity that of the ringing of what is known as the harvest bell. During the harvest month one of the bells of the parish church is rung at five o'clock in the morning and seven o'clock in the evening, the object being to summon the people to work in the harvest fields and to call them from work at night. Though those are not the times that labour begins and ceases now, probably they may have been in a former age. Church antiquaries who have spoken on this matter are of opinion that originally this bell was not used for the purpose it now is supposed to serve, holding that church bells were never, or were unlikely to be, used for such a secular purpose. It is suggested that in Romish times morning prayers were held earlier in harvest and later at night, so that those working in the harvest field could attend before and after labour; and that this bell, which has now come to be called the harvest bell, was the bell which summoned the worshippers to church. No explanation is given as to how it has come to be rung through the centuries since the final establish- ment of Protestantism. However these things may be, the bell is still rung, and it is worthy of note that the present parish clerk, Mr. Johnson, has rung this bell during harvest for over fifty years. He receives a small gratuity for his services." 1 do not know whether the subject has ever been discussed in the columns of ' N. & Q./ and I am not responsible for the opinions given in the paragraph quoted, but I dare say the origin of the bell can be traced.

W. B.

[The Driffield custom is referred to at 2 nd S. x. 356. The "gleaners' bell" was rung in many other places, including even Thuringia. See 2 nd S. x. 288, 356, 476, 519.]

" MAHOGANY." I had always looked on this as of unknown etymology, but I see Prof. Skeat, in the new edition of his valuable ' Concise Etymological Dictionary,' says that it is from mahagoni, in the old Carib dialect of Hayti. He gives as his authority Garden and Forest, 15 July, 1896, but he does not tell us what in turn was the authority relied on by this American periodical. There is a list of Hay tian expressions in Humboldt's ' Tra- vels,' which in the translation published by Bohn will be found in vol. i. p. 328. It con- tains the entry " Swietenia Mahagoni, caoba"