Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/223

 9s. viii. SEPT. 7, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

215

CROSIER AND PASTORAL STAFF (9 th S. vii. 387, 495 ; viii. 50, 90, 151). LORD ALDEN HAM'S letter leads to a subordinate question. From the quotations he gives there appear to have been, in the Middle Ages, at least two forms of the bishop's crosier, according as the French, the English, or other shepherd's staff was the type of the ecclesiastical form of this staff.

The type referred to in the decisive quota- tion from the * Pilgrimage of the Manhode ' (c. 1330) is the French shepherd's houlette^as seen in Court pastoral pictures, adorned with ribbons. This staff derived its name (see Littre) from its having at the " business end"aAowe, "howwe," or spud, with which lumps of earth were dug up and slung at straying sheep.

The quotation from ' Piers Plowman,' of about the same date, refers to the ordinary crook used to hale stray sheep into the right way or into the butcher's shop. There ap- pear also to have been other forms of the crook. One had a mallet -shaped head for driving in the stakes of the sheepfold, possi- bly when the aid of a dog rendered the hook or the spud unnecessary. Are there any traces in actual episcopal crooks, or in pictures of them, of the clod -slinging as dis- tinguished from the leg-hooking type 1

EDWARD NICHOLSON.

1, Huskisson Street, Liverpool.

DUAL NUMBER IN PROVINCIAL GERMAN (9 th S. vii. 449, 517). Enk is Oberbairisch, the German dialect spoken in the Bavarian Alps and on the Bavarian plateau (Munich). It is nearly akin to that of the Austrian neighbours. Enk is the objective case of os (long closed o), and is no longer a dual in meaning, although it is identical with Old English inc, "you both" (dative and accu- sative of the aual of 5w). Both forms are used to address either a number of persons or a single one, which latter use, of course, is due to politeness, thus simply meaning function. DR. G. KRUEGER.
 * ' you." Enka is its genitive, with possessive

Berlin.

JfbtiBantunt*.

. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Realms of the Egyptian Dead. By K. A.

Wiedemann, Ph.D. (Nutt.) The Tell el Amarna Period. By C. Niebuhr. (Same

publisher. )

STUDENTS of the religions and early civilizations of the East will note with pleasure that Mr. Nutt has undertaken to produce in English the valuable series of short monographs which have been lately appearing in Germany under the general title of
 * Der alte Orient.' In the present issues we have

careful renderings of Prof. Wiedemann's ' Die Tot en und ihre Reiche im Glauben der alten Aegypter' and Carl Niebuhr's ' Die Amarna-zeit,' the former giving a scholarly and authoritative account of the strange eschatological beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, the latter of the famous letters in Babylonian cuneiform, the discovery of which at Tell el Amarna in 1888 has quite revolutionized previous ideas as to the culture and political rela- tions of Palestine in the fifteenth century B.C. The writers are acknowledged experts dealing with subjects in their own province, and we cannot doubt that these cheap and thoroughly trustworthy manuals will be in great demand.

Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, of the Reign of William and Mary, November, 1691, to End of 1692. Edited by William John Hardy. (Stationery Office. )

As we approach modern times the State Papers become far less picturesque, but uney are to the student none the less interesting. The volume before us shows that the position of William in the beginning of his reign was a very unstable one- much more so, indeed, than the Whig historians have divined or have had the courage to represent. Had his thoughts been devoted to his newly acquired kingdoms alone, though he would never have been a popular ruler, he might well have filled a similar place in the people's regard to that occu- pied by certain Prime Ministers of more recent days, who were looked upon as useful, but most uncongenial public officials. William's heart was set on the great continental struggle, and this was most distasteful to the ordinary Englishman, whose ideas of politics were limited to his own country, though he rejoiced when she gained or participated in a great victory ; yet he sorely grudged the Wood and treasure which his new master compelled him to squander on what he regarded as no concern of his. It is perhaps needless to say that when the calendars for the time of William and Mary are complete the political history of the time will have to be rewritten. The documents, so far as at present disclosed, do not throw much light on the personal character of William. Devoted to his official work, cold and 1 astute, he comes before us exhibiting no spark of genius, but with business ability of a very high order. The Scottish papers

though the report of a prejudiced and probably igno- rant witness. He speaks of the Highlanders as a "people without any principle of religion or honour," which, being interpreted, only means that his form of faith was different from theirs, and that his notions of loyalty whether higher or lower ran in a different groove. He also says that there is " one thing all the clans desire," namely, that all superiorities should be bought of the chiefs, so that the lesser landowners might hold their estates immediately of the Crown. This we know was so far from being the case that it is by no means easy to credit the viscount with good faith. There is little direct evidence regarding the murders of Glencoe, but a good deal which indirectly bears on the subject. All tends to show that the king and his subordinates were willing to recur to the barbarous modes of warfare not uncommon in the dark ages, when they were dealing with those whom they perversely regarded as savages. A list of the