2nd s. VII. Mar. 5. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



191 



(vi. 63.) says that the muraenas from the Straits 

 of Hercules and Tartessus were the most cele- 

 brated. (Compare Athen. vii. p. 312.) The Tar- 

 tessian murajna is mentioned as a delicacy by 

 Varro in his Satwa irepl iSea-i-idTuv, Gell. vii. 16. 

 For further particulars respecting the murajna, 

 see Macrob. Saturn, iii. 15. The Romans like- 

 wise procured it from the Straits of Messina, 

 Juv. V. 99. 



According to Aristot. (Amc, Mir. c. 136.), the 

 Phoenicians who inhabit Gades, having sailed west 

 of the Pillars of Hercules for four days, came to 

 some shallows full of seaweed, where there is an 

 enormous quantity of thunny fish, of an incredible 

 size and thickness ; these are salted, and put in 

 jars, and conveyed to Carthage. The Carthagi- 

 nians do not export them, but consume them at 

 home. The Tyrian thunny is mentioned by Pol- 

 lux, vi. 63. Concerning the thunny in antiquity, 

 see Camus, Notes sur VHist. des An. d'Aristote, 

 p. 798. 



Strabo speaks of the abundance of rabbits in 

 BEeticii, which destroy the plants ; and he says that 

 the inhabitants keep ferrets, an animal procured 

 from Africa, for the purpose of killing them (iii. 

 2. 6.) Herodotus states that among the Nomad 

 Libyans there are ferrets, which live in the sil- 

 phium, exactly like those of Tartessus (iv. 192.), 

 The ferret was called the Tartessian weasel (70X7) 

 Taf>r7](Tia, see Hesych. i« v. ; Suidas in yoAtj ; Dio- 

 genian, iii. 71.), from the bite of which animal a 

 cert^ain Aristldes of Locri was recorded to have 

 died (.^lian, V. H. xiv. 4.). According to Strabo, 

 the whole of Spain, together with the southern 

 coast of Gaul as far as Massilia, and the Balearic 

 Islands, was infested with rabbits. The inhabit- 

 ants of the latter islands are stated by him to 

 have suffered so severely from the multiplication 

 of these animals, which undermined both trees 

 and houses, that they petitioned the Romans to 

 assign them a territory elsewhere, which should 

 be free from this scourge (/ft. iii. 5. 2.). Pliny 

 (viii. 81.) speaks of the excessive fecundity of 

 the rabbit, and states that it produces a famine 

 in the Balearic Islands by destroying the corn in 

 the fields. He adds that the inhabitants of these 

 islands applied to Augustus for military assistance 

 against the rabbits. He describes them as being 

 caught by sending ferrets into their burrows (xn- 

 verrce). 



The notices which have been preserved respect- 

 ing Tartessus show that the Greeks extended their 

 navigation and trade, at a comparatively early 

 period, as far as the moutli of the Guadalquivir 

 and the country adjoining that river. Here, how- 

 ever, their commercial enterprise stopped : Poly- 

 bius, who wrote about the middle of the second 

 century before Clirist, states that the Strait at the 

 Pillars of Hercules was rarely passed by the dwell- 

 ers upon the Mediterranean, owing to their want 



of intercourse with the nations at the extremities 

 of Europe and Africa, and their ignorance of the 

 external sea (xvi. 29.). G. C. Lewis. 



PEOJECT OF REFORM IN THE TIME OF 

 HENRY VIII. 



The following project of Reform from a volume in the 

 Lansdowne Collection (MS. Lansd. 762. fol. 76) of the 

 time of Henry VIII.,<partly on vellum, partly on paper, 

 may interest the readers of " N. & Q." at the present 

 moment. 



H. E. 



Here folowith xxilij Articles the which the 

 People of Almen will have refourmed according 

 as here folowith, for which reformacion to obteyne, 

 and have, there is risen of the said Nacion One 

 hundred and Eighty thousand men, and dayly the 

 nombre doth encreas. 



1. Ffirst, that no manerprest shalbe sufFerid to 

 take cure of Sowles but if he be of honest lyving, 

 and have good and sufficient lernyng, and xl.yeres 

 of age or above. 



2. That no person shall have the profits of his 

 Parsonage but if he do serve it hym selff, and he 

 so doing to have accompetent and reasonable lev- 

 ing. 



3. That all maner of Sacraments of the Churche 

 to be mynystred vnto euery person at tymes and 

 as often as shalbe desiered withoute takyng any 

 dewtie therefore. 



4. That there be no servis done for litell Chil- 

 derne. 



5. That all suche persons as hath their lyving 

 of Churche if they behave them selff not honestly 

 in their lyving lyke as men of the Chirch ought 

 for to doo, then they to be pVy vatid of their offices 

 and benefices. 



6. That Spirituall Judges shall put no man to 

 deth, be cause suche Judgements apperteyneth to 

 the Temperaltie. 



7. That spirituall men in Justice shall com and 

 apere before temporall men Judges as well as 

 temporall men. 



8. That spirituall men shall paye of their londs 

 vnto the Prynce or Lorde, according as the Tem- 

 porale men dothe. 



9. That Prelats of the Chirch shall medill with 

 no temporall causes when any exaccion shalbe 

 made amongs the people. Spirituall men to paye 

 as well as temporall men at all tymes that any 

 suche shalbe requyred by their Kyng or Lorde. 



10. That all manner of Lords and gentilmen 

 shall lett Merchaunts have free libertie within 

 their lands, that Merchaunts may reigne without 

 toll or vexacion of any person. 



11. That stray t Justice be done vpon thevis. 



12. That all maner of persons may goo and 

 dwell in such places as they list withoute paying 

 of any toll to the lorde. 



