210 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2""» S. VII. Mak. 12. '59. 



8vo. ed, vol. Hi. p. 22.) ; his proposal for the pub- 

 lication of Grossetete's works in three folio volumes 

 (ibid. p. 163.) ; his benefactions, for the most 

 part lost in the time of his troubles, to St. John's 

 College {Appendix B. to Fifth Report on Edu- 

 cation, pp. 473, 474.) ; Burton {Anat. of Melanch., 

 ji. 2. 4, p. 352. of the new edition) refers to the 

 building of the library. See also Panzani's Me- 

 moirs, p. 216, the indexes to Evelyn's Memoirs, to 

 Baillie's Journals, to Lives of Ferrar (Cambr. 

 1855), and to the Calendar of State Papers. 



Any farther information which your correspon- 

 dents can supply will be of service ; there must 

 be annotated copies of Hacket in many libraries. 



J. E. B, Matob. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



CUEIOtJS CEREMONY FOR THE SOULS OF THK 

 SLAIN IN BATTLE. 



In an ancient Irish Chronicle of the wars of the 

 Danes and other Northmen in Ireland, which I 

 am now engaged in editing for the Master of the 

 Rolls, I find the following curious fact, and would 

 be greatly obliged to any of your readers who could 

 refer me to any similar practice or custom else- 

 where. 



It is necessary to premise that Mathgamhain 

 (for the sake of yowr non-Celtic renders, I may 

 call him Mahoon, which nearly represents our 

 pronunciation of the name) King of Munster, with 

 his brother Brian, afterwards the celebrated Brian 

 Boruraha, and Cathal, son of Feradach, chief of 

 Delvin Mor (now the barony of Garrycastle, 

 King's County) made an assault on the Danes of 

 Limerick, a.d. 965, and routed them with great 

 slaughter, taking the town and fortress, which they 

 burned and sacked. Mahoon's first care after his 

 victory was to divide the spoil amongst his fol- 

 lowers according to their prowess in the battle. 

 The narrative then proceeds : — 



"It was then tliey celebrated also the races of the Son 

 of Feradach, namely, by placing on the Hills of Saingel 

 in a circle, a great line of the women of the foreigners, in 

 a stooping posture *, with their hands on the ground, and 

 driven by the gillies [or horseboys] of the array behind 

 them, for the good of. the souls of the foreigners who 

 were killed in the battle." 



The Hills of Saingel, where this singular cere- 

 mony was performed, are supposed to be identical 

 with the present race-course of Newcastle, co. 

 Clare ; and it is probable from the ceremony being 

 called " the Races of the Son of Feradach," that 

 it was even then in the tenth century used as a 

 racecourse. 



But what are we to think of the ceremony 

 itself? Is it of Danish or of Irish origin ? Was it 

 in mockery and contempt, or was it a real expia- 



• That is, as I understand it, not altogether on hands 

 and knees, but on their feet and hands. 



tory rite, pagan or corrupt Christian, " for the 

 good of the souls of the Danes slain in the bat- 

 tle ? " 



It is called " The Race of the Son of Fera- 

 dach," that is, no doubt of Cathal son of Fera- 

 dach mentioned above, who distinguished himself 

 in the battle ; it was he most probably who sug- 

 gested and superintended the ceremony ; and if 

 so, it is possible that the whole thing was intended 

 to insult the Danish women, and to ridicule their 

 paganism, by the rude joke that the Race, as it is 

 called, was for the good of the souls of their slain 

 kinsmen. But it is also not improbable that the 

 ceremony was connected with one which is com- 

 mon amongst the Irish peasantry at the present 

 day, viz., that of making rounds at wells or " sta- 

 tions " (such as Crough Patrick, Loch Deary, &c.). 

 I have seen women and men too make these rounds 

 on bare knees, upon sharp gravel, until they went 

 away bleeding and lacerated. » 



Can any of your learned readers throw light on 

 the subject, or refer me to anything similar? 



J. H. Todd. 



Trin. Col. Dublin. 



ON AN INTERPOLATION WHICH GIBBON HAS AD- 

 MITTED INTO THE TEXT OF HIS HISTOKy, IN A 

 QUOTATION FROM ^NEAS OF GAZA RESPECTING 

 THE AFRICAN CONFESSORS, A.D. 484. 



In the 37th chapter of his History, Gibbon has 

 admitted into his text the following translation of 

 a passage in ^neas of Gaza's J'heophrastus con- 

 cerning the African confessors whose tongues had 

 been mutilated, or, as fras erroneously thought, 

 wholly cut; out, by order of Hunneric the Van- 

 dal:— 



" I saw them myself: I heard them speak: I diligently 

 inquired by what means such an articulate voice could be 

 formed without any organ of speech : I used my 63-68 to 

 examine the report of my ears: I opened their mouth, 

 and saw that the whole tongue had been completely torn 

 away by the roots : an operation lohich the physicians gene- 

 rally suppose to he mortal." 



The words printed in Italics are translated from 

 an interpolation. 



The Theophrastus is a dialogue, in the manner 

 of Plato, on the immortality of the soul and the 

 resurrection of the body. In the beginning of the 

 fifteenth century a copy of it was brought from 

 Constantinople, and translated into Latin by Tra- 

 versari, a monk of the Camaldolensian Order. 

 This Latin translation, purporting to be written 

 by " Ambrogius Camaldolensis," was first printed, 

 without the Greek text, at Venice, in 1513, many 

 years after Traversari's death. The Greek text 

 itself, according to Fabriclus {De verit. Relig. 

 Christ., p. 107.), was first published atZurich in 

 1559, accompanied by a Latin translation of Jo- 

 hannes Wolfius. In 1655, another edition of the 

 Greek text was publisl»ed ?vt Leipzig, accompanied 



