May 22. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



501 



meuyed ayenst them and sente them a grete pestelence, 

 which was called the Botche of impedymye, and that 

 was eruell and sodayne, and caused peple to dye in 

 goyng hy the waye, in pleying, in leeyng atte table, 

 and in spekyng one with another sodeynly they deyed. 

 In this nianere somtyme snesyng they deyed ; so that 

 whan any persone was herd snesyng, anone they that 

 were by said to hym, God heipe you, or Cryst heipe, 

 and yet endureth the custome. And also whan he sneseth 

 or gapeth he maketh to fore his face the signe of the 

 crosse and blessith hym. And yet endureth this cus- 

 tome." — Golden Legende, edit. 1483, fo. xxi. b. 



F. SOMNER MeRRYWEATHER. 

 Kentish Town. 



Abbot of CroylancCs Motto (Vol. v., p. 395.).— 

 Mr. Forbes is quite correct with regard to the 

 motto of Abbot ^Vells, which should be ' Bene- 

 dicite Fontes Domino." The sentence, " Bless the 

 Wells, O Lord!" which is placed in so awkward 

 a juxtaposition with it, is really a distinct motto 

 for the name of Wells, and, so far from being a 

 translation of the abbot's, is almost an inversion of 

 it; and this should, as Mr. Forbes justly remarks, 

 have had "some editorial notice" from me. 



M. A. Lower. 



Derivation of the Word ^^ Azores" (Vol. v., 

 p. 439.). — The group of islands called the Azores, 

 first discovered in 1439, by Joshua Vanderburg, 

 a merchant of Bruges, and taken possession of by 

 the Portuguese in 1448, were so named by Martin 

 Behem, from the Portuguese word Agor, a hawk ; 

 Behem observing a great number of hawks there. 

 The three species most frequently seen now are 

 the Kestril, called Francelho ; the Sparrowhawk, 

 Furohardo ; and the Buzzard, Manta ; but whether 

 very numerous or not, I am unable to state. 

 From the geographical position of these islands, 

 correct lists of the birds and fishes would be of 

 great interest, and, as far as I am aware, are yet 

 wanting. 



Martin Behem found one of these islands covered 

 with beech-trees, and called it therefore Fayal, 

 from the Portuguese word Faya, a beech-tree. 

 Another island, abounding in sweet flowers, he 

 called Flores, from the Portuguese, Flor, a flower. 

 Terceira, one of the nine islands forming the 

 group, is said to have been so called, because, in 

 the order of succession, it was the third island dis- 

 covered (from Ter and ceira, a bank). Graciosa, 

 as a name, was conferred upon one of peculiar 

 beauty, a sort of paradise. Pico derived its name 

 from its sugar-loaf form. The raven found at 

 Madeira and the Canary Islands is probably also 

 a native of the Azores, and might have suggested 

 the Portuguese name of Corvo for one of the nine. 

 St. Mary, St. Michael, and St. George complete 

 the names of the group, of which St. JNlichael is 

 the largest, and Corvo the smallest. 



Wm. Yarrell. 



Hider Street. 



Scologlandis'and Scologi (Vol. v., p. 416.). — 

 As these names occur in a Celtic country, we are 

 justified in seeking their explanation in the Celtic 

 language. I therefore write to inform G. J. R. G. 

 that the word scolog is a living word in the Irish 

 language, and that it signifies a, farmer or husband- 

 man. It is the woi-d used in the Irish Bible at 

 Matt. xxi. 33., "he let it out to husbandmen" — 

 tug se do scologaibh ar chios i. 



I may also mention that the name Mac Scoloige 

 is very common in the co. Fermanagh in Ireland, 

 where it is very generally anglicised Farmer^ 

 according to a usual practice of the Irish. Thus 

 it is not uncommon even now to find a man known 

 by the name of John or Thomas Farmer, whose 

 father or grandfather is John or Thomas Mac 

 Scoloige, the name Mac Scoloige signifying " son 

 of a farmer." 



The Scologlandis, in the documents quoted by 

 G. J. R. G., must therefore have taken their name 

 from the scologs or farmers, by whom they were 

 cultivated, unless we suppose that they were 

 anciently the patrimony of some branch of the 

 family of Mac Scoloige, whose remains are now 

 settled in Fermanagh. 



In Scotland the word is now usually written 

 sgalag, and is explained by Armstrong in his 

 Gaelic Dictionary "a farm servant." And the 

 word does certainly seem to have been used in 

 ancient Irish to denote a servant or menial atten- 

 dant, although the notion of- a farm servant seems 

 to have grown out of its other significations. Thus 

 in a very ancient historical romance (probably as 

 old as the ninth or tenth century), which is pre- 

 served in the curious volume called Leubhar breac, 

 or Speckled Book, in the library of the Royal 

 Irish Academy, the word scolog is used to desig- 

 nate the servant of the Abbot of St. Finbar's, 

 Cork. J.H.T. 



iHt^ccnaitfOttS. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



If there be any one class of documents from which, 

 more than from any other, we may hope to draw evi- 

 dence of the accuracy of Byron's assertion, that " Truth 

 is strange, stranger than fiction ! " they are surely the 

 records of judicial proceedings both in civil and crimi- 

 nal matters ; while, as Mr. Burton well observes in 

 the preface to the two volumes which have called forth 

 tliis remark. Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scot- 

 land, " there can be no source of information more 

 fruitful in incidents which have the attraction of pic- 

 turesqueness, along with the usefulness of truth." In 

 submitting therefore to the public the materials of this 

 nature — some drawn from manuscript authorities, some 

 again from those works which, being printed for Sub- 

 scription Clubs, may be considered as privately printed, 

 and inaccessible to the majority of readers — which had 

 accunmlated on his hands while in the pursuit of other 

 inquiries connected with the history of Scotland, Mr, 



