314 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°* S. NO 42., Oct. 18. '56. 



the remains of some desperate villain hanging in 

 chains. But, without further preface or remark, 

 let me proceed to mention two coach miseries not 

 included in your catalogue, respecting which I 

 can say with truth experto crede. 



20. Arriving at daybreak, more than_ half 

 famished, after an excessively cold winter night's 

 ride on the box, with fingers too benumbed to 

 assist you in partaking of the solids at the break- 

 fiist table, and receiving the summons of — " Now, 

 gentlemen! coach is waiting!" just as the pro- 

 spect of returning circulation gives you the hope 

 of getting a meal. 



21. Prepared against the "pelting of the piti- 

 less storm," with wraps and waterproofs, cape, 

 apron, &c., to find that, from a point of your 

 female neighbour's umbrella, which continually 

 tickles your ear, and threatens to upset your hat, 

 a regular stream is conducted down your neck, 

 common politeness forbidding you to remonstrate. 



N. L. T. 



SARACENS. 



(2"'i S. ii. 229. 298.) 



Abhba wishes to know the derivation of this 

 word. By Rabbinical writers they are called Sar- 

 cin, and in Cbaldee, Sarcain, which is understood 

 to denote persons given to rapine and plunder. 

 In Gen. xxxvii. 25., for " and behold a company 

 of Ishmeelites," the Jerusalem Targum has Sara- 

 cain, i. e. Saracens. In the same place the Tar- 

 gum of Onkelos has Arabs. It appears therefore 

 that Ishmeelites, Arabs, and Saracens, were ac- 

 counted synonymous terms. Gen. xxxix. 1. ex- 

 hibits the same use pf the words. That the 

 wandering predatory tribes of Arabs are meant 

 appears from a passage in which something is 

 compared to the tents of the Saracens which are 

 moved about from place to place. The use of 

 this word in reference to the Arabs was much 

 earlier than the rise of Mohammedanism, as it 

 would not be difficult to show by references to 

 ancient writers. There are several derivations of 

 the word proposed, one of which is thus expressed : 

 " Dicti autem fuerunt Saraceni a Sara legitima 

 Abraham! uxore ; " but this is too fanciful to be 

 admitted. A second view would trace it to the 

 root p"l^ and make it signify Orientals ; but the 

 opinion of Scaliger is far preferable. He derives 

 it from the Arab, sarac, " to plunder." See Matt. 

 vi. 20., where the Arabic words occur. There 

 can be little doubt, as Scaliger says, that this 

 word, like Cossack, denoted the predatory hordes, 

 whose chief occupation was violence and rapine. 

 There is still another circumstance connected with 

 this name, and it is that a region of Arabia was 

 called Saraca, and its inhabitants Saracens. But did 

 the country take its name from the people, or the 



people from the country ? Judging from analogy, 

 the former would be the case, and the derivation 

 from sarac, " to plunder," hold good. Jerome 

 says the Hagarenes and Saracens are the same, 

 and he says they have falsely taken to themselves 

 the name of Sara ; in the first he is right, but cer- 

 tainly not in the second of these observations. I 

 may add that, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, 

 the name of Saracens was more recent than that 

 of Scenites, or dwellers in tents. See Bochart, 

 Phaleg. lib. ii. cap. 2., for interesting particulars 

 upon the subject. See Gibbon, ch. 1., Bohn, vol. 

 v. p. 446. note. Simson, Chron. Cath. suh an. 

 2093. a. m. B. H. C. 



Addison and his Hymns (2'"^ S. ii. 49-) — Had 

 Mr. Pbnstone referred to the General Index of 

 " N. & Q.," he would have found that some of 

 your correspondents have not been unmindful of 

 Addison's fame, and of his well-founded claim to 

 the authorship of the hymns in The Spectator. 

 Without intending to disparage his poetical ta- 

 lents, we may safely maintain that Andrew 

 Marvel had no better right to these beautiful com- 

 positions than either Tom D'Urfey or Settle. We 

 may not be surprised, ere long, to see doubts ex- 

 pressed whether De Foe was the author of Robin' 

 son Crusoe, and Johnson of Rasselas. J. II. M. 



Who wrote the Letter to Lord Monteagle (2"'* S. 

 ii. 248.) — The allusion to the Gunpowder Trea- 

 son, in the epitaph on Lady Selby, in the church 

 at Ightham, copied by Magdalensis, has no re- 

 ference to her having written the letter to Lord 

 Monteagle, nor did I ever hear of any tradition of 

 her having done so. The six lines after " She 

 was a Dorcas " allude to the hangings of three 

 rooms in the mansion house at Ightham called the 

 Moat, which were worked by Lady Selby : one 

 representing Adam and Eve in Paradise, another 

 the Story of Jonah, and the third the Apprehen- 

 sion of Guy Fawkes. C. de D. 



Hops, a wicked Weed (2"'' S. ii. 243. 276.) — 

 The earliest book mentioning hops with which I 

 am acquainted is the Promptorium Parvnlorum, the 

 learned editor of which mentions MSS. of the 

 date 1498, though probably the book is older. 

 The references to it are : 



"Hoppe, sede for beyre, Hummulus, secundum ex- 

 traneos." 



"Bere, a drynke. Hummnlina, vel hummuli potus, 

 aut cervisia hummulina." 



In the notes it is stated that " bcre " differed 

 from ale in being hopped. I have no doubt tliat 

 the plant is indigenous in England, and very little 

 doubt that, in common with alehoof, or ground- 

 ivy, it has been used from very ancient times for 

 a bitter condiment to beer ; though perhaps its 



