10 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[July 7. 1855. 



nine hundred and three, being every kind of death 

 by which man enters the unseen world? It is 

 referred to in an interesting little volume by H. 

 Pendlebury, one of the ejected ministers, entitled 

 Invisible Realities, p. 19. : 



" There is but one door that we all land in at our 

 entrance. The Jews reckon nine hundred and three kinds 

 of death or ways out of the world. Among all the kinds 

 we can't see our own kind of death, by which we shall go 

 into another world." 



But it appears there are many keys to each door, 

 for, on p. 68,, the author argues thus : 



" Sirs ! you and I stand at the door of these unseen 

 things ; and if death do but once open it, by any one of 

 its manj' thousand keys, we shall immediately see that 

 which we have never seen." 



G. Offob. 



Hackney. 



'■'■ News from Westminster ." — In the Poems on 

 State Affairs, printed in 1704, occurs the follow- 

 ing quatrain. An explanation will oblige. 



" NEWS FROM WESTMINSTER. 



-" Strange news from Westminster, the like was never 



heard, 



A Treasurer* in pantaloons, a Bishop f without beard, 



A Judge J with a periwig to his waste hanging down, 



A Speaker§ of the Commons that never wore a gown." 



Cl. Hopper. 



" Old Nick." — In Mr. Thorns' edition of the 

 History of Reynard the Fox, printed for the 

 Percy Society, p. 191., is the following note : 



" Nychers. In this name we have a striking allusion to 

 the mythology of Scandinavia, and that portion of it which 

 is retained among us to this day, when we designate the 

 Evil One by the epithet of Old Nick. Odin assumes the 

 name of Nickar, or Hnickar, when he enacts the destroj'ing 

 or evil principle, and scarcely a river of Scandinavia which 

 has not its appropriate Nikir." 



An explanation of one of our " household words " 

 imported from Scandinavia, appears to be rather 

 far-fetched. But I find that other writers have 

 taken the same view as ]\Ir. Thoms : see Brand's 

 Popular Antiquities, edited by Sir li. Ellis, vol. ii. 

 p. 519. 



With the greatest deference to these learned 

 antiquaries, I venture to propose a more simple, 

 and therefore, in my judgment, better explanation 

 of the epithet. It seems to me to refer to that 

 peculiarly distinguishing mark of the devil, in 

 popular belief, the cloven hoof : 



" There is no vulgar story of the devil's having appeared 

 anywhere without a cloven foot. It is observable, also, 

 that this infernal enemy, in graphic representations of 

 him, is seldom or never pictured without one." — Brand, 

 vol. ii. p. 517. 



The writer goes on to explain that the cloven foot 

 belongs to the goat's shape, which is attributed to 



* Osborn. 

 t Atkvn. 

 1^0.297.] 



t Crew. 

 § Seymour. 



the fiend ; and that the horns and tail are similarly 

 accounted for. 



Two other popular names of the devil in the 

 North of England, " Old Harry " (Hairy), and 

 " Old Scratch," seem plainly to refer to the same 

 personal characteristic of the enemy of man, though 

 they have much puzzled the antiquaries. {Brand, 

 vol. ii. p. 520.) F. 



Bennet's " Paraphrase on the Book of Common 

 Prayer." — In Thomas Bennet's Paraphrase, ivith 

 Annotations upon the Book of Common Prayer^ 

 edit. 1709, p. 94., occurs the following passage in 

 a note on his commentary on the Litany : 



" I think myself obliged to take notice of a most scan- 

 dalous practice which prevails in many such congrega- 

 tions, as ought to be fit precedents for the whole kingdom 

 to follow. 'Tis this : that laymen, and very often young 

 boys of eighteen or nineteen years of age, are not only per- 

 mitted, but oblig'd, publicly to perform this office; which 

 is one of the most solemn parts of our divine service, even 

 tho' many priests and deacons are at the same time 

 present." 



What practice is here alluded to, and what 

 congregations ? H. 



Sabbath. — When was the word Sabbath first 

 used to designate Sunday ? In Low Latin it al- 

 ways means Saturday. In the records of Con- 

 vocation, as long as they were kept in Latin, Dies 

 Sabbathi is always the Latin for Saturday. The 

 same is the case in many of the continental lan- 

 guages. William Fkaser, B. C. L. 



Alton, Staffordshire. 



Poll-books. — What is the date of the earliest 

 printed poll-book known? and is any collection 

 of these documents in existence ? Z. z. 



A small white Hand a Sign of high Birth. — 

 I wish some of your correspondents would give 

 their observations on this fallacy (as I must deem 

 it) of Lord Byron's. I have had little opportunity 

 myself of forming a general opinion on the siib- 

 ject ; but have been a disbeliever ever since seeing 

 one of the largest pair of hands I ever beheld 

 belonging to a gallant naval officer, to whom, in 

 point' of pedigree. Lord Byron could hardly hold 

 a candle. Sir Walter Scott too is well known to 

 have had remarkably large hands, although he 

 could adduce as many royal and noble ancestors 

 as Byron himself. On the other side, I have seen 

 very small white hands on persons of no particular 

 descent ; but who may have consoled themselves, 

 in their obscurity, with the belief that they bad 

 more illustrious blood in their veins than they 

 were aware of, on the strength of Lord Byron's 

 dictum. J. S. Warden. 



