Sept. 15. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



215 



Derivation of Wether (Vol. xii., p. 165,). — 

 To trace this word to its most ancient known root 

 we must ascend to the Sanscrit ud and und, to flow, 

 to moisten ; udan, water ; uttas, a fluid or liquid 

 body ; udras, an amphibious animal ; vandau, 

 fluid. Thence to the Greek, vu, to rain ; I'iSrjy, 

 moisture ; vkraos^ rainy ; 85,oos, a water snake, 

 S8«/j and u5ay, water. Plato, in the Cratijlus, says 

 the word vSwp, as also irvp and Kvves, are foreign, of 

 which he could not give an etymological root ; 

 but he adds a suitable caution, which he may be 

 thought to have egregiously violated in other in- 

 stances, ov roivvy Set raCra npos fiid^eadai, " it is not 

 proper to use violence with these words." The 

 Latin undo, unda, udus, udra, the Gothic wato, and 

 Lithuanian wandU, bring us to the German tvasser, 

 waschen, &c., and wetter ; the last word means the 

 weather, a tempest. Zeus and Jupiter indicated 

 to Greeks and Romans the fertilising or creating 

 power of moisture*, as well as other atmospheric 

 influences on vegetation. Wetterdach means ".'the 

 eaves," literally "weather roof ;" hence the English 

 wet and vjeather. This must not be confounded 

 with jcind, which Eichhoff derives from a different 

 Sanscrit root. Amongst nautical men the word 

 weather forms several compounds, as weather-bit, 

 iveather-bow, weather-boards, weather-cloths, wea- 

 ther-brace, weather-shore, hard-a-v)eather, and has 

 reference chiefly, but not exclusively, to the wind, 

 as is natural in their vocabulary. The inference de- 

 rivable from this induction is, that the places in- 

 quired about by Bounds are all mUch exposed to 

 the weather, be it fair or foul. The certainty of 

 this etymology must be verified, however, by the 

 localist. T. J. BucKTON. 



Lichfield. 



Trophy Tax (Yol. xii., p. 67.). — This is a tax 

 we still pay in the City of London. It was reim- 

 posed on the militia being called out. The reason 

 Mr. Denton found it on the receipts is that it is 

 chargeable on the landlord. Hyde Clarke. 



Aerolites (Vol. xii., p. 147.). — J. S. F. will 

 derive much information on the subject of 

 aerolites by reading a very interesting communi- 

 cation made by Sir Roderick Murchison to the 

 Royal Society. It will be found in the last 

 number of the Proceedings of the Royal Society. 



L. H. J. TONNA. 



Sir Richard Southwell (Vol. iv., p. 152.). — See 

 Life of Sir Thomas Pope, second edition, p. 218. 



E. M. 



Sankey Chamber (Vol. xi., p. 342.). — Sankey 

 chamber is probably the same as Schenke Kammer, 



^ * Clouds=cherubim in the Arabic, Chaldee, and Sy- 

 riac sense of the word (foreign to the Hebrew), of culti- 

 vators of the soil. See Lycophron, v. 80., and Meursius 

 and Potter, in loco ; also, v. 160., and Tzetzes and Canter, 

 in loco, and their authorities. Conf. 2 Kinss xix. 15. 

 No. 307.] 



the spence or steward chamber ; and to sank 

 means apparently to act as steward, or perhaps 

 rather as butler. The proper name Sankey is 

 doubtless cognate. A. H. 



Bells in the Tower of the Chapel at St. MichaeVs 

 Mount, Cornwall (YoX.^iu, p. 131.). — Respond- 

 ing to the invitation to furnish inscriptions for 

 the bells numbered 1, 4, and 5, which would 

 harmonise with those on the other three, Nos. 2. 

 3. and 6., I would suggest the following. 



No. 1. : 



" Pater est Deus. 



ib Michael ^ Sancte Petre . Ora pro nobis. 



Ordo Angelorum." 



No. 4. : 



" Unus et trinus Deus. 



ib Sancte Joannes Baptista it Sancte Andrea . orate 



pro nobis. 



Ordo Thronorum." 



No. 5. : 



" beata Trinitas. 



^ Sancte Joannes >5< Sancta Catharina . orate pro 



nobis. 



Ordo Dominationum." 



F. C. H. 



A Lady restored to Life (Vol. xi., p. 146. ; 

 Vol. xii., p. 154.). — At the church of St. Decu- 

 mans, near the town of Watchett, Somersetshire, 

 there is a monumental brass of a lady who was 

 restored to life, as the legend tells, by the sexton, 

 who, in attempting to take off" a massive ring from 

 her finger, found himself obliged to use his knife. 

 At the first incision the blood gushed forth, and 

 the lady, much to the alarm of the sexton, rose in 

 her coffin. After her restoration to the upper 

 world, the lady blessed her husband with two 

 children. 



A similar legend is related of a lady in Cologne, 

 the wife of a knight of the name of Mengis, of the 

 ancient race of Aducht, and the house in which 

 the couple were thus wonderfully reunited, can 

 still be seen on the Neumarkt of that town. It 

 is marked by the figure of a horse near one of the 

 top windows. The reason why this figure was 

 placed there is also given in the legend. Sir 

 Mengis of Aducht was awakened in the night by 

 his wife knocking at the door; he believed it 

 must be an evil spirit, and refused to open the 

 house unless her horses would mount the stairs 

 up to the garret. No sooner had he made this 

 condition than the horses left their stables, and 

 passed his door on their way up stairs. Awe- 

 struck at this prodigy he rushed down stairs and 

 admitted his wife, who, like our Somersetshire 

 heroine, blessed him afterwards with several 

 children. In Dr. K. Simrock's collection o^ Le- 

 gends of the Rhine, this tale is told in verse by 

 E. V. Groote, p. 61. S. A. S. 



Bridgwater. 



Nearly the same story is told of one of the 

 Lady Edgcumbes, if I remember rightly, the 



