514 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 29. 1855. 



compared with Welsh Del^ morosus, as Dvl may 

 be with A.-S. Dol, error, and, more remotely, 

 with A.-S. Dole, Dull, fatuus. I may add, that 

 Dellingr is the designation of one of the nine evil 

 genii enumerated in Fioll-svinns Mat (xxxv. 5.) ; 

 and in Vafthrudnis Mai (xxv, 1.) it occurs again 

 as the proper title of Lucifer or Diei Pater. 



If we compare the above expressions with those 

 adduced by Hermes, especially with Del and 

 Devlis, which Mr. Borrow informs us are used 

 for God by the Hungarian gipsies, a remark- 

 able similarity may be observed between them ; 

 and, if they be terms which, in their original 

 meaning, may all be referred to a spiritual agent, 

 this similarity may be easily accounted for. It is 

 a well established historical tradition, that the 

 fethers of the Scandinavian races originally occu- 

 pied the regions which lie between the Black and 

 Caspian Seas ; and in like manner as our Anglo- 

 Saxon and Anglo-Danish progenitors brought 

 with them to this land, from the Baltic shores, 

 their language and their mythology, so did Odin 

 and his ^sir transport their mother tongue and 

 religious belief thither, from their far-off Asiatic 

 birthplace. 



In all cases, then, where doubt prevails as to the 

 right meaning or etymology of a northern term, 

 whether emi)loyed in common speech, or in the 

 representation of some mysterious point of ancient 

 popular credence, philologists naturally turn to 

 the East for an explanation ; especially when they 

 take into consideration the doctrinal parallelism 

 which, in some very prominent particulars, exists 

 between the system expounded in the Zend- 

 avesta, and that which is set forth in the Eddaic 

 lays. 



Accordingly we find that all the above Scandi- 

 navian expressions are ultimately referred to the 

 Persian Dil, Pelhvic Del, meus, voluntas, cor, the 

 Hungarian gipsy term itself for the Supreme In- 

 telligence. 



That these last-named expressions, Dil and 

 Del, are connected with the Devs of the Persian 

 Magi is a very probable conjecture, which I 

 Avould willingly adopt, though I have no present 

 means before me of ascertaining its truth. But 

 it may be permitted me to doubt whether Dev, at 

 any time, was employed absolutely in a good 

 sense. The Devs were created by Ahriman 

 {Ahar Rimon or Ralman, valde impurus vel Se- 

 ductor, — the Evil Principle, or Symbol of Dark- 

 ness,) during his 3000 years' confinement in the 

 Hades or bottomless pit of the Zendavesta, 

 styled Duzakh, — an ephlthet which Hermes may 

 avail himself of in his search after the etymology 

 of Deuce. 



That certain terms, however, came to have a 

 double or opposite meaning. Is very well known, 

 as in the name Zoroaster., which Orientalists In- 

 form us signifies either pure gold, or impure gold ; 



No. 322.] 



and it Is a curious fact, in connection with this 

 Inquiry, that whereas in 2 Sam. xxlv. 1., David is 

 said to have been moved hy God to number the 

 people ; in 1 Chron. xxl, 1. the same act Is as- 

 cribed to the instigation of Satan. This discrep- 

 ancy, at first sight, seems directly to illustrate the 

 closing observation of Lavengro, as quoted by 

 Hermes ; but it may be remarked, in explanation 

 of it, that the ancient Jews looked upon Satan, 

 not as an independent evil spirit, but, in accord- 

 ance with the poetical imagery of the Book of 

 Job, as a subordinate minister of Jehovah, and 

 were accordingly wont to speak of God as the 

 Immediate Author of all things, good and bad. 



It were easy to pursue'this train of thought, and 

 to explain the causes which have produced that 

 confusion and change of phraseology, with regard 

 to the attributes and qualities of the different 

 spiritual objects of a nation's homage or dread, 

 which is found in the language and traditions of 

 every ancient people. And, when we consider 

 the startling affinities and analogies of words, 

 which prevail in the vocabularies of widely-parted 

 races, we cannot but perceive that a collateral 

 relationship, more or less remote, exists amongst 

 them all, forcing upon us, as we proceed in the 

 investigation, the inevitable conclusion that their 

 parent source was the one original speech which, 

 as Moses tells us, was miraculously " confounded " 

 in the land of Shinar, Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill. 



LONGEVITY OF INCUMBENTS : PARISH REGISTERS. 



(Vol. xli., p. 469.) 



The apparent longevltylof incumbents, in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as deduced 

 from parish registers, has been a sad stumbling- 

 block among those who may now be termed anti- 

 quaries of the old school ; and many ingenious, 

 though fallacious and sand-founded theories, have 

 been, in all seriousness, propounded to account 

 for this illusory longevity. A few words, how- 

 ever, will readily explain how the error has oc- 

 curred ; though, to place the matter in its proper 

 aspect, it may be necessary to refer to the earlier 

 history of parish registers. 



Thomas Cromwell, the Putney blacksmith's son, 

 when Yicar-general of England, instituted the 

 system of parochial registration, at the period of 

 the suppression of the monasteries, about a.d. 

 1536. For, in the Yorkshire rebellion of that 

 year, one of the proclaimed grievances of the In- 

 surgents, headed by Makerel, Abbat of Barlings, 

 who assumed the democratic cognomen of Capt. 

 Cobler, was, that " they would be forced to pay 

 for christenings, marriages, and burials, orders 

 having been given for the registration of the 

 same." Cromwell is supposed to have taken the 



