6fi 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°a s. No 82., July 25. '57. 



— for that is what acobado means. And as, in times 

 long past, there doubtless was an intercourse be- 

 tween N. W. Spain and S. W. England, we may 

 infer that Devonshire owes not only the loamy 

 walls of its cottages to the similar structures of 

 the Spanish Penmsula, but the much-agitated 

 terra cob to the old Spanish verb, acohar. 



There are other derivations of coi, which might 

 be plausibly suggested. But, on a general view 

 of the subject, the Spanish derivation appears on 

 the whole the most probable. 



I can give no account of the old Spanish " aco- 

 bar " (to prop, to shore up), except that it appears 

 to be connected with the mediaeval term " acoys " 

 (a prop or support). 



The above suggestions are offered in the hope 

 that the subject will receive further illustration in 

 the pages of " N. & Q." Thomas Boys. 



GENERAL LITERAET INDEX : ABSTINENCE. 



From Things strangled and Blood as practised 

 by Christians condemned (2"'* S. iii. 486.) — See 

 Andrewes's Opuscula, ad calc. He refers to Ter- 

 tuUian, who lived in the second century ; to 

 Sozomen, lib. i. c. xi. ; to Augustine against 

 Faustus ; to the Council of Gangra, within two or 

 three years as ancient as the first Council of Nice, 

 Canon ii. ; and the General Council of Chalcedon, 

 See also Wagenseil, Tela Ignea Satance, p. 553. 

 Gent. Mag., 1736, p. 126. 



The same approved, — Cureellcei Opera Theolo- 

 gica, Amstelodami, 1755, fol., pp. 943-81. Boone's 

 Book of Churches and Sects (Acts xv.) enume- 

 rates those which consider the law of abstinence 

 still binding upon them. The injunctions in 

 Acts XV. 29. are the so-called precepts of Noah. 



Abstinence or Fasting. — Leo Allatius de Con- 

 sensione, ^c. Suiceri Thesaur. (j<ir)cmia), Du Cange 

 (Jejunium). Hoffmann, Lex. Univ. {Castimonia). 

 See Fasts and Festivals. 



Popish Abstinence revived from Pagan. — Gale's 

 Court of the Gentiles, Part iii. 



Monastic Abstinence, v. Casslani Opera, fol., 

 Atrebati, 1628, pp. 103-45. Climaci ScaJa Para- 

 disi (Bibl. Patr., 1624, pp. 230-2.). Bernardi 

 Opp. See also Asceticism, Monachism, Passions. 



Abstinence of the Therapeutaj or Contemplative 

 Essenes. — Prideaux's Connexion, and the authori- 

 ties given in Fabricii Evangelii Lux Salut. Of 

 the Ebionites, Marcionites, Tatians and Encra- 

 tites, Epiphanius, Mosheim, with Murdock's notes. 



Pythagorean Abstinence. — Porphyrius de Ah- 

 stinentia ab esu Animalium (in Epicteti Enchiridio, 

 Cantab., 1655), the only work referred to by 

 Watt of those here enumerated. Windet, de Statu 

 Vita Ftinctorum ; Hierocles in Pyth., Aurea Car- 

 mina, 67, 68, 69. Of the Gymnosophists, ancient 

 and modern, Hoffmann, s. v., In Casto. Of the G. 



of India, v. Palladius, de Gentibus Indice et Brag- 

 manibus. S. Ambrosius, de Moribus Brachma- 

 norum. Anonymus, de Bragmanibus. Fol. Lon- 

 dini, 1665. Bibliothecak. Chetham. 



Brahminical Prophecy concerning British Rule 

 in India. — The following extract from an interest- 

 ing letter (published in the British Banner news- 

 paper, July 16), addressed to the Rev. Secretary 

 of the London Missionary Society, from the Rev. 

 A. F. Lacroix, one of the Society's missionaries in 

 India, is worth inserting in " N. & Q." The letter 

 is dated Calcutta, June 3, 1857 : 



" We are passing through a most critical period, such 

 as I have never seen during my thirty-six years' residence 

 in India, and whicli I believe has not been witnessed 

 before. It is strange that it should happen just a century 

 after the taking of Bengal bj' the British under Lord 

 Clive ; the battle of Plassy, which decided the fate of the 

 country, having been fought on the 23rd June, 1757. 

 There has been for many years a Brahminical prediction, 

 current among the natives, and which I have often heard 

 referred to, viz., that the British rule in India would last 

 just one hundred years ; and I should not be surprised 

 that this pseudo-prophecy may have had some influence 

 in inducing the Sepoys to revolt at the present time." 



I have seen, I think, all the Indian news which 

 has appeared lately in The Times and other 

 papers, but do not remember having previously 

 met with any reference to such a prophecy. 



Mercatok, A.B. 



" Du sublime au ridicule il n^y a qtiun pas." — 

 This aphorism of Napoleon, though never more 

 applicable than to his own case, has been often 

 anticipated. In reading to-day a MS. Common- 

 Place Book of Edward Lord Oxford {circa 1725) 

 I find this quotation : — 



" Le magnifique et le ridicule sont si voisins qu'ils 

 touchent." 



There is nothing to indicate whence it was 

 made. C. 



Instrument of Torture. — The author of the 

 Waverley Anecdotes informs us that there existed 

 anciently in Scotland a contrivance for torturing 

 the fingers ; but no such instrument is in existence, 

 nor does tradition inform us of its description ; 

 therefore it is quite lost. 



Being some time ago at Nettlecote Hall, the 

 many-gabled seat of the Pophams, I there saw an 

 instrument for torturing the fingers. Supported 

 at each end by a leg was a beam of wood about 

 four inches square, split down the middle, with a 

 hinge on the left-hand side, and on the right a 

 staple and contrivance for a padlock. I observed 

 along the edge a number of hollows, in which a 

 finger could be introduced without inconvenience, 

 but raising the upper half of the beam there are 



