314 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'>'i S. No 94., Oct. 17. '57. 



with termination analogous to that of Homo, which 

 is used to signify both " Brahma," the first of the 

 gods in the great Triad of the Hindoos, the Creator, 

 and also " a Brahman," a member of the first or 

 sacerdotal class. There is, thirdly, a masculine 

 noun, Brahmanas, with termination analogous to 

 that of Dominus, which is exclusively used to sig- 

 nify a " Brahman." As to the derivation of these 

 words there is some uncertainty ; but it is quite 

 certain that they have no connection with Abra- 

 ham. No Brahmans look upon him as their pa- 

 triarch ; and the m is clearly a sufiix or formative 

 letter. The radical part of the word is brah. 

 Professor Wilson has suggested that this is a 

 transformation of the root vrih, "to grow;" but 

 this seems far-fetched. May there not have been 

 a root brah, if not in Sanskrit itself, in that more 

 ancient language from which it is derived, signi- 

 fying " to create," like the Hebrew H'lJ. We 

 should have the neuter Brahma, signifying "cre- 

 ative energy, deity ; " the masculine Brahma, de- 

 noting " the personal Ci'eator ; " and the Brahman, 

 either as the Creator's image upon earth, or, taking 

 the suffix passively (as suffixes of this sort often 

 are taken), " the created," kot' e^oxV? the chief of 

 the creation, which the Brahmans pretend that 

 they are. E. H. D. D. 



THE BLACK DOG OF BUNGAY. 



(2°* S. iv. 268.) 



There is a scarce tract in the British Museum 

 entitled, — 



" A straunge and terrible Wunder wrought very late in 

 the Parish Church of Bongay, a Town of no great dis- 

 tance from the Citie of Norwich, namely the fourth of 

 this August, in y® j^eere of our Lord 1577, in a great 

 tempest of violent raine, lightning, and thunder, the like 

 whereof hath been seldome seene. With the appeerance 

 of an horrible shaped thing, sensibly perceived of the 

 people then, and there assembled. Drawen into a plain 

 method according to the written copye by Abraham 

 Fleming." 



It has a rude woodcut on the title-page of a 

 black dog with large claws, and at the end is 

 stated to be " Imprinted at London by Frauncis 

 Godly, dwelling at the West End of Paules." 



It relates that with the force of the storm the 

 church " quaked and staggered," and that — 



" Immediately hereupo, there appeered in a moste hor- 

 rible similitude and likenesse to the congregation then 

 and there present a Dog as they might discerne it, of a 

 Black colour: at the sight whereof, togither with the 

 fearful flashes of fire then were seene, moved such ad- 

 miration in the mindes of the assemblie, that they thought 

 doomes day was already come. 



" This Black Dog, or the Divel in such a likenesse (God 

 hee knoweth who worketh all) running all along down 

 the Church with great swiftnesse, and incredible haste, 

 among the people, in a visible fourm and shape, passed 

 between two persons, as they were kneeling upon their 

 knees, and occupied in prayer as it seems, wrung the 



necks of them bothe at one instant clene backward, inso- 

 much that even at a momct where they kneeled they 

 stragely dyed. 



" This is a woderful example of God's wrath, no dout 

 to terrific us, that we might feare him for his j ustice, or 

 putting back our footsteps from the pathes of sinue, to 

 love him for his mercj'. 



" To our matter again. There was at y« same time an- 

 other wonder wrought : for the same Black Dog, stil con- 

 tinuing and remaining in one and the selfsame shape, 

 passing by an other man of the congregation in the 

 Church, gave him such a gripe on the back, that there- 

 with all he was presently drawen togither and shrunk up, 

 as it were a peece of lether scorched in a hot fire ; or as 

 the mouth of a purse or bag, drawen togither with a 

 string. The man, albeit hee was in so straunge a taking, 

 dyed not, but, as it is thought, is yet alive : whiche thing 

 is mervelous in the eyes of men, and ofifereth muche 

 matter of amusing the minde. 



" Now for the verifying of this report (which to soe 

 will seem absurd, although the sensiblenesse of the thing 

 itself confirmeth it to be a trueth) as testimonies of the 

 force which rested in this strange shaped thing, there are 

 remaining in the Stones of the Church, and likewise in 

 the Church dore which are mervelously reten and torne, 

 ye marks as it were of his claws or talans. Beside, that 

 all the wires, the wheeles, and other things belonging to 

 the clock were wrung in sunder and broken in pieces." 



Stow, in his continuation of HoUnshed, says 

 that this storm — 



" rent the parish church of Bongio, nine miles from Nor- 

 wich, wroong in sunder the wiers and wheeles of the 

 clock, slue two men which sat in the belfreie, when the 

 others were at the procession or suffrages, and scorched 

 another which hardly escaped." 



Suckling, in his Jlistory of Suffolk (where most 

 of the above tract is reprinted, and where a fuller 

 account of this wonder will be found), says that — 



" The register books of St. Mary's parish Church give a 

 far less marvellous relation of this tempest, which was no 

 doubt, even when divested of fiction, a very awful storm. 

 The following is a copy : 



" 1577. John Fuller and Adam Walker slaj'ne in the 

 tempest in the belfrj' in the tyme of praj'er, upon the 

 Lords day, y^ iiijt'> day of August." 



The proverb, " To blush like a black or blue 

 dog " will Ite found in the collections. Zeus. 



A long account of the black dog of Bungay will 

 be found in Suckling's History of Suffolk, vol. i, 

 p. 125. Suckling quotes a tract in the British 

 Museum without giving the reference. Its origin 

 seems to have been a very disastrous thunder- 

 storm which happened Oct. 4, 1577. 



Thos. Wm. King, York Herald. 



INDIA AND THE EFFLUX OF SILVER FROM 

 EUROPE. 



(2"i S. iv. 270.) 



Your explanations on this subject will, I think, 

 hardly satisfy your correspondent Scotus. The 

 cause of the large export of silver to the East is 



