2n'i s. NO 100., Nov. 28. '57.]: NOTES^AND QUERIES. 



429 



At Glasgow. — Lately in taking down a stone 

 building on the east side of High Street (nearly 

 opposite Bell Street), Glasgow, a large black 

 tablet was discovered in the wall, bearing the fol- 

 lowing inscription, of which I took a copy for 

 " N. & Q." The letters are all capitals, and in a 

 state of good preservation, the tablet having been 

 long concealed by a coating of plaster. 



" God by whois gift this worke I did begin 

 Conserve the same from skaith*, from schame, and sin ; 

 Lord as this bvilding bvilt was by thy grace 

 Mak it remaine stil with the bvilders race. 



"Gods Providence is myne inheritance. 



«1623." 



The initials P. M. B. denote Patrick Maxwell 

 Boyd, one of our old Glasgow families, and I 

 understand that the property, true to the inscrip- 

 tion, is still with the builder's race. G. K. 



At Richmond. — Written on a pane of glass at 

 the Roebuck Hotel, near the Queen's Terrace, 

 Richmond Hill : — 



" Let Richmond Hill with Greenwich vie, 

 Of both I'm sick and weary, 

 Grant me, ye Gods ! before I die, 

 A sight of sweet Dunleary," 



Ibl&ndaisb. 



Motto on Rings. — On King Charles II.'s n^urn- 

 ing ring was the motto : — 



" Chr. Rex. 



Remem — obiit — ber, 



30 Jan. 1648." 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Ring Posy. — A ring was found the other day 

 in digging a drain at Iffley, near Oxford, with 

 this inscription, as simple and expressive an one 

 as many which have been noticed : 

 " I lyke my choyce." 



E. M. 

 Oxford. 



Ring Inscriptions, — At Barnard Castle in 1811 

 was found a gold ring of eight globules, in weight 

 equal to 3 guineas and a half. On the 2nd is S ; 

 on the 4th us; on the 6th ih; on the 8th S, the 

 abbreviation of Sanctus Jesos ; on the 1st is the 

 Saviour on the cross in the arms of God ; on the 

 3rd the Saviour triumphing over death ; on the 

 5th the Saviour scourged; on the 7th Judas the 

 traitor. 



In the Life of Sir W. Scott, 'in. 101., there 

 is mention of the motto, " And this also shall pass 

 away," said to have been suggested by Solomon 

 to a certain Sultan who desired an apophthegm 



* Meaning danger in general, but here more particu- 

 larly from the effects of witchcraft. 



which would moderate prosperity and temper ad- 

 versity. Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



WBITTE N histories of the MALABAR JEWS : 

 ADRIANUS MOONI8. 



The Navorscher for 1853 (vol. iii. p. 100.) con- 

 tains an inquiry by Dr. James H. Todd, of Trinity 

 College, Dublin, which, as the original English 

 has passed into other hands, I am fain to retrans- 

 late. The querist writes : — 



" I lately became possessed of a Hebrew MS., written 

 in the year 1781 at Cochin in Malabar, and containing, 

 in tiiat language, a history of the black and white Jews, 

 natives of the country-. It says, that Adrianus Moonis, 

 who, it appears, was Dutch Governor of Malabar, had 

 sent a written account of the Jewish colony in those re- 

 gions to Amsterdam ; and that records, akin to this, had 

 been discovered in the archives of that town, and printed 

 there in Dutch. That this publication was sent to Adri- 

 anus Moonis in Cochin, who had it translated into Por- 

 tuguese, and delivered it to R. David, the sou of Ezechiel. 

 R.David committed the work to the hands of the humble 

 Yahya Abraham Saraf, the Levite, a stranger, and, for some 

 time, sojourner in the holy colony, the city of Uabel being 

 his birthplace,' and, by him, this history was translated 

 into the Hebrew language. 



" This is what the Levite Yahya Abraham Saraf com- 

 municated about himself and his book. I shall feel greatly 

 obliged to such of your readers as can tell me which 

 book it is he alludes to, and whether it still can be had ? 

 and, besides, who Adrianus Moonis was? Somewhere, 

 our author calls the work by him translated : !ZVte Book 

 Secretarie [of. the Secretary's Office fj, or Inquiries con- 

 cerning the Country of Malabar in the Time of Moonis 

 \_Belgice, Het Boek Secretarie, of Onderzoekingen nopens 

 liet Land Malabar in den Tijd van MooiUs} ; but I do not 

 know wiiether this be the translation of the original Dutch 

 title." 



Now, though unable to satisfy Mr. Todd's in- 

 quiries, 1 wish to point out the following particu- 

 lars, related just a hundred years ago, by C. D., 

 in l^he Gentleman's Magazine for 1757, vol. xxvii. 

 p. 202. : — 



" Mb. Uebax, 



" Not long ago I accidentally met with a New Ac- 

 count of the East Indies by Capt. Alexander Hamilton, in 

 which, among other curious particulars, he says, vol. i. 

 chap. 26., that ' at the city of Couchin in times of old 

 was a republic of Jews, who were once so numerous that 

 they could reckon about 80,000 families, but at present 

 they are reduced to 4,000. They have a synagogue at 

 Couchin, not far from the king's palace, abouc two miles 

 from the city, in which are carefully kept their records, 

 engraven on copper plates in Hebrew characters; and 

 when any of the characters decay, they are new cut, so 

 that they can show their own history from the reign of 

 Nebuchadnezzar to the present time.' 



"He says further, that '3Iyn Heer [sic] Van Reede, 

 about the year 1695, had an abstract of their history 

 translated from the Hebrew into Low Dutch. They de - 

 clare themselves to be of the tribe of Manasseh, a part 

 whereof was, by order of that haughty conqueror Nebu- 

 chadnezzar, carried to the eastermost province of liis large 

 empire, which it seems reached as far as Cape Comerin, 

 which journey 20,000 of them travelled in three years from 

 their setting out of Babylon.' 



