38 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 245. 



*' Serid me tribute, or else ," ^"c. (Vol. ix., 



p. 451.). — The potentates of whom your corre- 

 spondent W. T. M. inquires, were two Irish chief- 

 tains, O'Nial of Tyrone and O'Donnell of Tyrcon- 

 nell, in the latter part of the fifteenth century. 

 The dispute was caused merely by the haughty 

 character of O'Nial, who was unable to brook an 

 equal in that part of the country, and accordingly 



sent the message, " Pay me tribute, or else ," 



to his rival ; which was as promptly answered by 

 O'Donnell, "I owe you none, and if ." Y. 



Hour-glasses (Vol. ix., p. 252.). — An hour- 

 glass is, or lately was, affixed to the pulpit in the 

 church of St. Albans, Wood Street, London. See 

 Godwin's Churches of London, " St. Albans, Wood 

 Street." O. S. 



Bishop Andrewes, in a sermon on Ash Wed- 

 nesday, 1622, on fasting, says : 



" But that I take myself bound to prosecute the 

 text I have begun, 1 would choose rather to spend the 

 hour ia speaking again for the duty to have it done." 



Does not this seem to fix the limit usually as- 

 signed to sermons in his age ? The sermons of 

 the good bishop are long enough to occupy a full 

 hour of ordinary preaching. 



Bingham, Antiq., lib. xiv. cap. 4,, says, — 



" Ferrarius and some others, are very positive they 

 (t. e, the sermons in the early Church) were generally 

 an hour long, but Ferrarius is at a loss to tell by what 

 instrument they measured their hour, for he will not 

 venture to affirm that they preached, as the old Greek 

 and Roman orators declaimed, by an hour-glass." 



E. H. M. L. 



Barristers^ Gowns (Vol. ix., p. 323.). — " The 

 lapel, or piece which hangs from the back of the 

 barrister's gown," is a diminutive representation 

 of the ancient hood, formerly worn as a covering 

 for the head and shoulders. The tippet, or liri- 

 pipium, an important part of the hood (indicating 

 from its length the rank of the wearer), hangs 

 down in front of the left shoulder. 



Gilbert J. French. 



Bolton. 



The lapel attached to the back of the gown is 

 the hood (somewhat curtailed) which barristers 

 wore before the introduction of wigs or hats, 

 which were fastened to the gown to prevent their 

 being lost when taken off on their going into 

 court. Anon. 



Reversible Names (Vol. viii., pp. 244. 645.). — 

 The title of one of the peers of the realm reads 

 the same backwards as forward — Lord Glenelg. 



Pbestoniensis. 



Odo may be added to the list of male reversible 

 names. Uneda. 



When and ivhere does Sunday begin or end? 

 (Vol. ix., p. 284.). — H. OF Morwenstow says that 

 Sunday begins at six o'clock p.m. on Saturday, 

 and he quotes the expression in the Bible, " The 

 evening and the morning were the first day," in 

 proof of it. H. should recollect that evening was 

 formerly the name for what we now call afternoon : 

 as in the Prayer Book, where the evening service 

 is that for the afternoon. Hence, if his quotation 

 has any bearing on the question, Sunday must 

 begin at Saturday noon. 



I suppose the expression " the evening and the 

 morning were the first day" may be thus ex- 

 plained. At the commencement of the earth's 

 first solar day, the sun was perpendicularly over 

 that part of the earth which was nearest to it, at 

 which place it was of course noon ; and as soon 

 as the diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis 

 began, the afternoon or evening commenced at 

 that point. 



In Massachussetts, the law makes the Sabbath 

 only eighteen hours long, instead of twenty-four. 

 It commences at midnight between Saturday and 

 Sunday, and ends on Sunday at 6 p.m. ; so that 

 work may be done, or amusements, or political 

 meetings may be attended to, on Sunday evening 

 without breaking the law. This is a reaction from 

 the old puritanical strictness of " the Pilgrim 

 Fathers," and is one of many. Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



Hiel the Bethelite (Vol. ix., p. 452.). — The 

 meaning of text 3rd (al. 1st) Book of Kings, xvi. 

 34., is, I think, satisfactorily determined by refer- 

 ring to the previous prophetic imprecation of 

 Joshue (al. Joshua) vi. 26. : 



" Cursed be the man before the Lord, that shall 

 raise up and build the city of Jericho. In his first- 

 born may he lay the foundation thereof, and in the 

 last of his children set up its gates." 

 The curse was fulfilled in the death of his eldest 

 son, when he dared to lay the foundations of a new 

 Jericho ; and the loss of all his other children in 

 succession as the work advanced, till his last died 

 as he finished the city and set up its gates. Dr. 

 Geddes, who may be safely trusted, so far as 

 fidelity of translation goes, though no farther, 

 renders the prophecy thus : 



" With the loss of his first-born son .... and with the 

 loss of his youngest son." 

 And he thus translates the fulfilment : 



«' In his days Hiel, a Bethelite, rebuilded Jericho : 

 the foundation of which he laid in the death of his 

 eldest son, Abiram ; and in the death of his youngest, 

 Segub, he set up its gates." 



There can be no reason for supposing that Hiel 

 buried his children alive under the buildings. 

 The text itself warrants no such monstrous inter- 

 pretation, but is plainly opposed to it ; inasmuch 



