190 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 253. 



group is avoided ; one of the chief commenda- 

 tions in point of artistic effect being, that, by the 

 skilful variation of the heads of the ten Apostles, 

 the difficulty has been surmounted of representing 

 a numerous group of figures, the attention of all 

 of whom is intensely directed towards one and the 

 same object. M. H. 



PABIXG THE NAILS, ETC. (Vol. ii., p. 511.; Vol. iii., 

 pp. 55. 462.; Vol. v., pp. 142. 285. 309.) : cres- 

 cent (Vol. vii., pp. 235. 392.; Vol. viii., pp. 196. 

 319. 653.) 



Your correspondents on the subject of the ob- 

 servance of times have not noticed the remarkable 

 fact that, among the Arabians, the paring of nails 

 on Friday, instead of being condemned, is reli- 

 giously practised. Pococke, in his Specimen His- 

 toric Arabum, writes : 



"Dies Veneris appellationem Yaumol' Jomaa sortitus 

 est, quod in eo congregentur homines [scil. ad cultus 

 saeros peragendos] : magnis diem istum laudibus efTerunt, 

 Principem dierum vocantes. Sciendum autem (inquit 

 Al Gazalius) deum hunc diem velut honoris prserogativam 

 Islamismo concessisse, eumque Moslemis [seu Mohamme- 

 distis] proprium fecisse, et ilium festum ipsis constituisse, 

 atque ipsos primos eum observasse. Et prasstantissimum 

 dierum quos superoritur sol, esse diem Veneris. Eo futu- 

 rum diem judicii autumant, et ut videamus quibus tricis 

 implicetur ipsorum religio, inter caetera qute de eo nugan- 

 tur diem esse prajsecandis unguibus, praemii a Deo expec- 

 tandi promisso commendatum. Qui die Veneris unguem 

 prseciderit, eum Deus morbo liberatum sanitati restituit." 

 — Page 317. 



A correspondent has found (Vol. vii., p. 235.) 

 the origin of the crescent used as a standard by 

 the Turks, in Judges viii. 21., where Gideon is 

 recorded to have taken away from Zeba and Zal- 

 munna, kings of Midian, the ornaments (lunulce) 

 that were on their camels' necks. This appears 

 to be very probable ; but although the regal 

 crescents on the war-camels of those Midianitish 

 kings might naturally pass into the standard of 

 the nation, he has not, I think, satisfactorily ex- 

 plained what led to the adoption of the crescent, 

 whether as an ornament or as a standard. It was 

 doubtless selected under the influence of religious 

 feeling. The planets, by their rising and setting, 

 being as much under as above the horizon, the 

 worshippers were at a loss how to do them honour 

 in their absence. To remedy this they invented 

 images. 



" Hue confert," says Huet, in his Demonstratio Evan- 

 gelica, " Lunse cultus ad Arabes et Saracenos propagatus, 

 ab his ad Turcas ; qui et Lunae corniculatae effigiem, velut 

 sacrum quoddam insigne praeferunt. Hanc enim reli- 

 gionem h. Syris et Phoenicibus, Astartes, quae Luna est, 

 cultoribus acceperunt. Itaque ad Lunag motus tempora 

 metantur annua, et menstrua atque etiam diurna, siqui- 

 dem apud illos, dies mensiscuj usque ineunt h, prima Lunae 

 visione. Quapropter et auspicari diem civilem solent ab 

 occasu Solis. Hinc Mubammedani ad primam Lunae 



i)a.<TLv vociferantur, Allah cobar, quod idem est ac Deus 

 Magnus." — Page 119. 



The origin of the crescent has however been, by 

 a magnus Apollo, attributed to Mahometism, as is 

 thus stated by Selden, De Diis Syris : 



" Si Uraniani seu Alilat eorum, et figuram illam Lunae 

 corniculantis (de qua ubi de Astarte, agimus) serio co- 

 gites, Mahumedanorum moris forte, qui summis turrium 

 et meschitarum fastigiis Lunulas imponunt, ut cruces 

 Christian!, origo patebit. In honorem enim Deoe (Lunam 

 et Venerem Deas distinguere heic non oportet) insignia 

 ilia antiquitus collocata et sacrata sentio, potius quam in 



Hegyraj Mahumedanae memoriam Tamen hoc vult 



Nobilissimus Scaliger quem videre licet ii. de Emendatione 

 Temporum, et iii. Cayion. Isagogicorum." 



Selden then traces the use of this symbol to the 

 Ishmaelites, and proceeds to show that, although 

 the celebration of the Mahommedan sabbath is on 

 Friday, dies Veneris, the sixth day of the primitive 

 cycle dedicated to the planet Venus, divine honour 

 is then given to Venus Corniculata, or the moon, 

 and that the observance of the sixth day, called by 

 them Giuma, " the day of the assembly," is older 

 among the Arabians tlian the time of Mohammed. 



" Sextam feriam, ut supremae Dese sacram olim Sara- 

 ceni ^gj'ptios, teste Politiano, imitati celebrabant ; idque 

 faciebant primo quod dominium Veneris in primam illius 

 diei horam caderet; Lunae in ultimam." — Kircheri, (Edi- 

 pus jEgyptiacus, torn. i. p. 352. 



The same writer explains why the Arabians called 

 the moon magnam Venerem and Venus parva 

 Luna. 



A numismatic work, containing coins of the 

 Eastern Empire, on which the heavenly bodies 

 are represented, having been inquired for (" N. 

 & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 321.), I may add that your 

 correspondents will find the sun on a Roman coin 

 described by Choul in his work Delia Religione 

 anticlia de' Romani, who explains it as emblem- 

 atic of the power and triumphant career of the 

 Romans. In Vaillant's Numismata Imperatorum 

 in Coloniis, &c. are three coins of the people of 

 CarrhtE, in Mesopotamia, whose worship of Luna 

 or Lunus is manifested by the crescent thereon 

 represented. (See also Banduri, Numismata Im- 

 peratorum Romanorum passim, and Gorii Museum 

 Florentinum.') Bibliothecab. Chetham. 



MATHEMATICAL BIBLIOGEAPHT. 



(Vol. X., pp. 47. 48.) 



My thanks are due to Professob De Morgan 

 for his reply. I treated his reference as applicable 

 not to the Histoire, but to the JEssai. Mb. Db 

 Morgan not having described the latter work, or 

 its translation, I venture to do so here : 



Paris, eighteen-two ; Bossut, Charles, Essai sur 

 THistoire Oenerale des Mathematiques. There is 

 a " Discours sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Pascal," 



