522 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 270. 



my own notice. In Shakspeare's Merchant of 

 Venice, Act III. Scene 2,, Portia speaks of 



" young Alcides, when he did redeem 



The virgin- tribute paid by howling Troy." 



In an edition now before me, it is printed " howl- 

 ing Tory." In a short biographical notice of Pope, 

 which I compiled for an edition of his poems, I 

 briefly enumerated his prose works, amongst which 

 I named his " Memoirs of a Parish Priest." When 

 the proof came before me, I found that the com- 

 positor had set it " Memoirs of a Paint Brush." 



H. Martin. 



Halifax. 



Old Almanacs. — Having lately stumbled upon 

 the following communication in the columns of 

 the Glasgow Reformer s Gazette, I think it is every 

 way worthy to be transplanted into the preserves 

 of " N. & Q." ♦ 



" 'Tis an oft-repeated saying that * there is nothing so 

 valueless as an old almanac;' but I question much whe- 

 ther the same may be applied to the fact I am about to 

 communicate, of having recently purchased ' An unique 

 and extraordinary collection of Edinburgh Almanacs,' from 

 the j'ear 1745 to the year 1853 inclusive (comprehending 

 a period of 109 years) ; as such a repository of standard 

 Statistics must prove a source of reference and information 

 highly valuable to the whole tribe of antiquarian and 

 historical literati. The lot has been selected direct from 

 the Reliqua Antiqua Collectanea of a celebrated Edin- 

 burgh bibliopole (Mr. Stevenson), and I have been anxious 

 to trace the ' antiquated pedigree of paternity ' to whom 

 this collection of almanacs originally belonged ; but as yet 

 without effect, farther than that they had been previously 

 bought at one of Messrs. Tait and Nisbet's book-sales : the 

 collector, however, must have been a rare old bookworm. 

 But ' peace to the manes' of the great unknown, — as it is 

 just [such a ' rare lot' as the present owner has been in 

 quest of for many a long day ; and now that he has pos- 

 sessed it, the series shall go on progressing, with an 

 addition to the family ' every ensuing year,' so long as he 

 lives, and will afterwards be handed down as an ' heir- 

 loom,' to be continued iu perpetuity. — A Collector o' Auld 

 NkkNackets." 



VlQIXANS. 



Glasgow. 



Jerusalem Targum on the Prophets. — 



" I will pour over (H K'XI bv ?) David's house 

 an.d the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of prophecy 

 and of sincere prayer. Thereafter will the Messiah, the 

 son of Ephraim, proceed to commence war with Gog. 

 Him will Gog kill before the gates of Jerusalem. 

 Me will they consult thereon ; and ask. Why have 

 the people pierced the Messiah, the son of Ephraim ? 

 And they will mourn over him as a father and mother 

 over an only son, and lament him as a first-born." — 

 Zech. xii. 10. 



This is the only fragment extant from the Jeru- 

 salem Targum on the Prophets. (See Bruns, Rep. 

 f. Bibl. und Morg. Litt., Th. xv. s. 174. ; Eich- 

 horn, Einl. A. T. i. s. 426. § 236. b.) The Jeru- 

 salem Targum on the Pentateuch was compiled, 

 according to Eichhorn, long after the sixth cen- 



tury. He designates it a mere botch, "ein elendes 

 Flickwerk." A writer in the Journal of Sacred 

 Literature, on the blessing of Jacob (vol. ii.), ap- 

 pears to be unaware of this decisive judgment of 

 Eichhorn, the greatest of biblical critics, notwith- 

 standing his defects as a dogmatic theologian. 



The Jerusalem commentator evidently intends 

 the above passage on Zechariah to apply to the 

 Lord Jesus. Gog is here used for the Romans, 

 but ignorantly, as this word designates the Scy- 

 thians or Sclavonians in the genuine Hebrew 

 writings, comprehending, according to Arabian 

 geographers, the confines of China. Gen. x. 2. ; 

 Ezech. xxxviii. 2. &c., xxxix. 3. 



T. J. BUCKTOW. 

 Lichfield. 



" Clever." — The word clever is used in a pecu- 

 liar sense in this part of Norfolk (East). The 

 common people invariably use it (as applied to 

 individuals) in the sense of " honest-respectable," 

 and pronounce it claver : thus, " Oh yes. Sir, I 

 always heerd he was a very claver man" — without 

 any reference to his skill as a workman, or to his 

 scholarship, but simply as to his honesty and good 

 conduct. J. L. S. 



Cant Names for some of the American State» 

 and their Peoples and Cities. — Maine is the Star 

 in the East ; New Hampshire the Granite State ; 

 Vermont the Green Mountain State ; Massachu- 

 setts the Bay State ; Connecticut the Land of 

 Steady Habits ; New York the Empire State ; 

 Pennsylvania the Keystone State ; Virginia the 

 Ancient Dominion ; North Carolina the Turpen- 

 tine State ; South Carolina the Palmetto State ; 

 and Ohio the Buckeye State (from the buckeye 

 tree, common in it). 



The Vermonters are called Green Mountain 

 Boys ; the people of Ohio, Buckeyes ; those of 

 Kentucky, Corncrackers ; those of Indiana, Hoo- 

 siers ; those of Michigan, Wolverines ; those of 

 Illinois, Suckers ; and those of Missouri, Pukes. 



New York is the Empire City; Philadelphia 

 the Quaker City ; Baltimore the Monumental 

 City ; New Orleans the Crescent City ; and Wash- 

 ington the City of Magnificent Distances. 



Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



Many Children horn to the same Parents, 1630. 

 — Brand relates, that several children were in 

 this year living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; the 

 mother, a Scotchwoman, wife to a weaver, having 

 borne to him sixty-two children, all of whom 

 lived till they were baptized. (Borderer''s Table- 

 book.) Anoit. 



