442 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 158. 



to unmask and expose? A very brief inquiry 

 suffices in reply to these queries. Setting pre- 

 conception and prejudice aside, let us turn to 

 our dictionaries, and discover what the terms in 

 dispute, i. e. " Or bjugvidum bausa," literally sig- 

 nify. Do they mean, " out of the skulls of our 

 enemies," or "out of the hollow skulls" at all, 

 whether of man or beast ? I would be equally 

 positive with W. B. R. and George Metivier, 

 and say that such is not their meaning. Hauss 

 (^Haus), indeed, is correctly rendered by caput, 

 cranium ; and bjug (bjtigr), in bjiigvidum, is cur- 

 VU.1, a beygia, curvare, flectere ; but what is vidum f 

 Why vidr, in every Glossary and Lexicon I have 

 had the opportunity of consulting, — and I only 

 wish the Old Norse Dictionary of the late (eheu !) 

 most accomplished Icelandic scholar and linguist, 

 Dr. Egilsson, were published to confirm the inter- 

 pretation, — is arbor, sylva. And, to reduce poetical 

 to common language, Avhat are the arbores or 

 sylvse of an animal's cranium, but its branches or 

 horns ? The true meaning of the passage, then, 

 divested of all " figures of speech," is : " Quickly 

 will we drink beer out of the curved branches, or 

 horns, of the skulls ; " haply, of the elephant or 

 buffalo : i. e. out of some such a drinking vessel as 

 resisted all the attempts of god Thor to empty in 

 the hall of Utgard Loki, for a description of which 

 I must refer your correspondents to the Edda 

 Snorra Sturlosonar — such a horn as that of 

 TJlphus, in York Minster ; or as that of Queen's 

 College, Oxford ; or as " The Giant Horn of Olden- 

 burgh," preserved in the Castle of Rosenborg, — 

 a horn, in fact, of the form of that delineated at 

 p. 61. of Lord Ellesmere's Guide to Northern 

 Archoiology. This, I repeat, is the meaning of the 

 passage ; and, accordingly, John Olafsen (^Essai 

 sur la Munique ancienne et modeme, tom. ii. : a 

 Paris, 1780) renders the terms in dispute, " dans 

 de cornes recourboes ; " Curl Christian Rafn, in his 

 edition of the "Krakumal" (Copenh., 1826, pp. 36. 

 51.), " ex curvis arboribus (cornlbus) cranlorum," 

 or, " dans des branches recourbees de cranes ;" and 

 Augustin Thierry (Conquest of England by the 

 Normans, Eng. edit. p. 22.), "in our overflowing 

 cups of horn." But if, unsatisfied witli what is 

 here advanced — and there are several other edi- 

 tions and translations of this "epicedium" which 

 I have not the means of consulting — yoTir corre- 

 spondents still cling to their "fond tradition," 

 then let them join the ranks of those " consecu- 

 tive (?) and metliodical readers," the contemplation 

 of whose diminishing numbers calls forth from 

 George Metivier " the passing tribute of a sigh;" 

 and they will find, in the examination of that valu- 

 able series of ancient northern literary productions 

 which have been published " studio et opera " of 

 such renowned critics, linguists, and scholars as 

 those who form the " Arnl-Magnasan Commis- 

 sion," and the " Royal Society of Northern Anti- 



quaries," that in this, as in other instances, even 

 such men as Ole Worm and Thomas Bartholin 

 are occasionally liable to that fallibility of judg- 

 ment, from which the most exalted geniuses are 

 not wholly exempt. Cowgill. 



P. S.— The extract (Vol. iv., p. 161.) from the 

 Volundar-goida (s. xxil.), in illustration of the 

 term " Skalar," if it prove anything to the pur- 

 pose, proves too much ; for If, amongst the ancient 

 Scandinavians, it was the usage to turn men's 

 skulls into drinking-vessels, so was it their custom 

 (s. xxiil.) to form pearls ( Jarkna steinar) of chil- 

 dren's eyes, and brooches (Briost kringlur) of their 

 teeth. This term " Skal " (crater) occurs also in 

 another Norse myth, the apocryphal " Gunnars 

 slagr " (s. xvlii.), and as its meaning In this place, 

 without a question, coincides with the conclusions 

 of your correspondents, I am happy in being able 

 to give them the benefit of it. The entire passage 

 is as follows, which, perhaps, it is better to adduce 

 in the translation of one G. F. Thorkelln, than in 

 tlie original Icelandic : 



" Ilia, tibi, regi, corda adponet parvulorum tuorum 

 calentia in coenam. Et mixtum medum sanguine 

 eorundem hihis tu e crateris capitalium vertictmi : ilia 

 te animi molestia acerrime mordebit, quod tibl Gu- 

 druna objiciet flagitla tanta." 



PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES, QUERIES, AND REPLIES. 

 (Vol. vi., p. 421.) 



I have been much interested in reading Dr. 

 Diamond's valuable communications on photo- 

 graphy. A considerable part of my first experi- 

 ments in the calotype process has been with Le 

 Gray's waxed paper process. I confess, although I 

 was determined to give it a fair trial, I have not 

 yet been able to produce one negative that will 

 give a positive. There are other three amateurs 

 in this locality who have also failed with the waxed 

 paper and Le Gray's formula of sensitive solution. 



I shall feel much obliged if any of your corre- 

 spondents, who may have succeeded in getting 

 good pictures or negatives by Le Gray's process, 

 or even a modification of it, if they would inform 

 me, through the medium of your valuable journal, 

 their mode of operating. 



With respect to the method of taking views in 

 the open air by a peculiar arrangement of the 

 camera, I believe it to be rather a complicated 

 affair. I would prefer a small tent, which might 

 be so made as not to exceed much the weight of a 

 large umbrella. The form of the tent, similar to 

 the roof of a house ; the ridge or top to be made 

 of a piece of wood three feet long and ten inches 

 broad. At one end a piece of yellow glass could 

 be inserted, and at the other end a piece of wood 

 to carry the lens. Between the yellow glass and 

 the lens end there might be two brass rods, for a 



