Nov. 27. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



513 



These extracts show that Penn did not manumit 

 his slaves, though his will of 1701 says so. In fact 

 it is shown that he knew they remained his slaves 

 by his after-manumission of Chevalier, as stated 

 in the letter above referred to. His last will, 

 which was made in England, contains no manu- 

 mission, and is therefore a revocation of the testa- 

 ment of 1701 ; so that William Penn not only died 

 a slaveholder, but bequeathed slaves in the residue 

 of his estate to his legatee. T. Westcott. 



Philad., U. S. America. 



"cross and pile." 

 (Vol. vi., p. 386.) 



Your correspondent A. A. D,, among other 

 Queries, asks, "What is the meaning of this 

 phrase ? " 



In the recent edition of Rabelais' WorTis by 

 Bohn, vol. i. p. 209., is the following passage : 



" Clown we call him, because a noble and generous 

 prince hath never a penny." 



To which passage is appended the following note : 



" There is an old French proverb : 



Un noble prince, un gentil roy, 

 N'a jamais ne pile, ne croix. 



A gallant monarch never rich is, 



Nor cross, nor pile, has in his breeches. 



" Before I dismiss this article I would know why, 

 in a piece of money, the opposite side to the cross is 

 called the pile side. Cotgrave says the under-iron of 

 the stamp, wherein money is stamped, is called pile. 

 If so, I am satisfied ; if not, I must go further a-field." 



Cross and pile is also mentioned in Hudibras, 

 sometimes to express "money" generally, and 

 sometimes in a sense similar to the modern expres- 

 sion of " heads and tails." Thus, Hud. Part II. 

 cant. 3.1.1103.: 



" Whachum had neither cross nor pile, 

 His plunder was not worth the while." 



Again, in Part III. cant. 3. 1. 687. : 



" That you as sure may pick and choose, 

 As cross I win, and pile you lose." 



To the first of these quotations is appended the 

 following note : 



" Money frequently bore a cross on one side, and the 

 head of a spear or arrow (pilum) on the other. Cross 

 and pile were our heads and tails. ' This I humbly 

 conceive to be perfect boy's play : cross, I win ; and 

 pile, you lose.' " — Swift. 



As this seems to have been a common expres- 

 sion for money in the time of Charles II., and even 

 to a much later period, I wish to ask, through the 

 medium of " N. & Q.," the following questions, 

 namely, whether there were any, and what pieces 

 of money, impressed with the cross on one side 



and pile on the other, current in England, and^^in 

 what reign ; and if not, whether there was any 

 foreign money bearing these impressions ? 



I have never met with any such in the collec- 

 tions of the coin-dealers. D. W. S. 



Gloucester. 



Query on Locke, book iv. ch. xx. : 



" Anciently, the coin of England was stamped with 

 a cross on one side : the reverse of the coin was called 

 pile, but etymologists differ about the derivation of the 

 word. It is said to be from the Latin pilum, an arrow j 

 or pileus, a hat or cap ; or from the old French pile, a 

 ship ; and from the English, pillar; from these various 

 figures being impressed successively upon the coin. 

 The word pile, however derived, became a term denot- 

 ing the reverse of a coin, whatever figure such reverse 

 bore : and hence the game of chance called cross and 

 pile took its origin, being simply the tossing up of the 

 coin by one person, and the other calling cross or pile , 

 and if his call lies uppermost, he wins the stake played 

 for, and loses if it be otherwise. It is now called heads 

 and tails, and various other names ; and its origin may 

 be traced to the Greek, ostrachinda. A cross is also a 

 figurative name for money generally : 



' And you as sure may pick and choose. 

 As cross I win, and pile you lose.' — Hudibras. 



' Whachum had neither cross nor pile. 

 His plunder was not worth the while.' " — lb. 

 From Toone's Glossary and Etymological 

 Diet,, 1834. 



I only add that pile is probably from pila, a ball, 

 which is common on early English coins, as well 

 as on some later. The more recent, however, 

 have but one ball, and that on the same side as 

 the cross ; while the more ancient have several. 



B. H. C. 



MCMMT WHEAT AND MAIZE. 



(Vol. v., pp. 538. 595. 613.) 



I observe in your June Numbers some com- 

 munications respecting " Mummy wheat," your 

 correspondents being impressed with the convic- 

 tion that grains veritably taken from mummy 

 cases will germinate. One states, " there was no 

 question that it was sprung from grains taken out 

 of a mummy." If this mean that the evidence of 

 its extraction thence is to his mind irresistible, I 

 should be obliged by his favouring me with a short 

 statement, in your work, of the proofs presented to 

 him. With a desire to be convinced, I have never 

 yet met with a complete chain of evidence ; some 

 one of the links has been wanting ; either wheat, 

 if proved to be found in mummy bandages (not 

 having been previously placed there by Arab dex- 

 terity), has failed to vegetate, or that which vege- 

 tated has not been satisfactorily attested as to the 

 findinff. 



