416 



NOTES AND QUEHIES. 



[2°i S. V. 125., May 22. '58. 



eighteenth century " the southern coasts [of Ice- 

 land] were considerably depopulated by the in- 

 cursions of English and even Algerine pirates." 

 Can any of your readers furnish me with a short 

 account of these incursions ? I should like some 

 information about them. Vespeetilio. 



Talking on Fingers. — To whom are we indebted 

 for the invention of this useful and simple mode of 

 expressing our thoughts to the deaf and dumb? 

 Are the vowels and consonants similarly repre- 

 sented in the finger-alphabets of other nations ? 



A. H. 



Passover Rum. — Passing, on Easter Monday 

 last, through Whitechapel Road, my eye was at- 

 tracted by a broadside in a tavern window (that 

 of the " Earl of Effingham "). Can some corre- 

 spondent inform me what the connexion is be- 

 tween the Rev. Dr. Alder, the Chief Rabbi, and 

 rum of " unequalled strength and quality ?" 



" By permission of the Rev. Dr. Alder. 

 Sold here | Eum | and | Shrub | during | flDD | Pass- 

 over I of unequalled strength and quality." 



Lethbebiensis. 



[Ever since Israel became a nation, the Jews have used 

 great strictness with respect to all articles of human diet, 

 some of which they account clean, and others unclean. 

 From the time when Jacob received the name of Israel, 

 the Jews ate not of the sinew which shrank (Gen. xxxii. 

 32.) ; and this, as Lightfoot acutely remarks, was their 

 first distinguishing characteristic as a people. For " cir- 

 cumcision differenced them not from the other seed of 

 Abraham, by Hagar and Keturah, but this curiosity in 

 meats first beginneth Judaism." (Lightfoot, Works, 1684, 

 vol. i. p. 696.) The use of blood being subsequently pro- 

 hibited by the Law of Moses, " beasts must be slaugh- 

 tered by a Jew," not by a Gentile ; and by a Jew " that 

 hath a licence from the Head-Priest." (^Book of the Re- 

 ligion, §-c. of the Jews, p. 88.) In particular, during 

 the festival of the Passover, the strictness extends not 

 only to eatables but to drinkables. At the celebration of 

 the festival, " their drinkables is either fair water, or 

 water boiled with sassafras and liquorice, or raisin-wine 

 prepared by themselves" (ib. p. 45.); and at Jerusalem, 

 even at the time when the Temple-Service was still 

 maintained, "they were curious " with respect to the four 

 cups of wine to be drunk at the feast, "about the measure 

 and about the mixture." (Lightfoot, vol. i. p. 961.) 

 But, in consequence of the obligation to abstain from 

 leaven throughout the whole period of the Passover, the 

 " curiosity " extended at that season to all drinks. Dur- 

 ing the festival, says Schudt, the Frankfort Jews might 

 drink no beer (Jiidische Merkwurdigkeiten, part ii. p. *319. ), 

 because barley produces yeast or leaven ; nay, a Rabbi, 

 says the same writer, declined a glass of wine because 

 beer had been drunk out of the same vessel, fearing that 

 it might retain some " atomi fermentati," or something 

 approaching to leaven (" oder etwas sauerliches," ib. part 

 i. p. 312.). Hence may we understand why, during the 

 Passover, the Jews have recourse to rum and shrub. Rum 

 is the produce of the sugar-cane ; shrub is a compound of 

 rum, acid, and sugar or syrup ; neither is concocted from 

 grain, so that all risk of leaven is precluded. Bat even 



these permitted and canonical drinks cannot be vended, 

 except under the sanction of the Rev. Chief Rabbi, on 

 the same principle which, as we have already seen, 

 renders his patriarchal licence requisite for the killing 

 of meat. The Jews of London, like those of Frankfort, 

 abstain from malt liquor during the Passover, for the 

 reason already indicated. In order that the " shorter " 

 beverage indulgently substituted may be above suspicion, 

 the Chief Rabbi, at the Docks, sets his seal on certain 

 casks of rum, neat as imported, which then become an au- 

 thorised drink. This accounts for the strength of the rum, 

 as expressed in the advertisement. It has passed througii 

 the hands of no dealer. The rum may be vended by 

 Gentiles as well as Jews ; but when sold retail, it must be 

 drawn from the sealed cask (a very inadequate security 

 after all). The practice may be witnessed during Pass- 

 over in those parts of London which are most frequented 

 by the Jews ; for instance, in Houndsditch. The publicans 

 take out a part of the front window of their tap-room, 

 and the sealed cask stands ready on draught, so that the 

 Jewish purchaser can drink without entering. This last 

 circumstance curiously illustrates John xviii. 28., " They 

 themselves went not into the judgment-hall, lest they should 

 be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover." During 

 the Passover a kind of white brandy is allowed, as well as 

 rum.] 



St. Ohve's Day. — On what day was St. Olave 

 (or more correctly Olaf ) commemorated ? I have 

 examined two copies of the Breviarium Romanum, 

 published at Sens and at Mechlin ; and I cannot 

 find his name in the calendar prefixed to either 

 of them, any more than in that in the English 

 Prayer-Book ; yet there are many churches in the 

 United Kingdom which bear his name. London, 

 Southwark, York, Chester, Chichester, Waterford, 

 and doubtless other places, possess such churches ; 

 and an English Breviary would probably contain 

 an office for his day, or at any rate would indicate 

 what that day was. E. H. D. D. 



[The Danish monarch, St. Olave, is commemorated on 

 July 29. His name is variously spelt Amlaf, Olaf, Olaus, 

 Olavius, and was called in England St. Oley, or corruptly 

 St. Tooley ; hence Tooley Street in Southwark, in which 

 stands St. Olave's Church. This saint is sometimes con- 

 founded in Ireland with St. Doolagh, as his name was 

 certainly hardened into St. Ullock, or St. Tullock. Cf. 

 Butler's Lives of the Saints ; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 

 509. ; and Obits and Martyrology of Christ Church, p. 

 Ixxxiii. : Irish Archasological Society.] 



Hogarth and Sir Isaac Shard. — The following 

 story appears in some editions of the Life of Ho- 

 garth : 



"In the pictui-e of the Miser's Feast, Mr. Hogarth 

 thought proper to pillory Sir Isaac Shard, a gentleman 

 proverbially avaricious ; hearing this, a son of Sir Isaac 

 called upon the painter to see the picture, and upon ask- 

 ing whom that odd figure was intended to represent, the 

 painter replied that it was thought very like one Sir 

 Isaac Shard. Mr. Shard drew his sword and slashed the 

 canvass, upon which Hogarth instantly appeared in great 

 wrath ; but Mr. Shard calmly justified what he had done, 

 saying that he was the injured party's son, and was ready 

 to defend any suit at law, which however was never in- 

 stituted." 



Can any of your readers inform me what be- 

 came of that painting? and whether it was one of 



