396 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. V. 124, May 15. '58. 



much like to know if any of your correspondents 



have heard of similar incidents ; whether veritable, 



and if so, a reasonable way of accounting for them. 



A Constant Reader. 



Geelong, March 3, 1858. 



Bhmderbuss. — The answer to the Query, "When 

 was the musket first called Broicm Bess f" seems 

 very satisfactory. Following this subject up, may 

 I ask, Why a " blunder"-hus is so called ? Why 

 "blunder"? Q. Q. 



IBuss has been already explained (2^^ S. v. 269.). 

 Although there is no etymological connexion between the 

 Dutch donder (thunder) and the English blunder, a rea- 

 son may be assigned, irrespective of a similarity of sound, 

 whj' the Dutch donderbus should in English be blunder- 

 buss. We must begin by observing that the old French 

 verb, estonner (now etonner), which is from the Lat. at- 

 tonare, and properly means "frapper de la foudre," in 

 common parlance signified " to stonnie, to benurame. or 

 dull the senses of" (Cotgrave), in short, to stupify. It is 

 next to be observed that the English verb to blunder 

 appears to have been formerly used in a transitive sense, 

 to confuse, to make stupid; so that the Fr. estonner, though 

 it formerly signified to strike ivith a thunderbolt, is ren- 

 dered by Cotgrave to blunder. " Tout ce que tonne ne 

 nous ekonne point: All that does thunder does not 

 blunder us." Hence it is easy to perceive why the D. 

 donderbus (literally thunder-barrel, or thunder-tube) is 

 with us blunderbuss. The blunderbuss goes off with such 

 a tremendous bang, that we are stupified, "stonnied," 

 thunderstruck; in short, it " blunders ns." We may re- 

 mark by way of illustration, that in Halliwell blunder has 

 the meaning of " confusion." Some indications also of the 

 affinity of blunder to donder are traceable even within 

 the limits of our own language. Thus with us a dunder- 

 poll, a dunderhead, is provincially a stupid fellow. So is 

 also a blunderbuss. Any one who wishes to pursue the 

 subject farther will find his advantage in consulting 

 Halliwell on dunderhead, dunderstones, dunner, dunny, 

 dunty, blunderbuss, and blunder. Cf. also the old English 

 verb to astone, or to astony. The idea either of thunder, 

 or of such stupefaction as was imagined to be produced 

 by thunder, is more or less present in all these words.] 



T. Endyn. — An interleaved New Testament, 

 8vo„ 1757, penes me, has on the fly-leaf " T. Em- 

 lyn, 1757," and the following : — 



•* These notes are of various authors, but are very seldom 

 marked whose they are. Some are Markland's; many 

 from Dr. Jortin's notes in MS.; some Erasmus; some 

 my own." 



Several of the notes have a Unitarian tincture. 

 Who made them ? Who is this " T. Emlyn ?" 



S. W. Rix. 



Beccles. 



[Thomas Emlyn was a dissenting'minister, the associ- 

 ate of Dr. Samuel Clarke and William Whiston, and me- 

 morable for his peculiar sentiments regarding the doctrine 

 of the Trinity. He published A Humble Enquiry into the 

 Scripture Account of Jesus Christ; or a Short Argument 

 concerning his Deity and Glory, according to the Gospel, for 

 which he was tried for blasphemy, and sentenced to a 

 year'8 imprisonment, and a fine of lOOOZ. This fine, how- 



ever, was reduced to 70Z. through the interposition of his 

 friends. He died July 30, 1741. A collection of his 

 Works was published in 1746, 3 vols. 8vo. with an account 

 of his life by his son Sollom. If our correspondent, how- 

 ever, is correct in the date 1757 [1737?], the volume 

 must have belonged to another of that name.] 



Psalm cv. 28. — In the Prayer Book, the second 

 clause of Psalm cv. 28. reads, "And they were not 

 obedient unto His word." This is translated in the 

 Holy Bible, " And they rebelled not against His 

 word." 



There can be no doubt that the original IID N^T 

 (in the LXXII. koL iraoeir'iKpavav^ is followed by 

 the Bible version. Will some one kindly give 

 me a few words on this ? I am aware that in the 

 Psalter of the Church of England the translation 

 of the Bible of Henry YIII. is followed. What 

 I am anxious for is a few words in explanation 

 of so plain a contradiction. 



Vincent F. Ransome. 



[The contradiction pointed out by our correspondent 

 can onlj' be accounted for by the fact that' translators of 

 and commentators on the Hoh' Scriptures are not agreed 

 as to whom the latter portion of the 28th verse, Ps. cv. 

 applies ; namely, whether to Moses and Aaron, or to the 

 Egyptians. The translators (Tyndal and Coverdale) of 

 our Praj^er Book version of the Psalms would refer the 

 passage to the Egyptians ; whereas the translators of our 

 authorised version of the Bible cleave to the other opi- 

 nion. Oar correspondent will find a valuable note on the 

 subject in Merrick's Annotations oji the Psalms, pp. 214, 

 215, London, 1768. See also Annotations on the Five 

 Books of Moses, Book of Psalms, Sfc. bv Henry Ainsworth, 

 London, 1627.] 



Religious Sects ; Seekers and Weigelians. — In 

 A Treatise of Miscellany Questions, by Mr. George 

 Gillespie, late Minister at Edinburgh, published 

 in Edinburgh in 1649, X find two religious sects 

 n^med which I do not recollect having seen 

 mentioned before. In the opening of his first 

 chapter, the author, after stating that a " fierce 

 furious Erastiane, whose book was published the 

 last year at Franeker" holds that " Ministers and 

 Pastours now are not to be acknowledged as the 

 Embassadours of Christ, neither is there any such 

 thing now to be jicknowledged as a speciall dis- 

 tinct sacred calling," goes on to say : — 



" The Sect of Seekers also hold tliat there are not at 

 this time, neither have been for many ages past, any true 

 Ministers or Embassadours of Christ." 



And, again, in his tenth chapter, he says : — 



" It was a wilde fancy of the Weigelians, that there is 

 a time to come (which they cal seculum Spiritus sancti), 

 in which God shal by his Spirit reveal much more know- 

 ledge and light, then was revealed by Christ and his 

 Apostles in the Scriptures." 



Who were the Seekers and the Weigelians f 

 When and where did they arise ? R. S. F. 



[The sect of Seekers sprang up during the Common- 

 wealth, and professed no determinate theological princi- 

 ples, except that they renounced all ordinances (Thurloe's 

 State Papers, v. 188.). " Many goe under the name of 



