2'"« S. V. 126., May 29. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



431 



heard the circumstances described. He declares 

 himself to have frequently heard it from natives 

 of the place, who believed its reality ; though he 

 himself conceives it to be a phenomenon of dreams. 

 The story is as follows : — 



Along the shore of the ocean, opposite the 

 island of Brittia, there are numerous villages in- 

 habited by fishermen, cultivators, and seafaring 

 men, who carry on the trade with this island. 

 They are subject to the Franks, but are exempt 

 from tribute, in consideration of a service which 

 they render. This service is the duty of ferrying 

 over the souls of the dead. Those whose turn it 

 is to be on duty for the ensuing night come 

 back to their homes at the hour of darkness, and 

 betake themselves to sleep, awaiting the visit of 

 the superintendent. In the dead of the night they 

 hear a knocking at their door, anci a voice calling 

 them to their work. Without a moment's delay, 

 they rise from their beds, and walk to the sea- 

 shore, impelled by an irresistible necessity. Here 

 they find empty boats, different from their own, 

 ready for their reception, which they enter, and 

 proceed to row. These boats are so weighed down 

 by the number of passengers, that the water rises 

 to an inch of the edge ; no one, however, is per- 

 ceptible to the sight. In an hour they effect the 

 passage to Brittia ; and yet, when they make the 

 same passage in their own barks, it takes a day 

 and a night. When they have reached the island, 

 and discharged their cargo, they return with 

 boats so lightened that the keel alone sinks in the 

 water. They see no one either remaining in the 

 boat or leaving it, but they hear a voice calling 

 over the names of the passengers, and repeating 

 the dignities and patronymic of each. In the case 

 of women, the names of their husbands are men- 

 tioned. 



This story is repeated by Tzetzes on Lye. 1204., 

 and on Hesiod. Op., 169. Compare Plutarch, 

 Mor., tom. v. p. 764., edit. Wyttenbach. In the 

 text of Procoplus, vol. ii. p. 567., edit. Bonn, the 

 words near the beginning of the passage, descrip- 

 tive of the shore in question, are : " TroLpd. rijv AktV 

 rris Kara Tr]V BpiTTiav rod uKeavov v^ffov" In Tzetzes 

 on Lycophron, the corresponding words are : 

 " Trepi t)]v a,Kr)]v tov uKeavov rod irepi t?)** BperTavtuv 

 ravrriv vrjffov.'" In the Commentary to Hesiod, 

 they are : " irepl t^v oktV tov ■K€p\ t)iv BpeTawiav 

 vTjaov uKeavov." There is a various reading vrjcrov 

 in Procoplus. The text of Procopius seems to be 

 corrupt, and the sense requires the reading pre- 

 served by Tzetzes. According to Procopius the 

 shore^ would be that of an island opposite to 

 Britain. 



Claudian, who preceded Procopius by a century 

 and a half, describes necromantic rites performed 

 by Ulysses on the coast of Gaul : — 



" Est locus, extremum paudit qua Gallia litus, 

 Oceani prffitentus aquis, ubi fertur Ulysses 



Sanguine libato populam movisse silentem. 

 Illic umbrarum tenui stiidore volantum 

 Flebilis auditur questus. Simulacra coloni 

 Pallida, defunctasque vident migrare figuras. 

 Ilinc dea prosiluit, Phoebique egressa serenos 

 Infecit radios, ululatuque aethera rupit 

 Terrifico. Sensit ferale Britannia murmur, 

 Et Senonum quatit arva fragor, revolutaque Tetliys 

 Substitit, et Rhenus projects, torpuit urna." 



In Ruf., i. 123. 

 The passage occm's in the poem against Rufinus. 

 Megasra is described as ascending from the in- 

 fernal regions to the light of day at the seat of 

 these necromantic rites, in order to visit Rufinus, 

 whose native place was Elusa, In Aquitanla. Ne- 

 cromancy was conceived by the ancients as con- 

 nected with hades (Nitzsch on the Odyssey, vol. 

 iii. pp. 152. 355.) * ; and the place where Ulysses 

 evoked the souls of the dead was a natural outlet 

 for a Stygian deity, as the niephitlc cavern of Am- 

 sanctus in Italy was, for a different reason, a proper 

 channel for Alecto to return to hell in the JEneid 

 (vii. 568.). Cumas, where there was a mephitic ca- 

 vern by which ^neas descended to hell, was one of 

 the localities at which the necromancy of Ulysses 

 was fixed (Strab. v. 4, 5. ; Serv. JEn. vi. 106.). 



Homer describes the land of the Cimmerian?, 

 where Ulysses evoked the souls of the dead, as 

 being on the furthest limits of the ocean {Od. xl. 

 13.) ; and when the localities of fiction receded, 

 and Ogygia was placed five days' sail to the west 

 of Britain, it was natural that Claudian, seeking 

 for a subterranean communication with hades, by 

 which Megsera might emerge in order to visit 

 Rufinus at Elusa, should suppose Ulysses to have 

 performed his necromantic ceremonies at the ex- 

 tremity of Gaul in the far west (Nitzsch, iZ». p. 187.). 

 Ulysses is related by Strabo to have penetrated 

 beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Hi. 44.) : Ulysipo, 

 the modern Lisbon, was considered his foundation. 

 Tacitus carries him to Germany, where there were 

 monuments and inscriptions testifying his presence 

 {Germ. 3.), and Solinus, c. 22., as far as Caledonia. 

 Grimm (ib.) connects the passage of Claudian 

 with the singular story in Procoplus ; but the 

 latter appears to be derived from some local 

 legend ; whereas the former is nothing but an 

 application of the classical Ideas respecting the 

 wanderings of Ulysses, and the connexion of ne- 

 cromantic evocation with the subterranean pas- 

 sages to hades. L. 



SIR WALTER SCOTT AND LORD CAMPBELL. 



It is a pleasure to redeem a great man's memory 

 from reproach, and we have fortunately the power 

 of vindicating Sir W. Scott from a somewhat ill- 

 natured remark jjassed upon him by his country- 



* Compare the description of the cave of the witch 

 Erichtho in Lucan, vi. C42., where she performs her ne- 

 cromantic rites. 



