2"^ S. No 108., Jan. 23. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



73 



responding to each other, and possessing as it were 

 parallel Properties." 



Mr. Devey appends this note : " This hypothesis 

 gave rise to the Romance of LameMs." _ As I have 

 not Dunlop or any other likely book within reach, 

 let me register a query with regard to this Ro- 

 mance of Lambkis, not being acquainted with it. 



EiRIONNACH. 



MORMON. 



(2°i S. iv. 472.) 



Your correspondent B. H. C. seems to have hit 

 the mark in suggesting a Greek derivation for 

 Mormon. Such was at any rate the derivation 

 given at Paris more than two centuries ago; for 

 the name of Mormon is no modern invention. A 

 learned author, one too who had himself a hand 

 in fabricating the name, and who therefore is no 

 bad authority, derives Mormon from the Greek. 

 The author in question, M. I'Abbe de le Mothe de 

 Vayer, writes thus — " Au Lecteur," at the begin- 

 ning of his work : — 



" Tu verras par exemple que dans I'liistoire de Mor- 

 mon, nous avons pris I'idee d'un parasite en general, et 

 que nous luy avons impost un nom Grec, pour nous es- 

 loigner le plus qu'il nous a est^ possible du particulier, et 

 de nostre siecle. En effet tu peux avoir leu que Mormon, 

 ou 'iAoptx.ov en Grec signifie la mesme chose qu'Epouvan- 

 tail en Francois ; nom que nous a sembl^ tres-propre pour 

 denoter un Parasite, k cause que comme un epouvantail 

 dans un champ, empesche les oyseaux de manger le grain 

 qui y est sem^, nostre Parasite de mesme quand il est une 

 fois h. table, s(;ait bien faire en sorte que personne ne touche 

 aux plats qui sont devant luy." — Le Parasite Mormon, 

 edition of 1650. 



The reprint of this work, 1715, gives the Greek 

 word more correctly ^opfi^v (instead of Mop/uoi/). 



Thus M. de Vayer derives the name of Mormon 

 from the Gr. Mopnity, taken in the sense of a scare- 

 crow (epouvantail). 



The individual thus assailed under the title of 

 " Le Parasite Mormon " was Pierre de Montmaur 

 (or Montmor), of whom a satisfactory account may 

 be found in Bayle's Diet. Art. "Montmaur," and in 

 the Hist, de Pierre de Montmaur by de Sallengre. 



M. de Montmaur appears to have been a man 

 of some learning, an extraordinary memory, in- 

 gratiating manners, and ready wit. He gave offence 

 to the Parisian literati of his day, who combined 

 their forces, and attempted to extinguish him by 

 a succession of lampoons, of which he seems lo 

 have taken little heed. These attacks M. de Sal- 

 lengre has collected and published in extenso, in his 

 Hist, de P. de Montmaur just cited. 



In the course of these clever and whimsical, 

 but, some of them, scurrilous and very filthy at- 

 tacks, the name of Montmaur appears under 

 various modifications. As Mco^fiwpoc, he figures in 

 ah epigram : — 



" Ma)fX,fiU»pOV Ktx\cOV(TlV 6/li€ /SpOTol, OVI'CKa //.w/uos 



Kai juuopbs yfyo/Jiriv, <^t'Xo$ ovSevi, iraa'i.v airex^V^" 



Elsewhere he figures as Monmorus (Sallengre, 



p. XXX.) 



Then, be it observed, by transposition of the two 

 syllables composing Montmaur or Monmor, he at 

 length comes out as Mormon. Thus the name of 

 Mormon, which has recently acquired so much 

 notoriety, was originally fabricated to serve as a 

 peg for a scurrilous derivation from the .Gr. Mop- 

 IJitiiv, a scarecrow. 



The extreme acrimony with which M. de Mont- 

 maur was assailed by his cotemporaries certainly 

 leaves an impression on the mind that he must 

 have been a very respectable sort of a person. 



" Le Parasite Mormon^' though it professes to 

 be the work of several hands, is known to have 

 been written by the above-named Abbe de la 

 Mothe de Vayer — no very enviable distinction. 

 (See Sallengre's Hist, already cited, and Barbier, 

 Die. des CEuv. anon, et pseudon.) 



The antiquated derivation of Mormon which 

 has now been ofiered, so far as it has any bearing 

 upon the same name in the title and pages of the 

 " Booh of Mormon" may be deemed only a coin- 

 cidence, curious, perhaps, but fortuitous. _ There 

 are, however, grounds for an opinion that, in trac- 

 ing to its source the name of Mormon, we have 

 come upon the origin, or first idea, to which may 

 be attributed, not the name only, but the " Book 

 of Mormon," and even Mormonism itself. 



There was a Book of Mormon at Paris in the 

 days of M. de Montmaur. In other words, 

 amongst the various lampoons published against 

 this unfortunate victim of cotemporary hostility, 

 and in addition to those which transformed his 

 name to Mormon, there was one which was neither 

 more nor less than a humorous republication of 

 his own writings. Here, then, was in effect a 

 Book of Mormon. M. de Montmaur was a man 

 who possessed great powers of conversation, but 

 wrote little, and wrote but indifferently. Accord- 

 ingly, one of his assailants, M. Adrien de Valois, 

 assuming the name of Quintus Januarius Fronto, 

 published, under a pompous title, with a ludicrous 

 and very voluminous commentary, the Works of 

 P. de Montmaur : — 



"Petri I Monmauri | Grsecarum Literarum | Professoris 

 Regii I Opera | in Duos Tomos divisa, | Quorum alter 

 solutum Orationem, alter | Versus complectitur | Iterum 

 edita, et Notis | nunc primum illustrata k | Q. januario 

 Frontone | Juxta exemplar | Lutecise | 1643." 



Thus the first " tome " was prose, the second, 

 verse : but just as in the " Book of Mormon " 

 itself the words of Mormon form but a small por- 

 tion of the whole, so in the " Monmauri Opera " 

 the whole that belonged to Montmaur himself, 

 verse and prose, consisted of but seven or eight 

 pages, the facetious but malevolent notes consti- 

 tuting the bulk of the work. 



This Parisian publication, be it observed, just 

 like the Book of Mormon, though not in the same 



