June 4. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



549 



covered on the destruction of the temple of Serapis at 

 i\lexandria, and the same tradition to have been at- 

 tached to it." — P. 23. 



The subject is very curious, and one in which I 

 am much interested. I am anxious to refer to 

 the original authorities for the tradition in both 

 cases. It is known that the Mexicans worshipped 

 the cross as the god of pain. We have the follow- 

 ing curious account thereof in The Pleasant His- 

 torie of the Conquest of West India, now called 

 Newe Spayne., translated out of the Spanish tongue 

 bj T. K, anno 1578 : 



" At the foote of this temple was a plotte like a 

 churchyard, well walled and garnished with proper 

 pinnacles ; in the midst whereof stoode a crosse of ten 

 foote long, the which they adored for god of the rayne; 

 for at all times whe they wanted rayne, they would go 

 thither on procession deuoutely, and offered to the crosse 

 quayles sacrificed, for to appease the wrath that the 

 god seemed to have agaynste them : and none was so 

 acceptable a sacrifice, as the bloud of that little hirde. 

 They used to burne certaine sweete gume, to perfume 

 that god withall, and to besprinkle it with water ; and 

 this done, they belieued assuredly to haue rayne." — 

 P. 41. 



Edward Peacock. 



Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey. 



Passage in St. James. — I hope you will not 

 consider the following Query unsuited to your 

 publication, and in that case I may confidently 

 anticipate the removal of my difficulty. 



In reading yesterday Jeremy Taylor's Holy 

 Living and Dying, I came to this passage (p. 308. 

 Bohn's edition) : 



" St. James, in his epistle, notes the folly of some 

 men, his contemporaries, who were so impatient of the 

 event of to-morrow, or the accidents of next year, or 

 the good or evils of old age, that they would consult 

 astrologers and witches, oracles and devils, what should 

 befall them the next calends — what should be the 

 event of such a voyage — what God had written in his 

 book concerning the success of battles, the election of 

 emperors, &c. . . . Against this he opposes his 

 counsel, that we should not search after forbidden 

 records, much less by uncertain significations," &c. 



Now. my Query is, To what epistle of St. James 

 does the eloquent bishop refer ? If to the ca- 

 nonical epistle, to what part? To the words 

 (above quoted) "forbidden records" there is a 

 foot-note, which contains only the well-known 

 passage in Horace, lib. i. od. xi., and two others 

 from Propertius and Catullus. S. S. S. 



« The Temple of Truth:'— Who was the author 

 of an admirable work entitled The Temple of 

 Truth, published in 1806 by Mawman ? T. B. H. 



Santa C/azw.— Reading The Wide Wide World 

 recalled to my mind this curious custom, which I 

 had remarked when in America. I was then not 



a. little surprised to find so strange a superstition 

 lingering in puritanical New England, and which, 

 it is needless to remark, was quite novel to me. 

 Santa Claus I believe to be a corruption of Saint 

 Nicholas, the tutelary saint of sailors, and conse- 

 quently a great favourite with the Dutch. Pro- 

 bably, therefore, the custom was introduced into 

 the western world by the compatriots of the re- 

 nowned Knickerbocker. 



It is unnecessary to describe the nature of the 

 festivity, as it is so graphically pourtrayed in Miss 

 Wetherell's, or rather Warner's work, to which I 

 would refer those desirous of further acquaintance 

 with the subject ; the object of this Query being 

 to learn, through some of the American or other 

 correspondents of "N. & Q.," the original legend, 

 as well as the period and events connected with the 

 immigration into " The States " of that beneficent 

 friend of Young America, Santa Claus. 



Robert Weight. 



Donnybrook Fair. — This old-established fair, so 

 well known in every quarter of the globe, and so 

 very injurious to the morality of those who fre- 

 quent it, is said to be held by patent: but is there 

 any patent for it in existence ? If there be, why 

 is it not produced ? I am anxious to obtain in- 

 formation upon the subject. Abhba. 



Saffron, when brought into England. — In a foot- 

 note to Beckmann's History of Inventions, S^c, 

 vol. 1. p. 179. (Bohn's), is the following, purporting 

 to be from Hakluyt, vol. 11. p. 164. : 



" It is reported at Saffron Walden that a pilgrim, 

 proposing to do good to his country, stole a head of 

 saffron, and hid the same in his palmer's staff, which he 

 had made hollow before on purpose, and so he brought 

 this root into this realm, with venture of his life ; for if 

 he had been taken, by the law of the country from 

 whence it came, he had died for the fact." 



Can any of your readers throw any light upon 

 this tradition ? W. T. 



Saffron Walden. 



Isping Geil. — In a charter of Joanna Fossart, 

 making a grant of lands and other possessions 

 to the priory of Grosmont in Yorkshire, is the 

 following passage as given in Dugdale's Monas- . 

 ticon (I quote from Bohn's edition, 1846, vol. vi. 

 p. 1025.) : 



" Dedi eis insuper domos meas in Eboraco ; illas 

 scilicet qu£e sunt inter domos Laurentii clerici quae 

 fuerunt Benedicti Judasi et Isping Geil, cum tota curia 

 et omnibus pertinentiis." 



Can any of your readers, and in particular any 

 of our York antiquaries, Inform me whether the 

 " Isping Geil " mentioned in this passage is the 

 name of a person, or of some locality in that city 

 now obsolete ? In either case I should be glad of 

 any information as to the etymology of so singular 



