196 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 200. 



Is not this derivation erroneous ? Sincere does 

 not mean " pure, like virgin-honey ; " but it ex- 

 presses the absence of deception. I doubt not 

 that it is derived from — 



" The practice of Roman potters to rub wax into the 

 flaws of their unsound vessels when they sent them to 

 market. A sincere [without wax] vessel was the same 

 as a sound vessel, one that had no disguised flaw." 



So says Bushnell {God in Christ, p. 17.). The 

 derivation is no novelty. I reproduce it merely 

 to correct an error which is obtaining currency 

 under the name of Mr. French. I should be 

 obliged to any of your correspondents who would 

 refer me to, or still better cite, any passages in 

 the Latin classics relating to the practice I have 

 mentioned. C. Mansfieli) Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



Epitaph in Applehy Chuixh-yai-d, Leicester- 

 shire. — 



" I was a fine young man. 

 As you would see in ten. 

 And when I thought of this, 

 I took in hand my pen. 

 And wrote it down so plain 

 That every one might see ; 

 How I was cut down, 

 Like blossoms from a tree." 



J. G. L. 



^wtxiei. 



THE CRESCENT. 



I shall be obliged to any correspondent of 

 *' N. & Q." who will point out the period at 

 which the crescent became the standard of Ma- 

 hometanism. Poets and romancers freely bestow 

 it upon any time or scene in which Mussulmans 

 are introduced ; Sir Walter Scott mentions it 

 in the Talisman, but after the strange liberties 

 he has taken with Saladin and Richard, he be- 

 comes, on such a question, no higher authority 

 than writers of meaner name. I cannot find it in 

 the history of Mahomet, or in that of his imme- 

 diate successors. The first time Michaud, in his 

 fine Histoire des Croisades, speaks of it is in the 

 reign of Mahomet II., which Is many centuries 

 after periods at which modern poets, and even 

 historians, have named it as the antagonistic 

 standard to the cross. The crescent is common 

 upon the reverses of coins of the Eastern empire 

 long before the Turkish conquest, and was, I have 

 reason to believe, in some degree peculiar to the 

 Sclave nations. Was it the standard of the Turks,- 

 as contradistinguished from other Saracens ? or, 

 Avas it adopted by Mahomet II. after his conquests 

 of Constantinople and the eastern countries of 

 Europe ? I am aware that if this last idea be 

 substantiated, it will make it much more modern 

 than it is generally supposed to be, but our ideas I 



of everything Turkish were for so long a lime 

 mixed with the wonderful and the romantic, that 

 we must not expect much correctness on such 

 points. The Turks came Into fearful contiguity 

 with the West in the fifteenth century ; Europe 

 had as much to dread from them then as from the 

 Russians now. This event and the art of printing 

 were almost cotemporary, and the crescent has- 

 been presented to us as the symbol of Maho- 

 metanism ever since ; but I much doubt it can be 

 proved to have been so at a far remoter period. 



W. ROBSON. 



Stockwell. 



The Hebrew Testament. — Having lately com- 

 pleted the above work, so as to be " ready for the 

 press " without much delay, I should be glad,, 

 before I resign the MS. to the hands of the 

 printer, to have the advantage of the suggestions 

 of those of your erudite readers who have made 

 sacred criticism their study. 



MosEs Margolioutit. 



Dr. Franklin. — I possess the following lines in 

 the handwriting of Dr. Franklin, written in the 

 year 1780. Can any of your readers tell me who- 

 was the author of them, and when and where they 

 were first printed ? 



" When Orpheus went down to the Regions below. 



Which men are forbidden to see ; 

 He tun'd up his Lyre, as historians show. 



To set his Euridice free. 

 All Hell was astonish'd, a person so wise 



Should so rashly endanger his life, 

 And venture so far ! But how vast their surprise. 



When they heard that he came for his wife. 



" To find out a punishment due to the fault. 



Old Pluto had puzzled his brain ; 

 But Hell had not torments sufficient he thought. 



So he gave him his wife back again. 

 But pity succeeding, soon mov'd his hard heart. 



And, pleas'd with his playing so well, 

 Jle took her again, in reward of Ills Art ; 



Such power had Music in Hell !" 



G. U. B. 



Flemish Refugees. — In the troubled times of 

 the Reformation, England was not seldom the 

 refuge for Flemings who, for the sake of religion, 

 abandoned their country. Among these was Mr.. 

 Joos Tuck, who, according to a consistorial deci- 

 sion of Dec. 14, 1582, was proposed by G. Van 

 Den Haute, then pastor at Sluis, to the brethren 

 of the Flemish Class, since " they had taken know- 

 ledge of the sound and good gifts of their brother."^ 

 He left Sluis soon after, probably in July, 1583, 

 and withdrew to England. I should be glad to- 

 learn what befell him there. 



Peter Lambert was a student'of the University 

 of Ghent : though, as far as I rtra aware, he is not 



