Sept. 24. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIEa 



291 



EARLY USE OF TIN. 



Mr. Layard, in his work upon Nineveh and 

 Babylon, in reference to the articles of bronze 

 from Assyria now in the British Museum, states, 

 that the tin used in the com2:)Osition was probably 

 obtained from Phoenicia ; and, consequently, that 

 Mfl^used in the Assyrian bronze may actually have 

 been exported nearly three thousand years ago from 

 the British Isles. 



The Assyrians appear to have made an exten- 

 sive use of this metal ; and the degree of perfec- 

 tion which the making of bronze had then reached, 

 clearly shows that they must have been long ex- 

 perienced in the use of it. lliey appear to have 

 received what they used from the Phoenicians. 

 When and hy tvhom was tin first discovered in our 

 island ? Were the Celtic tribes acquainted with 

 it jjreviously to the arrival of the Phoenicians upon 

 our shores ? 



It is said that the Phoenicians were indebted to 

 the Tyrian Hercules for their trade in tin ; and 

 that this island owed to them its name of Barat- 

 miac, or Britain, the land of tin. Was the Tyrian 

 Hercules, or, as he was afterwards known and 

 worshipped, as the Melkart of Tyre, and the Mo- 

 loch of the Bible, was he the merchant-leader of 

 the first band of Phoenicians who visited this 

 island ? When did he live ? G. W. 



Stansted, Moiltfichet. 



ST. PATRICK — MAUNE AND MAN. 



Amongst the many strange derivations given of 

 the name of Mona or Man (the island), I find one 

 in an old unpublished MS. by an unknown au- 

 thor, of the date about 1658, noticed by Feltham 

 {Tour through the Isle of Man, p. 8.), on which I 

 venture to ground a Query. The name of the 

 island is there said to have been derived from 

 Maune, the name of the great apostle of the Mann, 

 before he received that of Patricius from Pope 

 Celestine. 



Now if St. Patrick ever had the name Maune, 

 he could not have given it to the island, which 

 was called Mona, Monabia, and Menavia, as far 

 back as the days of Caesar, Tacitus, and Pliny. I 

 have not access to any life of St. Patrick in which 

 the name Maune occurs ; but in the Penny Cy- 

 clopaedia, under the head " Patrick," I find it said, 

 "According to Nennius, St. Patrick's original 

 name was Maur," and I find the same stated in 

 Rose's Biographical Dictionary. But the article 

 in the latter is evidently taken from the former, 

 and I suspect the Maur may in both be a mis- 

 print for Maun.* Can "N. & Q." set me right, or 



[* In Monumenta Historica Britannica the passage 

 reads " Quia Maun prius vocabatur." In a note from 

 another MS. the word is spelt Mauun. Ed.] 



give me any information likely to solve the diffi- 

 culty ? 



I may as well notice here that amongst the 

 many ways in which the name of this island has 

 been pronounced and spelt, that of Maun seems to 

 have prevailed at the period of the Norwegian 

 occupation. On a Runic monument at Kirk 

 Michael, we have it very distinctly so spelt. 



With regard to the name Mona, applied both to 

 Man and Anglesea, I have little doubt we may- 

 find its root in the Sanscrit man, to know, wor- 

 ship, &c., whence we have Manu, the son of 

 Brahma, Menu, Menes, Minos, Moonshee, and 

 Monk. The name Mona would seem to have 

 been applied to both islands, as being specially 

 the habitation of the Druids, whose name pro- 

 bably came either from the Celtic Trow-wys, 

 wisemen, or the Saxon dru, a soothsayer, very 

 close in signification to the Sanscrit mooni, a holy 

 sage, a leurned person. As connected with this 

 idea I may ground another Query : Might not 

 these two Monas, the abode of piety and wisdom, 

 be the true fiaKapoou v7]croi, the Fortiinatw Insidcs of 

 the ancients ? J. G. Cumming. 



Castletown. 



PASSAGE IN BINGHAM. 



Mr. Richard Bingham, whose new and im- 

 proved edition of his ancestor's works is now 

 printing at the Oxford University Press, would 

 feel sincerely obliged to any literary friend who 

 should become instrumental in discovering the 

 following passage from one of the sermons of 

 Augustine : 



" Non mirari debetis, fratres carissimi, quod inter 

 ipsa mysteria de mystcriis nihil diximus, quod non 

 statim ea, quae tradidimus, interpretati sumus. Ad- 

 hibuimus enira tarn Sanctis rebus atque divinis honorem 

 silentii." 



Joseph Bingham (b. x. ch. v. s. 11.) cites those 

 words as from " Serm. I., inter 40. a Sirmondo 

 editos," which corresponds with Serm. V. accord- 

 ing to the Benedictine edition, Paris, 1689 — 1700, 

 torn. v. p. 28. ; but no such words occur In that 

 sermon. The passage is daggered by Grishovius, 

 who first gave the citations at length ; neither has 

 Mr. R. Bingham hitherto been able to meet with 

 it, though a great many similar desidei'ata in 

 former editions he has discovered and corrected. 



An answer through " N. & Q." will oblige; 

 still more so if sent direct to his present address, 

 57. Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London. 



Mr. Bingham would also be glad to be informed 

 where Athanasius uses the term ^liicovo^, generally 

 for any minister of the church, whether deacon, 

 presbyter, or bishop? Joseph Bingham (b. ii. 

 ch. XX. s. 1.) cites the tract Contra Gentes, but 

 the expression is not there. 



