May 26. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



399 



is ill the London Library) will no doubt be very 

 interesting to your readers, as it shows that table- 

 turning was practised at the fomous oracle at 

 Delphos : 



" Whilst Valens [the Roman Emperor] was at Antioch 

 in his third consulship, in the year 370, several Pagans of 

 distinction with the philosophers who were in so great 

 reputation under Julian, not being able to bear that the 

 empire should continue in the hands of the Christians, 

 consulted privately the demons, by the means of conjura- 

 tions, in order to know the destiny of the emperor, and 

 who should be his successor ; persuading themseh'es that 

 the oracle would name a person who should restore the 

 worship of the gods. For this purpose they made a three- 

 footed stool of laurel in imitation of the tripos at Delphos, 

 upon which having laid a basin of divers metals, they 

 placed the twenty-four letters of the alphabet round it ; 

 then one of these philosophers, who was a magician, being 

 wrapped up in a large mantle, and his head covered, 

 holding in one hand vervain, and in the other a ring, 

 wliich hung at the end of a small thread, pronounced 

 some execrable conjurations in order to invoke the devils; 

 at which the three-footed stool turning round, arid the ring 

 moving of itself, and turning from one side to the other over 

 Hie letters, it caused them to fall upon the table and place 

 themselves near each other, whilst the persons who were 

 present set down the like letters in their table-books, till 

 their answer was delivered in heroic verse, which foretold 

 them that their criminal inquiry would cost them their lives, 

 and that the Furies were waiting for the emperor [he was 

 subsequently burnt alive by the Goths] at Mimas, where 

 he was to die of a horrid kind of death ; after which the 

 enchanted ring turning about again over the letters, in order 

 to express the name of him wlio should succeed the em- 

 peror, formed first of all these three characters, TH E ; 

 then having added a D to form THEOD the ring stopped, 

 and was not seen to move any more ; at which one of the 

 assistants cried out in a transport of joy, 'We must not 

 doubt any longer of it ; Theodoras is the'person whom the 

 gods appoint for our emperor.' [Theodorus was a patron 

 of idolatry; it was not he, however, but Theodosius who 

 ascended the throne after the dreadful end of Valens.] . . . 

 The conspiracy was discovered by one of the accomplices, 

 and Valens ordered them all to be put to death. And 

 that cursed race of false sages, who, under the colour of 

 philosophy, exercised the detestable art of infernal magic, 

 particularly from the time of Julian, was almost entirely 

 <lestro3-ed, with their magic books, which were strictly 

 inquired after, and publicly burnt in large parcels. 

 Valens indeed was in the right to punish so horrid a 

 crime, by the means of which, in violation both of divine 

 and human laws, men attempted to penetrate into the 

 secrets of futuritj^ and, what is still more criminal, to 

 inquire into the destiny of princes by such abominable 

 practices." 



The author refers to the following authorities, 

 Socr._ 1. iv. c. 15. ; Sozom. 1. vi. c. 35. ; Ammian. 

 1. xxix., with reference to the consultation of the 

 demons and the construction of the tripos, 



J. Kr. 



Spirit-rapping exposed (Vol. x., p. 4.). — 



"A lady recently inquired of some rappers in Ohio how 

 many children she had ? ' Four,' rapped the spirit. The 

 husband, startled at the accuracv of the reply, stepped up 

 and inquired, ' How many have I .? ' ' Two,' answered the 

 rapping medium. The husband and wife looked at each 



other for a moment, and then retired non-believers. There 

 had evidently been a mistake made somewhere." 



The above appeared in the Boston Post; the 

 following comes from the New York Sun: 



" A house in Worcester, Mass., that has long suffered 

 the reputation of being haunted, was surrounded on Mon- 

 day evening, and niiie spirits, with bodies to match, were 

 captured by the police and marched to the station-house. 

 In the morning they were fined three dollars each, and 

 committed, for a breach of the peace, until the sura was 

 paid." 



w. w. 



Malta. 



REMARKS ON CROWNS, AND MORE PARTICULARLY 

 ON THE ROYAL OR IMPERIAL CROWN OF GREAT 

 BRITAIN. 



(From the Autograph MS. of Stephen Martin Leake, Esq. 

 Garter.) 



(Continued from p. 381.) 



Edward IV. His English money has the same 

 old open crown as his predecessors, but some of 

 his Irish coins have on the reverse three crowns, 

 composed of crosses and fleurs-de-lis ; which 

 three crowns, Selden says, were for his three do- 

 minions of England, France, and Ireland. His 

 great seal has the crown with five leaves, and a 

 treble arch surmounted by the orb and cross. 

 The seal of Elizabeth VVidvile, his queen, has a 

 coronet composed of crosses pate and fleurs-de- 

 lis alternately, with leaser fleurs-de-lis between, 

 all somewhat raised upon points. This crown of 

 King Edward IV. is the first instance of an arched 

 crown upon the great seal.* 



Richard HI. Upon his money he has the old 

 open crown as his predecessor, and upon his great 

 seal an arched crown composed of crosses and 

 fleurs-de-lis, three crosses appearing, one in front, 

 and one at each end, and two fleurs-de-lis be- 

 tween. The arch is treble, like Edward IV. on 

 his great seal, but something more modern in the 

 fashion of the arch, which in this is broader, and 

 not so acute at tiie top. This crown of Richard 

 HI. is the first upon the great seal composed of 

 crosses and fleurs-de-lis.f 



Henry VIL The first money of this king has 

 the old open crown, with fleurs-de-lis and pearls 

 upon points between ; afterwards the crown 



* Selden, mistaking the coins of Henry VII. for 

 Henrj' VI., attributes the first use of the arched crown to- 

 Henry VI. ; but I have seen, says he, several copies of the 

 " Ordo Coronationis " of the kings ^md queens of England, 

 written much ancienter than Henry VI., and in them the 

 king sitting on his throne and crowned with the crown 

 fleuri, not without an arch, having a globe or mound with, 

 the cross on the top of it, and the draughts seem as old 

 as the copies. 



f At the coronation he offered or laid down King Ed- 

 ward's crown at St. Edward's Shrine, and put on an- 

 other. — Buck's Life of Richard III. 



