560 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 242. 



echo is wafted back from the shores of Columbia. 

 The cause is common, and the struggle must be com- 

 mon too. ' We are coming, brother John, we are 

 coming,' is the noble reply ; and, almost ere it is de- 

 livered, a fleet of gallant vessels is crossing the Pacific, 

 with the stars and stripes gleaming on every mast. 

 Another force is on its way from the far south, and 

 soon the flower and strength of Anglo-Saxon race 

 meet on the sacred soil of Palestine. The intelligence 

 of their approach reaches the sacrilegious usurper, and 

 he leads forth his army towards the mountains that rise 

 in glory round about Jerusalem. The Jews within the 

 city now arm themselves, and join the army that has 

 come from the east and west, the north and south, for 

 their protection : and thus these two mighty masses meet 

 face to face, and prepare for the greatest physical battle 

 that ever was fought on this struggling earth. On the 

 one side the motley millions of Russia, and the nations 

 of Continental Europe, are drawn up on the slopes of 

 the hills, and the sides of the valleys toward the north ; 

 while, on the other, are ranged the thousands of 

 Britain and her offspring ; from whose firm and regular 

 ranks gleam forth the dark eyes of many of the sons of 

 Abraham, determined to preserve their newly recovered 

 city or perish, like their ancestors of a former age, in 

 its ruins. 



" All is ready. That awful pause, which takes place 

 before the shock of battle, reigns around ; but ere it is 

 broken by the clash of meeting arms, and while yet the 

 contending parties are at a little distance from each 

 other, a strange sound is heard over head. The time 

 for the visible manifestation of God's vengeance has 

 arrived, his fury has come up in his face, and He calls 

 for a sword against Gog throughout all the mountains. 

 'Tis this voice of the Lord that breaks the solemn 

 stillness, and startles the assembled hosts. The scene 

 that follows baffles description. Amid earthquakes 

 and showers of fire, the bewildered and maddened 

 armies of the autocrat rush, sword in hand, against 

 each other, while the Israelites and their Anglo-Saxon 

 friends gaze on the spectacle with amazement and con- 

 sternation. It does not appear that they will even lift 

 their hand against that foe which they had come so far 

 to meet. Their aid is not necessary to accomplish the 

 destruction of the image. The stone, cut without 

 hands, shall fall on its feet and break them to pieces ; 

 and then shall the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, 

 and the gold, become like the chaff of the summer 

 threshing-floor, and the wind shall carry them away. 

 The various descriptions which we have of this battle, 

 all intimate that God is the only foe that shall contend 

 with the autocrat at Armageddon. John terms it, 

 •the battle of that great day of God Almighty;' and 

 we believe the principal instrument of their defeat will 

 be mutual slaughter. The carnage will be dreadful. 

 Out of all the millions that came like a cloud upon the 

 land of Israel, only a scattered and shattered remnant 

 will return ; the great mass will be left to • cleanse the 

 land,' and fill the valley of Hamongog with graves." 



I refrain from quoting the remarks made by 

 Napoleon, at St. Helena, respecting Russia, and 

 the likelihood of lier ultimately subjugating 

 Western Europe, as your readers must be familiar 



with them from the writings of O'Meara and 

 others. Henry H. Breen. 



St. Lucia. 



DERIVATION OF THE WORD " BIGOT." 



At p. 80. of Mr. Trench's admirable little 

 volume On the Study of Words, an etymology is 

 assigned to the word bigot, which is, I think, 

 clearly erroneous : 



" Two explanations of it are current," writes Mr. 

 Trench, " one of which traces it up to the early Nor- 

 mans, while they yet retained their northern tongue, 

 and to their often adjuration by the name of God ; with 

 sometimes a reference to a famous scene in French 

 history, in which Rollo, Duke of Normandy, played a 

 conspicuous part : the other puts it in connexion with 

 beguines, called often in Latin beguttce, a name by which 

 certain communities of pietist women were known in 

 the Middle Ages." 



I agree with Mr. Trench in thinking, that neither 

 of these derivations is the correct one. But I am 

 obliged, quite as decidedly, to reject that which 

 he proceeds to offer. He thinks that we owe — 



" Bigot rather to that profound impression which the 

 Spaniards made upon all Europe in the fifteenth and 

 the following century. Now the word bigote," he con- 

 tinues, " means in Spanish ' moustachio ; ' and as con- 

 trasted with the smooth, or nearly smooth, upper lip 

 of most other people, at that time the Spaniards were 

 the 'men of the moustachio' . . . That they them- 

 selves connected firmness and resolution with the mus- 

 tachio ; that it was esteemed the outward symbol of 

 these, it is plain from such phrases as ' pombre de 

 bigote,' a man of resolution ; ' tener bigotes,' to stand 

 firm. But that in which they eminently displayed 

 their firmness and resolution in those days was their 

 adherence to whatever the Roman see imposed and 

 taught. What then more natural, or more entirely 

 according to the law of the generation of names, than 

 that this striking and distinguishing outward feature 

 of the Spaniard should have been laid hold of to 

 express that character and condition of mind which 

 eminently were his, and then transferred to all others 

 who shared the same?" 



Of this it must be admitted, that "se non e 

 vero, e ben trovato." And the only reason for 

 rejecting such an etymology is the existence of 

 another with superior claims. 



Bigot is derived, as I think will be hardly 

 doubted on consideration, from theltalian bigio, 

 grey. Various religious confraternities, and espe- 

 cially a branch of the order of St. Francis which, 

 from being parcel secular and parcel regular, was 

 called " Terziari di S. Francesco," clothed them- 

 selves in grey ; and from thence were called Bi- 

 giocchi and Bigiotii. And from a very early 

 period, the word was used in a bad sense. 



