May 20. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



473 



must be borne in mind that w is a vowel in 

 Welsh, and is sounded like oo in hoot. 

 " O'i wiw wy i weu e a, a'i weau 



O'i wyau e weua ; 



E' weua ei we aia'. 



A'i weau yw ieuau ia." 



" I perish by my art ; dig my own grave ; 

 I spin my thread of life ; my death I weave." 



Thomas O'Coffey. 



SONGS OF DEGREES (ASCENTS). 



(Vol. ix., pp. 121. 376.) 



The analysis of the word fiiVysn (the steps), con- 

 fining ourselves to sensible objects, shows, first, the 

 preposition ?V, over (=up+ori) ; and, secondly, 

 n?8p, the chamber-over. (Neh. ix. 4., xii. 37. ; 

 Jos. x. 10. ; 1 Sam. ix. 11.; Am. ix. 6. ; Ps. civ. 

 13.) The translators of the authorised version, 

 in using the word " degrees," intended probably 

 to convey the notion of rank; but the modern 

 mixed-mathematical ideas lead us of this day 

 rather to think of geographical, barometrical, &c. 

 degrees. That steps is the word most accordant with 

 the ancient notions is evident from the concur- 

 rence of the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and 

 Ethiopic versions, as also from the Chaldee Tar- 

 gum, alluded to by J. R. G., which has the in- 

 scription xo'inrn ppiDO hv -i»sn&n xtp, "a 



song called ' over the steps of the deep 

 (Deut. viii. 7. ; Ex. xv. 8.). The root of this 

 word is i"6y, in the Hebrew and its cognates, and 

 the primitive notion is to ascend; from which 



is formed in Arabic ~* I -, adscendit in tectum ; in 

 Syriac "j A . \v . contignatio superior, camaculum 



( Jud. iii. 23-25. ; Luc. xxii. 12.) ; and the Chaldee 

 JVv'y, pars domus superior, cubiculum,sive camaculum 

 snperius, Grajc. wrepoiov (Dan. vi. 11.). See Shaw's 

 Itinerary, pp. 360-365. 



The £ prefixed is the participial form of the 

 verb, equivalent to the termination ing in En- 

 glish ; and converts the verb also into a verbal 

 noun, conveying the generalised idea of a class of 



actions; and thereby the steps, riv^Di"!, the step- 

 pings upward, literally, which means " the as- 

 cents," or " the ascendings." 



The ascent by fifteen steps of the rabbins is 

 probably equally apocryphal with the quotations 

 from St. Matthew and St. James (ix. p. 376.); for 

 the same reason (Ex. xx. 26.) which forbad the 

 ascending the altar by steps, would apply still 

 more strongly to the supposed " fifteen steps lead- 

 ing from the Atrium Israelis to the court of the 



women" * Although the ground-plans of the tem- 

 ples are well known, their elevations are involved 

 in doubt. 



Your journal would not afford me sufficient 

 space for an excursus to establish the suggestion, 

 not assertion, that I have adventured as to the 

 domestic use of the Alphabetic and Degree Psalms, 

 but there is negative evidence that these Psalms 

 were not used in the Jewish liturgy. I will only 

 refer you to Lightfoot's ninth volume (Pitman's 

 edition), where the Psalms used, and indeed the 

 whole service of the Jews, is as clearly set forth 

 as the Greek service is in the liturgies of Basil 

 and Chrysostom. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



THE SCREW PROPELLER. 



(Vol.ix., p. 394.) 



Anon, is clearly mistaken in thinking that, when 

 Darwin says that " the undulating motion of the 

 tail of fishes might be applied behind a boat with 

 greater effect than common oars," he had any idea 

 of a screw propeller. He meant not a rotatory, 

 but, as he says, an "undulating" motion, like that 

 of the fish's tail : such as we see every day em- 

 ployed by the boys in all our rivers and harbours, 

 called sculling — that is, driving a boat forward by 

 the rapid lateral right and left impulsion of a 

 single oar, worked from the stern of the boat. 

 It was the application of steam to some such 

 machinery as this that Darwin seems to have 

 meant ; and not to the special action of a revolving 

 cut-water screw. 



I avail myself of this occasion to record, that 

 about the date of Darwin's publication, or very 

 soon after, the very ingenious Earl Stanhope not 

 only thought of, but actually employed, the iden- 

 tical screw propeller now in use in a vessel which 

 he had fitted up for the purpose ; and in which, 

 by his invitation, I, and several other gentlemen, 

 accompanied him in various trips backwards and 

 forwards between Blackfriars and Westminster 

 bridges. The instrument was a long iron axle, 



* " Eadem ratio, ab honestate ducta, eandem pepe- 

 rerat apud Romanos legem. Gellius ex Fabio Pic- 

 tore, Noct. Attic, lib. x. c. 15., de flamine Diali: Scalas, 

 nisi qua? Graeca? adpellantur, eas adscendere ei plus 

 tribus gradibus religiosum est. Servius ad JEneid, iv. 

 646. Apud veteres, Flaminicam plus tribus gradibus, 

 nisi Graecas scalas, scandere non licebat, ne ulla pars 

 pedum ejus, crurumve subter conspiceretur ; eoque nee 

 pluribus gradibus, sed tribus tit adscensu duplices 

 nisus non paterentur adtolli vestem, aut nudari crura ; 

 nam ideo et scalar Gra?caj dicuntur, quia ita fabri- 

 cantur ut omni ex parte compagine tabularum clausa; 

 sint, ne adspectum ad corporis aliquam partem admit- 

 tant." — Rosenmiiller on Exod. xx. 26. The ascent 

 to the altar, fifteen feet high, was by a gangway, &22- 



