July 13. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



109 



metan Arabians vie for a root in calculation, meaning 

 Alexander, as that great dictator of knowledge, Joseph 

 Scaliger (with some ancients) wills, but, by warranted 

 opinion of my learned friend Mr. Lydyat, in bis Emen- 

 datio Temporutn, it began in Seleuciis A7canor, XII 

 yeares after Ahirawler's death. The name was ap- 

 plyed, either because after time that Alexander had 

 persuaded himself to he Jupiter Hmnmon's sonne, whose 

 statue was with Ram's homes, both his owne and his 

 successors' coins were stanipt with horned images : or 

 else in respect of his II pillars erected in the East as 

 a Nihil ultra* of his conquest, and some say because 

 hee had in power the Easterne and Westerne World, 

 signified in the two homes. But howsoever, it well fits 

 the passage, either, as if hee had personated Creseide at 

 the entrance of two wayes, not knowing which to take ; 

 in like sense as that of Prodiciis his Hercules, Pytha- 

 goras his v., or the Logicians Dilemma expresse ; or 

 else, which is the truth of his conceit, that hee was at 

 a nonplus, as the interpretation in his next stafTe makes 

 plaine. How many of noble Chaucer's readers never 

 so much as suspect this bis short essay of knowledge, 

 transcending the common Rode? And by his treatise 

 of the Astrolaf'e (which, I dare sweare, was cliiefly 

 learniid out of Messahalah) it is plaine hee was much 

 acquainted with the mathematiques, and amongst their 

 authors had it." 



D" H-ii-balot says : 



" Dlioul (or Dhu) carmni, with the two horns, is the 

 surname of Alexmider, that is, of an ancient and fabulous 

 Alexander of the first dynasty of the Persians. 795. 

 Article Sedd, Tagioug and IMagioug. 993. Article 

 Khedher. 395. b. 335. b. Fael. 



" But 317. Escander, he says, .\lexander the Great 

 has the same title secondarily. The truth probably is 

 the reverse, that the fabulous personage was taken from 

 the real conqueror. 



'■ Hafniann, in Seleucus, says that the area of Se- 

 leucus is called Terik Dhylkarnain, i. e. Epocha Alex- 

 andri Cornigen. Tarik means probably the date of an 

 event." 



There can be no doubt that the word in Chaucer 

 i.s tills Arabic word ; nor, I tliink, tiiat Speglit's 

 story i.s really taught by the Arabs, our teachers 

 ill niatheinatii'.s. Wiiether the application is from 

 Alexander, (they would know notliing of his date 

 with reganl to Pythagoras), or merely from two- 

 horned, is doubtful. The latter might possibly 

 mean the o.'c. 



Mr. Ilalliwell gives a (piotation from Stanylmrst, 

 in wiiicii it means "dull i)ersons" — an obvious 

 uiinuse of it for Englishmen, and which Skene for- 

 tifies by an A.-S. derivation, but wliii^h i.s clearly 

 not Cressida's meaning, or she woidd have said, 

 "I am Diilcarnon," not "I am at Dulcarnon:" 

 an I so Mrs. Roper. 



It may seem dillicult what Pandarus can mean : 



• (^bristman, Comment, in Alfrnf/nn, cap. ii. Lysitnitchi 

 Cornuuni apud C.'ael. l{liodi;^iii. Antiq. kct. 10. cap. xii., 

 hie genuina interpretatlo. 



" Dulcarnon clepid is fleming of wretches, 

 It semith hard, for wretcliis wol nought lere 

 For very slouthe, or otlor wllfull tetches. 

 This said is by them that ben't worth two fetches, 

 But ye ben wise." 



Whether he means that wretches call '\i fleming or 

 not, his argument is, " You are not a wretch." 

 Speght's derivation seems to mean, "Quod stultos 

 vertit." Fleamas, A.-S. (Lye), \sfuga,fugacio, from 

 flean, to flee. Pandaru-s, I think, does not mean 

 to give the derivation of the word, but its applica- 

 tion of ibols, a stumbling-block, or puzzle. C. B. 



Dr. Maginn. — The best account of this most 

 talented but unfortunate man, is given in the 

 Dublin Uiiioersiti) Mag., vol. xxiii. p. 72. A re- 

 print of this article, with such additional particu- 

 lars of his numerous and dispersed productions as 

 might be supplied, would form a most acceptable 

 volume. F. K. A. 



America known to the Ancients. — To the list of 

 authorities on this subject given in Vol. i., p. 342., 

 I have the pleasure to add Father Lafiitjau ; 

 Bossu*, in his Travels thi-ovgh Louisiana; and 

 though last, not least, Acosta, who in his Naturall 

 and Morall Hi.storie of the East and West Indies, 

 translated by E. G.[riinestone], 1604, 4to., devotes 

 eighty-one pages to a review of the oi)inions of the 

 ancients on the new world. 



The similarity which has been observed to exist 

 between the manners of several American nations, 

 and those of some of the oldest nations on our 

 continent, which seems to demonstrate that this 

 country was not unknown in ancient times, has 

 been traced by Nicholls, in the first part of his 

 Conference with a Theis^, in several particulars, 

 viz. burning of the victim in sacrifices, numbering 

 by tens, fighting with bows and arrows, their arts 

 of spinning, weaving, &c. The arguments, mul- 

 titudinous as they are, adduced by Adair for his 

 hypothesis that the American Indians are descend- 

 ed from the Jews, serve to prove that the knovvn 

 or old world furnished the new one with men. To 

 these may be added the coincidences noticed m 

 " Notes and Queries ;" burning the dead (Vol. i., 

 p 308.) ; the art of manufacturing glass (p. 341.) ; 

 scalping (Vol. ii., p. 78.). Your correspondents will 

 doubtless be able to point out other instances. Be- 

 sides drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, 

 recorded of the Scythians by Herodotus ; and of 

 the savages of Louisiana by Bossu ; I beg to men- 

 tion a remarkable one furnished by Catlin — the 

 sud'erings endured by the youths among the JMan- 

 dans, when admitted into the rank of warriors, 



• Forster. the translator of this work, annihilates 

 the argument for the settlement of the Welsh derived 

 from the word •'penguin" signifying "white head," 

 by the fact of the bird in (piestion liavmg a blach, not a 

 white heail ! 



