Aug, 17. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



187 



Speaking of Drumana, on the Blackwater, a little 

 above Youghall, as the " reputed birth-place of 

 the long-lived Countess of Desmond," he says, — 



" In this part of the country, lier death is attributed 

 to a fall whilst in the act of picking an apple from a 

 tree in an orchard at Drumana." 



In the Olla Podrida, a volume of miscellanies, 

 printed for private distribution, by !Mr. Sainthill 

 of Cork, there is a portrait of the " old countess," 

 from an etching made by Mr. Crofton Croker (if I 

 mistake not) in his early days. J. M. B. 



Michael Servetus, alias Reves. — The manuscript, 

 the character and fate of which S. H. (Vol. ii., 

 p. 153.) is anxious to investigate, contained 

 books iii.-vii., inclusive, of the work of Servetus 

 De Trinitate ; and as these fragments differed 

 somewhat from the printed text, they were pro- 

 bably the first, or an early, draft (not neces- 

 sarily in the author's handwriting) of part of the 

 Christianismi Restitutio. The purchaser of this 

 MS., at the sale of Du Fay's library in Paris in 

 the year 1725, was the Count de Hoym, ambassador 

 to France from Poland. I beg to refer your cor- 

 respondent to pp. 214-18. of the Historia Michaelis 

 Seroeti, hj Ilenr. ab Alhvoerden, published with 

 Mosheim's approbation, Hehnstad. 1728. 



Both a "Note" and a "Query" might be 

 founded on a memorable passage in the fifth book 

 De Trinitate, in which Servetus, long before Hai'- 

 vey, explains the circulation of the blood. R. G. 



CaxtorHs Printing-office (Vol. ii., pp. 99. 122. 

 142.). — It is a pity Mr. Nichols did not take 

 the trouble to see, and, having seen, to notice in 

 his first communication, that Abbot Islip was 

 mentioned in the passage from Stow's Survey cited 

 by Mr. Rimbault. As that gentleman quotes 

 from, I believe, the second edition of the Survey, 

 I may be allowed to doubt, until it is clearly 

 shown, that " Islip's name has been introduced 

 by the error of some subsequent writer." But 

 supposing this to be so, it would in no way affect 

 the only question which is material. Who was 

 Caxton's j)atron'f nor touch the accuracy of the 

 Life of Caiton, which Mr. Nicuoi.s seems de- 

 sirous of impeaching. I am anxious to point this 

 out, because I ii;el it right to vindicate to the ut- 

 most, where they deserve it, useful works, which, 

 like the little volume I am writing of, are pub- 

 lished at a price that ensures for them a circulation 

 of almost unlimited extent. Ahun. 



Somagin (Vol. ii., p. 120.). — This is the plural 

 of "soniagium," "sumin:igiuni," and means " horse- 

 loads." It is a word frequently l()und in docu- 

 ments relating to agrarian matters, and may 

 signily the load packed upon the horse's back 

 (wlienco the name "' .sumpter-horse "), or in a cart 

 drawn by u horse. JIr. Sansom will find a full 



explanation of the derivatives of its root, " sagma," 

 at p. 50., vol. vii., of Ducange. J. Bt. 



Various Modes of Interment among the Ancients 

 (Vol ii., pp. 8, 9. 22. 41. 78.).— In modes of inter- 

 ment some nations have been distinguished by 

 an idiosyncrasy almost incredible from their in- 

 humanity. 



" Barca;!, populi inter Colchos et Iberos morbo 

 absumptos igni coml)urebant, sed qui in belle fortiter 

 occubuissent, honoris gratia vulturibus devorandos 

 ol)jiclebant." — iElian. Hist. Anim. lib. x. "In 

 Hyrcania (refert Cicero in Tusc. Qumst. lib. i. 45.) 

 all canes solitos fuisse, a qulbus delaniarentur mortui, 

 eamque optimam Hyrcanos censuisse sepulturam." — 

 Kirclimannus de Funer. Romanorum. 



The appendix to this work may be consulted for 

 this, and yet greater violations of the law of nature 

 and nations. 



" Apud saniores barbaros ab animalibus discerpi 

 cadavera foedum semper ac miserabile credltum fuit. 

 Foetus abortivi feris alitibusque exponebantur in mon- 

 tibus aut locls aliis inaccessis, quin et ipsi infantes, &c. 

 Fuit htEC Asinina sepultura pcena Tyrannorum ac 

 perduellium. (Spondan. de Ccemet. S. pp. 367. 387. et 

 seqq.) Quam et victoruni insolentia odiumque vulgi 

 implacabile in hostes non raro exercuit." — Ursinus, 

 Arbor. Biblicum, 



Hyde accounts for the Persians who embraced 

 the religion of the Magi not having adopted the 

 two contrivances of corporal dissolution prevalent 

 among civilised nations — cremation or burning, and 

 simple inhumation — by the superstitious reverence 

 with which they regarded the four elements. Sir 

 T. Browne remarks that similar superstitions may 

 have had the same effect among other nations. 



Of the post-mortem jmnishments described by 

 Ducange, the former was the customary sepulture 

 of the Trogloditaj ; the latter corresponds with the 

 rite of some of the Scythians recorded by Statius : 

 " At gente in Scythica sutTixa cadavera truncis, 

 Lenta dies sepelit putri liquentia tabo." 



I shall be obliged if you or a correspondent dis - 

 posed " not only to teach but to communicate," will 

 kindly throw light on a passage, relating to the 

 Trogloditic, in Strabo, book xvi., where he relates, 

 " Capraj cornu mortuis saxorum cumulo coopertis 

 fuisse superimpositum." T. J. 



Gui/s Porridge-pot (Vol. ii., p. 53.}. — Your cor- 

 respoiulent is quite correct, when he s.ays "neither 

 the armour nor pot belonged to the noble Guy." 

 lie would have been a guy if he had worn the ar- 

 mour, seeing that it was made for a horse, and not 

 for a man. 



What the stout old lady who showed us the 

 "relics of old Guy" in 1847 called " Guy's breast- 

 plate," and sometimes his iichnet ! is the "croupe" 

 of a suit of horse armour, and " another breast- 

 plate "a " poitrel." His porridge-pot is a garrison 



