Skpt. 28. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



277 



back. The reader who has it may see pp. 339. 

 385. 461-2. 472. 483. 498. of the second volume. 



In Dr. Maitlaud's Dark Ages, p. 229. seq. note, 

 a gross blunder is pointed out. 



See too the Ge idle mail s Magazine, July, 1839, 

 p. 49. 



Dr. Maitland, in his Facts and Documents re- 

 lating to the ancient Albigenses awl Waldenses, 

 p. 217. note, corrects an error respecting the 

 Book of Sentences, 



" Gibbon, speaking of this Book of Sentences, in a 

 note on his 5tth chapter, says, ' Of a list of criminals 

 which fills nineteen folio paiies, only fifteen men 

 and four women were delivered to the secular arm.' 

 Vol. V. p. 535. I believe he should h ive said thirly- 

 tivi) men and eiglU women ; and imagine that he was 

 misled by the fact that the index-maker most com- 

 monly (but by no means always) states the nature of 

 the sentence passed on each person. From the book, 

 however, it appears that forty persons were so delivered, 

 viz., twenty-nine Albigenses, seven Waldenses, and 

 four Beguins." 



The following mistake was pointed out by the 

 learned Cork correspondent of the Gentleman's 

 Magazine, I think in 1838; it lias misled the 

 writer of the article " Aiiicius," in Smitli's Dic- 

 tiomiry of Ancient Biogruphy, and is not corrected 

 by Mr. Milniau (Gibbon, chap. xxxi. note 14 and 

 text) : — 



" During the first five ages, the name of the Anicians 

 was unknown. The earliest date in the annals of 

 Pighius is that of M. Anicius Gallus, Tr. Plebis 

 A. u. c. 506. Another Tribune, Q. Anicius, a. u. c. 

 508, is distinguished by the epithet Prsnestinus." 



We learn from Pliny, H. N. xxxiii. 6., that Q. 

 Anicius Pratnestinus was the colleague as curule 

 a-'dile of Flavius, the famous scriba of Appius 

 Cujcur!, B. c. 304, A. u. c. 4o0. (See Fischer, if o/rt. 

 Zeitixifeln, p. 61-2.) Pliny's words are — 



"[Flavins] tantam gratiam plebis adeptus est .... 

 ut ajdiiis curulis crearetur cum Q^ .\nicio Prajnestino." 



Gibbon's chapter on Mahomet seems to be 

 particularly superficial ; it is to be hoped that a 

 future editor will correct it by the aid of Von 

 Ilaunner's labours. J. E. iJ. ^Iayor. 



Marlborough College. 



iHtiiar JluteS. 



" Ochlfli/s History of the Saracens" and unau- 

 thentic Woriis. — At th(! end of a late edition of 

 Wilshington Irviiig's Life of Mahomet, those "who 

 feel iiiclnied to [)eruse further details of the life of 

 Mahomet, or to ])ursue the course of Saracenic 

 hi.story," are referred to Ochley. Students siioidd 

 be aware of the character of the hi.sti)ries they 

 peruse. And it ajjpears, from a note in llallain's 

 Middle Ages (vol. ii. j). IGH.), tiiat Wakidi, from 

 whom Ockley translated his work, was a " mere 



fabulist," as Reiske observes, in his preface to 

 Abulfeda. 



Query, AVould it not be well, if some of your 

 more learned correspondents would communicate 

 to students, through the medium of " Notes and 

 Queries," a list of such books as are genuine but 

 not authentic; and authentic but not genuine, or 

 altogether spurious ? or would point out the 

 sources from which such information can be ob- 

 tained ? P. H. F. 



The Hippopotamus. — Your correspondent L. 

 (Vol. ii., p. 33.) sa} s, " None of the Greek writers 

 appear to have seen a live hippopotamus:" and 

 again, " The hippopotamus, being an inhabitant of 

 the Upper Nile, was imperfectly known to the 

 ancients." Herodotus says (ii. 71.) that this animal 

 was held sacred by the Nomos of Papremis, but 

 not by the other Egyptians. The city of Papremis 

 is fixed by Biihr in the west of the Delta (ad ii. 

 63.) ; and Mannert conjectured it to be the same 

 as the later Xoi's, lying between the Sebennytic 

 and Canopic branches, but nearer to the former. 

 Sir Gardner Wilkinson says, several representa- 

 tions of the hippopotamus were found at Thebes, 

 one of which he gives {Egyptians, vol. iii. pi. xv.). 

 Herodotus' way of speaking would seem to show 

 that he was describing from his own observation : 

 he used Hecatseus, no doubt, but did not blindly 

 copy him. Hence, I think, we may infer that 

 Herodotus himself saw the hippopotamus, and that 

 this animal was found, in his day, even as tar north 

 as the Delta : and also, that the species is gradually 

 dying out, as the aurochs is nearly gone, and the 

 dodo cpiite. The crocodile is no longer found in 

 the Delta. E. S. Jackson. 



America. — The probability of a short western 

 passage to India is mentioned in Aristotle de 

 Ccelo, ii., near the end. F. Q. 



PascaTs Lettres Provinciales. — I take the liberty 

 of forwarding to you the following " Note," sug- 

 gested by two curious blunders which fell under 

 my notice some time ago. 



In ^Ir. Stamp's reprint of the Rev. C. Elliott's 

 Delineation of Homanisni (London, 8vo. 1844), I 

 find (p. 471., in note) a long pariigraph ou Pascal's 

 Lettres Procinciules : — 



" This exquisite production," says the English editor, 

 " is nccompanied, in some editions of it, with the learned 

 and Judicious oliservntions of Nicole, who, under the fic- 

 titious name of Guillaume Wendrock, lias fully demon- 

 strated the trutlis of those facts which Pascal liad 

 advanced without quoting his authorities; and has 

 ])lace(l, in a full and striking light, several iiiteresling 

 circumstances which that great man had treated with 

 ])erhaps too much brevity. Tliese letters .... were 

 translnti'd into l.nlin by Ii •clwlius. 



From IMr. Stamp's remarks the reader is led to 

 conclude that the text of the Lettres Provinciales 



