Oct. 26. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



365 



extinguat . . . . et oiuni flagrante materia uiio igne 

 quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet, ardebit." 



Id. Natural Queest. iii. 28. : — 



" Qua ratione inquis? Eadem qua conflagratio 

 futura est .... Aqua et ignis terrenis dominantur. 

 Ex his ortus et ex his interitus est," etc. 



There are also the Sybilline verses (quoted by 

 Lactaiitias de Ira Dei, cap. xxiii.) : — 



" Kaf TTOTt TT);' opy^v Bihf ovK In ■wpavvovTa, 

 'AKK' e^ffi§pi6ovTa, Kal e^oKvufTO. re yevfav 

 'AvBpwTTwi', anaOdV inr' ifji.irpr]rTiJiov 7tip9ovTa." 



Plato has a similar passage in his Timceus ; and 

 many others are quoted by Matthew Pole in his 

 Synopsis Criticorum Script. SacrcB Interpretum; 

 on 2 Pet. iii. 6. 10. ; to wliich I beg to refer Mr. 

 Sansom ; and also to Burnet's Sacred Theory of 

 the Earth, book iii. ch. 3. T. H. Keksley. 



King William's College, Isle of Man. 



Combs buried with the Dead (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 

 269.). — On reference to Sir Thomas Browne's 

 Hydriotaphia, I tir.d two passages which may siqj- 

 ply the information your correspondent seeks as 

 to the reason for combs being buried with human 

 remains. In section i., pp. 26, 27. (I quote from 

 the Edinburgh reprint of 1822, published by 

 Biackwoodj the author says : 



" In a field of Old Walsingham, not many months 

 past (1658), were digged up between forty and fifty 

 urns, deposited in a dry and sandy soil, not a yard 

 deep, not far from one another, not all strlckly of one 

 figure, but most answering thc'se described ; some con- 

 taining two pounds of bones, distinguishable in skulls, 

 ribs, jaws, thigh-bones, and teeth, with fresh impres- 

 sions of their combustion, besides extraneous substances, 

 like pieces of small boxes,- or coinhs, handsomely 

 wrought, handles of small brass instruments, brazen 

 nippers, and in one some kind of opale." 



And again he says (pp. 36, 37.) : 



" From exility of bones, thinness of skulls, sniallness 

 of teelh, ribs, and thigh-bones, not impiubable that 

 many thereof were persons of minor age, or women. 

 ConHrmabIc also from things cont.aintd in them. In 

 most were found substances resembling combs, plates 

 like boxes, fastened with iron pins, and handsomely 

 overwrought like the necks or bridges of musical in- 

 struments, long brass plates overwrought like tlie han- 

 dles of neat inqjlements, brazen iii/ipers to pull uwny 

 hair, and inonca kind of opale, yet maintaining abluish 

 colour. 



*' Now that they accustomed to burn or bury with 

 them tilings wherein they excelled, delighted, or which 

 were dear unto them, either as farewells unto all 

 pleasure, or vain apprehension that they might use 

 them in the other world, is testified by all antiquity." 



The instances which he appends relate only to 

 the Pagan period, and lie does not appear to have 

 known that a similar practice |)revailed in the 

 Hcpulturc of Christians — if, indeed, such u cus- 



tom was general, and not confined to the particular 

 case mentioned by your correspondent. 



J. H. P. Leresche. 



The Norfolk Dialect (Vol. ii., p. 217.). — 



Mauther. — A word peculiar to East Anglia, ap- 

 plied to a girl just giown up, or approaching to 

 womanhood. 



" Ipse eodem agro [Norfolcionsi] ortus, a Dan, 

 moer," virgo, puella, " deflectit." — Spelman. 



Spelnian assures us, in endeavouring to rescue 

 the word from the contempt into which it had 

 fallen, that it was applied by our very early an- 

 cestors, even to the noble virgins who were selected 

 to sing the praises of heroes ; they were called 

 scald-moers, q. d. singing mauthers ! 



'•En quantum in spreta jam voce antiquee gloria." 



" Ray spells the word mothther. 

 " P. I am a mother that do want a service. 

 '■ Qu. O thou'rt a Norfolk woman (cry thee mercy), 

 Where maids are mothers, and mothers are 

 maids." — R. Brome's Engl. Moor, iii. 1. 



It is written also madder. 



"What! will Phillis then consume her youth as an 



ankresse. 

 Scorning daintie Venus? Will Phillis be a modder. 

 And not care to be call'd by the deare-sweete name 



of a mother?" — A. Fraunce's Ivi/ Church, A. 4. b. 



" Away I you talk like a foolish mauther" — 

 savs Restive to Dame Pliant in Ben Jonson. Al- 

 chemist, IV. 7. So Richard says to Kate, in 

 Bloomfeld's Suffolk ballad : — 



" When once a giggling mawther you. 

 And I a red- faced chubby boy." 



Rural' Tales, 1802, p. 5. 



Perhaps it is derived from the German'magb 

 with the termination een or -den added, as in the 

 Lincolnshire dialect, hee-der, and shee-der, denote 

 the male and female sex. 



Gotsch. — A jiig or pitcher with one ear or 

 handle. Forhy thinks it may be derived from the 

 Italian gozzo, a throat. 



Hall. — From the Saxon holh. German l)o{)lc, a 

 ditch. 



^«a«.'=:IIow ! what say you? Perhaps an in- 

 vitation to come near, in order to be better heard, 

 from the Saxon nean, near. Vid. Brockett's, — 

 Jennings, and \Vilbraham's Chesh. Glossaries. 



2o be Muddled. — That is, confused, perjjlexed, 

 tired. Doubtless from the idea of thickness, want 

 of clearness; so, muddy is used for a state of 

 inebriety. 



Together. — In Low Scotch, thegether, seemingly, 

 but not really, an adverb, converted to a noun, and 

 used in familiarly addressing a number of j)ersons 

 collectively. Forby considers to and the article 

 the identical; asto-dav, to-night, in Low Scotch, the 

 day, the night, are in i'act, this day, this night ; so 



