JAN. 26. 1850. ] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
195 
place it in the palm of their left hand, when it was 
invoked as follows :— 
«“ Pan, PAn, mourtre mé ten sang, 
Et j’ te dotirai de bouan vin blianc!” 
which means, being-interpreted, 
“ Pan, PAn, show me thy blood, 
And I will give thee good white wine !” 
As he uttered the charm, the juvenile pontiff spat 
on poor Thammuz, till a torrent of blood, or 
what seemed such, “ran purple” over the urchin’s 
fingers, 
Paul-Ernest Jablonski’s numerous readers need 
not be told that the said beetle is an Egyptian 
emblem of the everlasting and universal soul, and 
that its temple is the equinoctial circle, the upper 
hemisphere.* 
As a solar emblem, it offers an instructive object 
of inquiry to the judicious gleaners of the old 
world’s fascinating nursery traditions. Sicilian 
Diodorus tells us that the Earth’s lover, Attis (or 
Adonis), after his resuscitation, acquired the di- 
vine title of Paran.f To hazard the inoffensive 
query, why one of our commonest great beetles is 
still allowed to figure under so distinguished a 
name, will therefore reflect no discredit upon a 
cautious student of nearly threescore years. ‘The 
very Welsh talked, in William Baxter’s time, of 
* Heaven, as bugarth raran,” the sun’s ox-stall or 
resting-place; and here you likewise find his 
beetle-majesty, in a Low-Norman collection of 
insular rhymes : — 
“ Sus l’bord piasottaient, céte-a-cdte, 
Les équerbots et les Parans, 
Et ratte et rat laissaient leux erotte 
Sus les vieilles casses et méme dedans,” $ 
By the help of Horapollo, Chiflet’s gnostic gems, 
and other repertories of the same class, one might, 
peradventure, make a tolerable case in favour of 
the mythological identity of the legend of Lady- 
bird — that is, the sun-chafer, or barn-bie, the fire- 
Jiu, “ whose house is burnt, and whose bairns are 
ten,” of course the first ten days of the Egyptian 
year § — with the mythical stories of the said black 
or dark blue lords of radiance, /’an and Papan. 
The Egyptians revere the beetle as a living and 
breathing image of the sun, quoth Porphyry || 
That will account for tiis restless delver’s extra- 
ordinary talismanic renown. [ think the lady-bird 
is “ the speckled beetle” which was flung in hot 
water to avert storms.§ Pignorius gives us the 
figure of a beetle, crowned with the sun, and en- 
* Pantheon Agypt. tom. 1. p. 63. 
+ Diodor. Sic. Biblioth. p. 134. 
¢ Rimes Guernesiaises, p. 4. 
§ Or the Dog-days. Each sign has three Decans, 
or captains of ten. 
|| Porphyr. apud Euseb. Prep. iii. 4. 
{ Plin. Nat. Hist. Tib. 37. cap. 10. 
circled with the serpent of eternity ; while another, 
an onyx in the collection of Abraham Gorleus, 
threatens to gnaw at a thunderbolt.* 
Reuven’s book on the Egyptian Museum, which 
I have not seen, notices an invocation to “the 
winged beetle, the monarch (tupavyvos) of mid= 
heaven,” concluding with a devout wish that some 
poor creature “may be dashed to pieces.” 
Can any of your readers inform me what is 
meant by “the blood of the Phuén ?” 
< Yours truly, ? 
St. Martin’s, Guernsey, Jan. 9, 1850. 
EXTRACTS FROM CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS OF 
ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER — WEIGHT OF 
BELLS IN ANCIENT TIMES — HISTORY OF A ROOD=- 
LOFT. 
I send you a few Notes, collected out of the 
Churchwardens’ Accounts of St. Margaret’s, 
Westminster. 
Istly. Some regarding the weight of bells in 
ancient days : — 
“1526. The first bell weith - - : ececctb, 
The second bell weith - - ececcexxjtb, 
The third bell weith - - ixC vjlb, 
The fourthe bell weith =< - M. xtb. 
The fyfthe belonging to our grete Lady Bre- 
therhed - - > MvjC xiiijlb. 
The sume of all the weight - mmmmvirC ub. 
“©1592. The broken Tennor waied - - xvjC xxjib. 
The new tennor ys - - - xiljC di 
The greatist bell ys xxjC and diat lvjs. the C. 
The itij bell ys - xvijC and di and xiiijtb. 
The xiiij bell taken awaie was - xiijC di 
The ij bell carried awaie was _viijC iij qters: 
The new bell - - = = viijC di, 
Som totall of the bells, yron, tymber, and work- 
manshipp _- - - Ixxvi. vs. vd.” 
This appears to have been a sorry bargain, for 
soon after occur sad a of these bells, 
“very falsly and deceytfully made by Valentyne 
Trever.” Perhaps your correspondent “ Cepnas” 
may explain the following entry : — 
“1486. Item, paid for makyng of a newe clapper to 
Judas bell + - - * - xd.” 
Qndly. Some entries, which make up a little 
history of a rood-loft :— 
«1460. Item, sol’ pro le skoryng de la belles sup’ le 
Rode lofte - - ” - - iiijd. 
“1480, Item, paide for a doore in the rode lofte to 
save and kepe the peple from the Orgayns 
. xijd, 
Item, paide to a carpynter for makyng of the 
Crucyfix and the beme He standeth upon xls. 
nn EEEEnREReREeennnnenenemneneamnemn 
* Chiflet, p. 139. A genuine cockroach, and a 
formidable one, 1 think the English word of Spanish 
origin. 
