Mar. 2. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
281 
title will do for your correspondent “E. V.” 
(No. 15. p. 230.), please to communicate it to 
him : — 
«“ Mannert, K., de Numerorum, quos arabicos voc., 
vera origine pythagorico; e. fig. aen. 8vo. Nurnberg, 
1801.” 
Oscar Heun 
Cambridge, Feb. 11. 1850. 
Arabic Numerals (No. 15. p. 230 ).— Your 
correspondent should consult Peacock’s “ History 
of Arithmetic” in the E'xcyclopedia Metropolitana; 
and, if he can get them, the notes to Chasles’ 
Apergu Historique des Méthodes en Géométrie, 
and various papers of Mr. Chasles, published in 
the Comptes Rendus of the French Institute. He 
may perhaps find some information in De Morgan’s 
Arithmetical Books, particularly at p. 14. M. 
THE FRATERNITY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE— 
CHAUCER'S NIGHT CHARM. 
In a little work by Costanzi, entitled Le Isti 
tuzioni di Pieta che si esercitano in Roma, &c , and 
published a.p. 1825, in Rome, where the schools 
under the management of that brotherhood are in 
great favour, “C.F. S.” will find much to interest 
him on the subject, though not exactly in the 
order in which he has put his queries (No. 14. 
p- 214.), nor to their full extent. 
Mr. Thoms, to whom English medieval lite- 
rature is so much beholden, asks very earnestly 
for some information about “the white Pater- 
noster” and “seynte Petres soster,” (No. 15. 
p- 229.) Perhaps the following guesses may not 
bejwithout use. First, then, about the “ white 
Paternoster :” — 
Henry Parker, a Carmelite friar of Doncaster, 
who wrote his admirable Compendiouse Treatyse, 
or Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, during the reign 
of Edward LV., speaking against superstitions, and 
especially “craftes and conjurations with holy 
prayers,” says : — 
“ They that use holy wordes of the gospel, Pater 
noster, Ave, or Crede, or holy prayers in theyr 
wytchecraftes, for charmes or coniurations — they 
make a full hye sacrifice to the fende. It hath oft 
ben knowen, that wytches with sayenge of their Pater 
noster and droppynge of the holy candell in a man’s 
steppes that they hated, hath done his fete rotten of. 
Di. What shuld the Pater noster, and the holy candell 
do therto? Pau Ryght nought. But for the wytche 
worshyppeth the fende so highly with the holy prayers, 
and with the holy candell, and used suche holy thinges 
in despyte of God: therfore is the fende redy to do 
the wytche’s wylle and to fulfyll thinges that they 
done it for. ‘The Fyrst Command,’ cap, xxxvy. fol. 52. 
Imprynted by T. Berthelet, 1536. 12™9.” 
That the Pater noster used sometimes to be 
said with the wicked design of working ill to 
individuals, and by those who were deemed 
witches, is clear from the above extract : may not, 
then, this “wytche’s” Pater noster be the “white” 
Pater noster, against which the night-spell in 
Chaucer was employed? ‘ Wyche” may easily 
be imagined to have glided into “ white.” 
““Seynte Petres soster,” I suspect has a refe- 
rence to St Petronilla’s legend. St. Petronilla, 
among our forefathers, was called St. Pernell, and 
The Golden Legend imprinted 1527, by Wynkyn 
de Word, tells us, fol. exxxi. b., that she “ was 
doughter of siynt peter thappostle, whiche was 
ryght fayre and bewteous, and by the wyll of 
her fader she was vexed with fevers and akes.” 
For a long while she lay bed-ridden. From the 
name of this saint, who went through so many 
years of her life in sickness, perhaps was borrowed 
the word “pernell,” to mean a person in a sickly 
weak state of health, in which sense, Sir Thomas 
More (Works, London, 1557, p. 893) employs it, 
while bantering Tindal. St. Peter’s daughter 
(St. Pernell) came to be looked upon, in this 
country, as the symbol of bad health under all its 
forms. Now, if we suppose that the poet mistook, 
and wrote “soster” instead of “ doughter,” we 
immediately understand the drift of the latter 
part of the spell, which was, not only to drive 
away witchcraft, but guard all the folks in that 
house from sickness of every kind. 
Daniet Rock. 
Buckland, Faringdon. 
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. 
By Hook or by Crook — Pokership — Gib Cat 
— Emerod. —I regret that very pressing business 
has hitherto prevented me from supplying an 
omission in my communication relating to the 
probable derivation of “ By Hook or by Crook ;” 
namely, my authority for saying there was evi- 
dence of the usage I referred to in forest customs. 
I now beg to supply that omission, by referring to 
the numerous claims for fuel wood made by divers 
persons at the justice seats held in the reigns of 
Charles I. and Charles II. for the New Forest, and 
which will be found at the Tower and Chapter 
House. Among others of these claims, I would 
mention that made by the tenant of land in Barn- 
ford, No. 112., who claims to have had the pri- 
vilege, from time immemorial, of going into the 
king’s wood to take the dead branches off the 
trees therein, “ with a cart, a horse, a Hook and a 
Crook, and a sail cloth.” Verily this necessity for 
a sail cloth seems to point very distinctly to his 
being obliged to collect his fire-wood “ by Hook 
or by Crook.” May I add, that I do not think 
that any of the notes I have seen hitherto, with 
reference to this subject, invalidate the supposi- 
tion of the origin being forestal; all that they 
