76 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 65. 



Graecised Latin, — and that the Arabs them- 

 selves, adopting the word with a slight variation, 

 made it al-hercoy. 



The fact of the fruit itself being of Asiatic 

 origin, renders it in tlie highi'St degree im])robable 

 that the Orientals would borrow a name for it 

 from the Latin. 



My own opinion is, that the reverse is the 

 case — that the Latin is merely a conuption of 

 the Arabic; and that the Latins, in adopting the 

 word, naturally gave it the slight alteration which 

 rendered the Arabic word, to them uiuneaning, 

 ap[)ropriately significant of the nature of the 

 fruit. 



I find that in various languages the word 

 stands thus : in the Latin of the middle ai^e, 

 avercoccius — in the modern Greek, fii^vKuKKu-v — 

 in the Italian, albercocco^ alhicocca — in the Spa- 

 nish, alburicoqiie — and all those various words, 

 undeducible from the Latin prcecox, are readily 

 derivable from the Arabic word, the prefix al, 

 which is merely the article, being in some cases 

 dropped, and in others retained. 



1 may add, as a curious fact, that, in the south 

 of Italy, of which I am a native, the common 

 people call the apricot verricocca, and the peach 

 prizaicco, although the former ripen earlier than 

 the latter. A. P. di Pig, Italo-Graecos. 



Carlisle. 



" Plurima gemma latet cteca tellu?-e sepulta " 

 (Vol. ii., p. 13;J.). —In the couise of my reading, 

 some time back, I met with a passage which was 

 given as a quotation li-oin Bishop Hall. I tran- 

 scribe it, as it appears to me to approach nearer 

 to the above hexameter than even Gray's lines : 



" There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels 

 of the earth ; many a fair pearl in the bosom of the 

 sea, that never was seen, nor ever shall be." 



Time when Herodotus wrote (Vol. ii., p. 405.). — 

 The passage in Herodotus which shows that he 

 was still employed on his history when he was 

 seventy-five, is in his first book. But A. W. H. 

 thinks, that, as it is a general introduction, show- 

 ing why he mentioned all places, small or great, 

 it must have been written at the beginning. I 

 should iider the contrary; that he would give an 

 account why he had done so after he had done it, 

 and not while it rested merely in intention. 



But perhaps it nniy be said, that r/i' is in the 

 former part of the sentence, and therefore might 

 have been repeated in the latter part, which is the 

 converse of it, though it might not be exactly the 

 proper tense. 



However, F. Clinton puts down his birth b. c. 

 484; 452 or 456 as the years in which he read 

 his History at the Olympic Games ; and 408 as a 

 year in which he was still adding to it. 



However, if he wrote the passage when he was 

 thirty, that would justiiy the past tense, which 



perhaps, too, we have a right to construe have been, 

 for that verb has no perfect preterite. C. B. 



Lvcy and Colin (Vol. iii., p. 7.). — The ballad 

 adverted to, which is the one translated by Vincent 

 Bourne, is by Tickel, and will be found in any 

 collection of his works. Notveithstanding Southey's 

 epithet " wretched ! " it will always be admired, 

 both in the original and the translation. 



James Crossley. 



Manchester, Jan. 18. 1851. 



Translations of Apuleius, &c. (Vol. ii., p. 464.). — 

 In answer to your correspondent, G. P. L, con- 

 cerning a translation of the Golden Ass o/Apuleius, 

 I beg you will insert the Ibllowing particulars. 



There is a copy in the British Museum (Press 

 Mark, case 21. b.) of a translation by Adlington. 

 The title is as follows: — " The XI. Bookes of' the 

 Golden Asse, conteining the JMetumorphosie of Lu- 

 cius Apuleius, entei'laved with an excellent Narration 

 of the Alarriage of Cupido and Psiches, set out in 

 the iiii. v. and vi. Bookes. Translated out of Latins 

 into Englishe by William Adlington. Imprinted at 

 London, in Fleet streale, and the sign of the Oliphante, 

 by Henri/ Wykes. Anno 1566." This work is of 

 extreme rarity. At the end of the Dedicatory 

 E])istle there is a MS. note, which I transcribe : — 

 " I^his translation and its author has escaped 

 y' notice of the Industrious Oxford Antiquary*, 

 for I find not his name in the Athen. Oxon., nor is 

 the book inenconed (mentioned) in Mr. Ames's Ty- 

 pographical Antiquities, both which omissions add a 

 singidar rareness to this scarce book. R. E. W." 

 The pagination ot' the book is only on one side, 

 and contains 127 Iblios, including the table of 

 contents. Kitson {^vide note on tiy-leaf) does not 

 notice this edition (1566), nor the second in 1571, 

 but quotes that of 1596. Kenneth Mackenzie. 



Taylor's translation of Apuleius's Golden A.^s, 

 Lond. 1822, 2 vols., is said by Lowndes to be an 

 esteemed version. 



The French translations of the same work, ac- 

 cording to De Bure (see Manuel du Libraire), are 

 very inferior. C. I. R. 



Etymology of " Grasson" (Vol. iii., p. 8.). — 

 Grasson appears to be derived from " grassor," 

 " to assail." Livy somewhere has the following — 

 "Grassor in possessionem agri" — which would 

 be rendered, " To enter upon it by force ; " it 

 being only by the paynicnt of the fine (Grasson) 

 that the entry, " Grassor," or alienation of copy- 

 hold lands, could be warded oil': hence the act of 

 the lord of the manor (Grassor) became the name 

 for the fine paid by the tenant, "Grasson." 



Blower. 



Lynch Law (Vol. iii., p. 24.). — Webster's Ame- 

 * Wood. 



