April 19. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



309 



before me, are contained entries of the <lates of | 

 the various letters patent and grants connected 

 with the post-office, to the latter end of the reign 

 of Charles I., and the names of the pers(ms to 

 whom the grants were made. The earliest date is 

 the 37th of Henry VIII., and the last the 13th 

 of Charles I. If an extract from the MS., which 

 gives a similar index to the appointments in the 

 Courts of Law, the Customs, the Forests, and a 

 great variety of other offices, will assist your 

 correspondent, I shall be happy to supply it. I 

 may notice, what seems to have been overlooked 

 by your two correspondents who have replied to 

 the inquiry, that some account of Prideaux is given 

 by Wood (Vid. Fast. vol. i. p. 424., edit. Bliss), 

 from which it appears that he was M.A. of Cam- 

 bridge, Member of the Inner Temple, Member of 

 Parliament for Lyme in Dorsetshire, and Recorder 

 of Exeter ; and that his death took place on the 

 19th Aug., 1659 (misju'inted 1569 in this edit.), 

 and that — 



" From his employments gaining a vast estate, he 

 left at the time uf his death an incredible mass of 

 gold (as the credible report then went), besides lands 

 of very great demesnes." 



Jas. Crossley. 



Sindl Words and " Loio" Words (Vol. ii., pp. 305. 

 349.377.). — Apropos to Pope's use of "low words," 

 in the sense of short words, conf. Boileau, satire 

 iv. 97. 8. 



" Lui faisant voir ses vers et sans force et sans graces, 

 Montes sur deux grands mots, comme sur deux 

 echasses." 



On which one of his commentators makes the fol- 

 lowing note: 



" Bi)ileau, pour se moquer des mots gigantesques, 

 citult ordinairemeiit ce vers de Chapel.iin : 



roc 



' Dtf ce sourclUeux roc I'inibranlable cime.' ^ 2^ 



'S i 



Et il disposoit ce vers comme il est ici a cote. ■" §; 

 Dans cette disposition il semble que le mot g " 

 ' roc' soil monte sur deux echasses.' =• 



Q != 

 T commend to <I>.'s attention this instance of a 

 "low" word supported on two "high" ones. 



K. L P. B. T. 



Lord Howard of Effingham (Vol. iii., pp. 185. 244.). 

 — It has been su[)posel that the Earl of Notting- 

 h.im was a Catholic, and having held office in the 

 reign of (iueeii Mary, he probably was so at that 

 time ; but he certaiidy was a Protestant during 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and in tiie beginning 

 of James I. was at tiie head of a commission to 

 dincover and expel all Catiiolic priests. (Vide 

 Memorials of the Howard Family.) II. li. M. 



Obeahism. — Ventriloquism (Vol. iii., pp. 59. 

 149.). — T. H. will find, in the authorities given 

 below, that Obeahism is not only a rite, but 

 a religion, or rather superstition, viz. Serpent- 

 worship. Modern Universal History, fol. vol. vi. 

 p. 600. ; 8vo. vol. xvi. p. 411. ; which is indebted 

 for its information to the works of De Marchais, 

 Barbot, Atkyns, and Bosnian : the last of which 

 may be seen in Pinkerton's Collection, vol. xvi., 

 and a review of it in Acta Fruditor., Lips. 1705, 

 p. 265., under the form of an " Essay on Guinea." 

 In Astley's Collection of Voyages, there is an ac- 

 count compiled from every authority then known, 

 and a very interesting description of the rites and 

 ceremonies connected with this superstition. Ac- 

 cording to the same authors, the influence of the 

 Obeist does not depend on the exercise of any art 

 or natural magic, but on the apprehensions of evil 

 infused into his victim's mind. See also Lewis's 

 Jourruil of a Residence among the Negroes in the 

 West Indies. 



The foil jwing references will furnish a reply at 

 once to two Queries; to that here noticed, and to 

 that on " V^entrilorpiism" (Vol. ii., p. 88.). 



The name of the sacred serpent, which in the 

 ancient language of Canaan was variously pro- 

 nounced, was derived from "oh" (inflare), perhaps 

 from his peculiarity of inflation when irritated. 

 See Bryant's Analysis, vol. i.; Deane's Worship of 

 the Serpent, p. 80. From a notion of the mysterious 

 inflation produced by the presence of tiie divine 

 spirit, those who had the spirit of Ob, or Python, 

 received the names of Ob, or Pythia ; according to 

 the not unusual custom for the priest or priestess 

 of any gud to take the name of the deity they 

 served. See Selden, De Dis Syris, Synt. 1. c. 2. 

 It is a curious coincidence, that as the Witch of 

 Endor is called " Oub," and the African sorceress 

 " Obi," from the serpent-deity Oub, so the old 

 English name of a witch, "hag," bears apparent 

 relationship to the word hak, the ancient British 

 name of a species of snake. In Yorkshire, ac- 

 cording to Stukeley, they call snakes "hags" and 

 " hag-worms," (Abury, p. 32.). 



In the Breton language, Belech is " Priest," and 

 may simliarly indicate a priest of Bel-the-Dragon. 



From the Hebrew Ob, the Greek o<pis was pro- 

 bably derived ; for the same word, in Hebrew, 

 Arabic, and Greek, which denotes "divination" 

 denotes a "serpent." " iSTachasli," * "ilahat,"t 

 " oioii/ifeo-flai," \ have the same double signification 

 as if the serpent were recognised as the grand in- 

 spirer of the heathen prophets. See Faber's 

 Hora Mosaicce, vol. i. p. 98. 



The word "Ob" was translated by the LXX. 

 e'-y-yoo-Tfji/tiJeos, " u ventrlloquist," in accommoda- 



* See Parkhurst. 



■f Dickinson's Delplii Phrenic, p. 10. 



\ StillingHeet's Oricj. Sacr<e, book iii. c. iii. s. 18. 



