376 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 80. 



"Outer Temple?" Stapleton, by whom it was 

 perhaps obtained, was Bishop of Exeter from 1307 

 to 1326. Peter Cunningham. 



OBEISM. 



(Vol. iii., p. 59.) 



In reply to F. H., I beg leave to state that 

 Obeism is not in itself a religion, except in the 

 sense in which Burke says that " superstition is 

 the religion of feeble minds." It is a belief, real or 

 pretended, in the efficacy of certain spells and in- 

 cantations, and is to the uneducated negro what 

 sorcery was to our unenlightened forefathers. 

 This superstition is known in St. Lucia by the 

 name of Kemhois. It is still extensively practised 

 in the West Indies, but there is no reason to suj)- 

 pose that it is rapidly gaining gi-ound. F. H. will 

 find ample information on the subject in Pere 

 Labat's Nouveau Voyage aux Isles frangaises de 

 VAmerique, tome ii. p. 59., and tome iv. pp. 447. 

 499. and 506., edition of 1742; in Bryan Edwards' 

 History of the West Indies, vol. ii. cli. iii., 5th 

 edition (London, 1819); and in Dr. R. R. Mad- 

 den's Residence in the West Indies, vol. ii. letter 27. 

 Perhaps the following particulars from Bryan Ed- 

 wards (who says he is indebted for them to a Mr. 

 Long) on the etymology of oheah, may be accept- 

 able to some of your readers : — 



" The term oheah, obiah, or obia, (for it is variously 

 written,) we conceive t > be the adjective, and obe or 

 obi, the noun substantive ; and that by the word obia — 

 men or women — is meant those who practise obi. 

 The origin of the term we should consider as of no im- 

 portance, in our answer to the question proposed, if, in 

 search of it, we were not led to disquisitions that are 

 highly gratifying to curiosity. From the learned Mr. 

 Bryant's commentary upon the word op/i, we obtain a 

 very probable etymology of the term. • A serpent, in 

 the Egyptian language, was called ob or aub.' 'Obion 

 is still the Egyptian name for a serpent.' ' Moses, in 

 the name of God, forbids the Israelites ever to inquire 

 of the demon Ob, which is translated in our Bible, 

 charmer or wizard, divinator aut sorcilegus.' ' The 

 woman at Endor is called oub or ob, translated Py- 

 thonissa ; and oubaois (he cites from Horns Apollo) was 

 the name of the Basilisk or Royal Serpent, emblem of 

 the sun, and an ancient oracular deity of Africa.' " 



One of your correspondents has formed a sub- 

 stantive from obe by the addition of ism, and ano- 

 ther from oheah by the same process ; but it vill 

 be seen by tlie above quotation that there is no 

 necessity for that obtrusive termination, the super- 

 stitious practice in question being already suf- 

 ficiently described by the word obe or obi. 



Henry H. Breen. 

 St. Lucia, March, 1851. 



S.\N MARINO. 



(VoL iii., p. 321.) 



On the death of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, 

 without legitimate male issue, in October, 1468, 

 Pope Paul II. declared Rimini and his other fiefs 

 to have reverted to the Holy See. In the spring 

 of the following year tlie Pontiff proceeded, with 

 the assistance of the Venetians, to enforce his claim, 

 and threatened the Republicans of San Marino 

 with his vengeance if they did not aid him and 

 his allies in gaining possession of Rimini, which 

 Roberto Malatesta, one of the illegitimate sons of 

 Sigismondo Pandolfo, had seized by stratagem. 



By advice of their faithful friend Federigo, 

 Count of Urbino, who was at the head of the 

 opposite league, comprising the King of Naples, 

 the Duke of Milan, and the Florentines, the San- 

 Marinese forwarded the Papal mandate to Flo- 

 rence, and requested through their ambassador, 

 one Ser Bartolomeo, the support of that Republic. 

 Several letters appear to have been sent in answer 

 to their applications, and the one communicated 

 by Mr. Sydney Smirke is characterised by Mel- 

 chiarre Delfico (Memorie storiche della Repubblica 

 di San Marino. Capolago, 1842, 8vo. p. 229.) as 



" Del tutto didattiea e parenetica intorno alia liberta, 

 di cui i Fiorentini facevano gran vanto, mentre erano 

 quasi alia vigilia di perderla intieramente." 



San Marino was not attacked during the cam- 

 paign, which terminated on the 30th of August of 

 the same year (1469) with the battle of Vergiano, 

 in which Alessandro Sforza, the commander of the 

 Papal forces, was signally defeated by Federigo. 



San Marino has never, so far as I have been 

 able to ascertain, undergone the calamity of a 

 siege, and its inhabitants have uninterruptedly 

 enjoyed the blessing of self-government from the 

 foundation of the Republic in the third or fourth 

 century to the present time, with the exception of 

 the few months of 1503, dm-ing which the infamous 

 Cesare Borgia forced them to accept a Podesta of 

 his own nomination. Various causes have con- 

 tributed to this lengthened independence ; but it 

 may be stated that, in the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries, the San Marinese owed it no less to their 

 own patriotism, courage, prudence, and good faith, 

 than to the disinterested protection of the Counts 

 and Dukes of Urbino, whose history has been so 

 ably written by Mr. Dennistoun, in his recently 

 published memoirs of that chivalrous race. 



The privileges of the Republic were confirmed 

 on the 12tli of February, 1797, by Napoleon Buo- 

 naparte, who offered to enlarge its territory, — a 

 boon which its citizens were wise enough to de- 

 cline; thinking, perhaps, with Montesquieu, that — 



" II est de la nature d'une republique qu'elle n'ait 

 qu'nn petit territoire : sans cela, elle ne peut guere 

 subsister." — Esprit des Lois, liv. viii. chap. 16. 



Your readers will find some notices of San 



