Aug. 2. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



91 



" Two Tunguziaii hostages falling out, one accused 

 the other before the Waywode (or Viceroy) of having 

 conjured his deceased brother to death. The Way- 

 wode asked the accuser if he would, according to the 

 Tunguzian custom, put the accused to his oath ? To 

 this he answered in the affirmative; after which the 

 accused took a live dog, laid him on the ground, and 

 with a knife stuck him into the body, just under his 

 left foot, and immediately clapped his mouth to the 

 wound, and sucked out the dog's blood as long as he 

 could come at it ; after which he lift him up, laid him 

 on his shoulders, and clapped his mouth again to the 

 wound in order to suck out the remaining blood. An 

 excellent drink indeed! And this is the greatest oath 

 and most solemn confirmation of the Truth amongst 

 them ; so that on credit of this the accused was set 

 free, and the accuser punished for his false accusation." 



The dog, designed, as Cicero observes, for man's 

 use, was doubtless selected for his sagacity and 

 fiiithfulness ; and by Loccenius, in his Leges W. 

 GothiccB, " tria canum capita " are stated to have 

 been " Hunnorum gentis insignia," the progenitors 

 of the Tunguzians, p. 107. In Northern Europe 

 " sanguine Deos placari creditum ; canibus etiani 

 cum hominibus permiste in luco suspeusis." {Ibid. 

 p. 105.) 



Among the northern nations, not only their tes- 

 timoniary oaths were thus sanctioned by blood, 

 but their confederative also, in which their frater- 

 nisation was symbolized by reciprocal transfusion 

 of blood. 



" Dear as the blood that warms my heart." 



Gray's Bard. 



It was the custom of the Scythians " non dextras 

 tantum implicare, sed poUices mutuo vincire, 

 nodoque perstringere ; mox sanguine in artus 

 extremos se effundente levi ritu cruorem elicere, 

 atque invicem lambere." (Hanseanius De Jureju- 

 rando Veterum.) Quintus Curtius remarks that 

 among the Hindoos (between whom and the 

 Scythians Sir W. Jones and other ethnographers 

 have observed various traces of affinity) the join- 

 ing of right hands was their usual mode of saluta- 

 tion ; " dextra fidei sedes." 



En passant, I have elsewhere seen the opinion 

 quoted by a correspondent (Vol. ii., p. 464.), 

 " Sedem animae in digitis ponunt," attributed to 

 the Hindoos. Query, Has not the profession of 

 aeATjToi (see Dr. Maitland on Mesmerism) prevailed 

 among them? Their propensity to conjuring is so 

 proverbial, that, according to a writer in the Asiatic 

 Researches, that term is derived from one of their 

 tribes. Sec also on their witchcrafts, Acosta's 

 East and West Indies, chap. xxvi. 



Before I dismiss the subject of swearing, permit 

 me to observe what appears to me to be the origin 

 of the apothegm " Fiat Justitia, ruat Coelum " 

 (Vol. ii., p. 494.), wliicli, with a slight change, was 

 afterwards adopted by Ferdinand, emperor of 

 Austria. 



May it not have originated in an oath similar to 

 that of Chaganus, king of the Huns, recorded by 

 Otrokocsi, in his Historic Hungariccef — 



" Abarlco ritu jusjurandum ad hunc modum prae- 

 stitit. Ense educto et in altum sublato sibi et Aba- 

 ricorum genti dira imprecatus si quid mali, &c. Ccelum 

 ex alto ipsis et Deus Ignis qui in ccelo est, irriteret." 



More sententiously he may have said: "Fiat [a 

 me] justitia, [in me] ruat Ccelum, [si non]. 



On the inviolability of oaths among the heathens, 

 in ad<lition to the works referred to in Vol. iii., 

 p. 192., see Gentleman's Magazine, vol. i. p. 415.; 

 on the singular notion, in the fourteenth century, 

 of the harmlessness of colloquial and affirmative 

 oaths, see Archmologia, vol. xx. p. 43. ; and on the 

 opposition made by the Lollards to this unchristian 

 practice, Purvey's liemonstrance against the Cor- 

 i-uptions of the Church of Rome, edited by the 

 Rev. J. Forshall, London, 1851. T. J. 



HUGH HOLLAND AND HIS WORKS. 



(Vol. iii., p. 427. ; Vol. iv., p. 62.) 

 The querist on Hugh Holland and his works, 

 must be content with a reply of unvarnished 

 brevity. 



1. " Where are these lines taken from, and what 

 do they mean?" — The lines are from the Cypress 

 garland of Hugh Holland, 1625. 4to. The mean- 

 ing is obvious. I assume that Holland may be 

 trusted as to his own age, to which Wood gives no 

 clue. 



2. "Who says he did not quit Westminster 

 school till 1589?" — Wood says he was bred in 

 Westminster school, and " elected into Trinity 

 coll. in Cambridge, an. 1589." Welch, from offi- 

 cial documents, gives the same date. Wood no- 

 where states that he "matriculated at Baliol in 

 1582." 



3. "My words are, '■about 1590 he succeeded to 

 a fellowship.'" — Wood says he was elected to 

 Trinity college in 1589, "of which he was after- 

 ivards fellow." It may have been some years 

 afterwards. 



4. "Why does not Mr. Cornet give your 

 readers his interpretation of the mysterious 

 H. H.?" — He reserved it for another occasion, 

 but now consents to satisfy the curiosity of the 

 querist and others. 



In 1632 Henry Holland dedicated to Charles I. 

 an English version of the Cyrvpmlia of Xeuophon, 

 made by his father Philemon Holland. In the 

 dedication, which is signed at length, he says : 



" Also, when my unworthy selfe (anno I G20) offred 

 mine owne collections, entituled Heruoloc/ia Anylica, 

 unto his highncsse [James I.], he most graciously re- 

 ceived it." 



In 1614 appeared, under the initials " II. H.," 

 the Monumenta sepvlchraria sancti Panli, and iu 

 the address ad lectorem we read : 



