Oct. 4. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



255 



was thrown overboard forward, and the " master," 

 or whoever it might be, walked aft at the rate 

 which the vessel passed the "chip," judging of 

 his pace from experience. Hence the term " log- 

 ship," or " chip," which is its true name. A. L. 

 West Indies, Aug. 11. 1851. 



The Locusts of the Neiu Testament. — "While in 

 Greece last year, I was talking one day with a 

 highly intelligent joerson on the English translation 

 of the New Testament. In the course of our con- 

 versation he said, that in the third chapter of 

 St. Matthew's Gospel we had got an entirely wrong 

 meaning for the verse in which we are told the 

 food of St. John the Baptist, viz. "locusts and 

 wild honey." I have not at this moment a Testa- 

 ment in ancient Greek by me ; but in the Komaic 

 the paragraph alluded to runs thus : 



Verse 4 " Kal ij rpo^ij tov fJTOv aKpiSes, ical 



fi(\i &ypioi>." 



He said that the word aKplSes, which we have 

 translated " locusts," means rather the " young 

 and tender parts of plants." Since tliat time I 

 have looked into various Lexicons and Dictionaries 

 both of the ancient and modern Greek, but have 

 been unable to find anything to assist me in fixing 

 this meaning. In that of Hedericus, it is thus 

 given: "'AKpij, iSos, ?i, Locusta." There is also, 

 however, " ''Aitpis, toc,ri, Summitas, cacumen mentis. 

 Ab &Kpos, summus." Whether there may be any 

 confusion between these two words I know not ; 

 and here, possibly, I may be assisted by some 

 obliging reader. I have consulted, along with a 

 clergyman who is well skilled in Greek literature, 

 and who is perfectly acquainted with Romaic, 

 many commentaries ; but in every one we found 

 this passage either entirely passed over, or very 

 unsatisfactorily noticed. Bope'aj. 



Ottcn'ciS. 



COINAGE OF VABALATUUS, PRINCE OP PALMYEA. 



A great boon would be conferred on numismatists 

 if some of your correspondents would endeavour 

 to elucidate the puzzling legend sometimes found 

 on coins of this prince. 



Vabalathus, or Vhabalathus, Athenodorus (which 

 Mionnet and Akerman make to be the Greek 

 translation of Vabalatiius), was the sou of the 

 celebrated Zcnobia, by an Arab prince, and was 

 raised to the im[)erial dignity by his mother. His 

 sway extended over some parts of Syria and 

 Egypt, A.i>. -260— 273. 



Aurelian gave to Vabalathus a petty province 

 of Armenia, of which lie made him king, though 

 perhaps this arose from the mistake of Occo and 

 Salniiisius (in Fij/^iw. p. 380.) in reuiling apmeniac 

 for ATI' . EPMiAc on his Egyptian coins (Vide 

 infra). 



His portrait appears on the reverse of coins of 

 Aurelian, with the legend vabalathvs. vckimdb. 

 Frolich and Corsini have unsuccessfully attempted 

 the interpretation of this word. Pere Hardouin, 

 considering vcrimor as the correct reading, divides 

 it V. c. K. iM. OR., i.e. Vice CcBsaris Rector Imperii 

 Orientis ; but, as Banduri rightly observes, the 

 existence of this legend is extremely doubtful, 

 VCRIMDR being the authorised one, and is undoubt- 

 edly so in a specimen in my cabinet; and though the 

 worthy Jesuit remarks, " Barbaram vocem aliquara 

 arbitrari sub hisce Notis Latinis latere, frigidum 

 genus exceptionis est, ac dcsperantium," I am in- 

 clined to think that the true interpretation is to 

 be soLight in the Syriac, or some of the Oriental 

 languages. 



I have two others in my collection, of the rude 

 third brass of the Egyptian mint: Obv. AURE. 

 lian, &c. 



Rev. OTABAAAA0OC . AeHNOT . ATT . EPMIAC 

 I . AT . OTABAAAA0OC . A0HNY . A . EP 



The first and three final letters of this last le- 

 gend are very indistinct, and I should much like a 

 correct reading of it, as it is, I believe, inedited. 

 Other legends are given by Banduri : vabalathvs 



. alii REX .VCRIM. P.p. — VABALATVS .VCRIMOR. — 

 vabalathvs . ITER . IMP . R . — IM . C . VHABALA- 

 THVS . AVG . — A . EPMIAC . OTABAAAA0OC . A0HNT . 

 — AT . K . EPMIAC . OTABAAAA0OC. A0HNOT . OTABA- 

 AAQOC. AQHNOT. ATT .EPMIAC. 



E. S. Taylor. 



:^{iior €lv.evicS. 



195. Chaucer, how p?'onounced. — What is, or 

 was, the original pronunciation of the name of the 

 poet Chaucer? Was, or was not, the ch in his 

 day a guttural ? And was not the name Hau-ker 

 or Howker ? James Laurie. 



196. The Island of JEgina. — Having occasion to 

 make some inquiry about the island of iEgina, in 

 Greece, I have been sadly perplexed by the dis- 

 crepancies of the modern authorities I have had 

 an opportunity of considting. The principal of 

 these relates to the site of the temple of Jupiter, 

 or Zeus Panhellenios, which Dr. Smitii's Classical 

 Dictionary, and M'CulIoch's and Fullerton's Ga- 

 zetteers, place in the N". E. part of the island ; Ful- 

 lerton, however, saying also that Mount St. Elias 

 lies in the south part, though he does not say that 

 the temple is built on that mount. But Blaikie's 

 Gazetteer says that the temple stands on Mount 

 St. Elias, which, according to FuUerton, is in the 

 soidh. With this agrees the map in the Topo- 

 ^n'aj)hisch-historisch Atlas von Hellas, Sec. von 

 II. Kiepcrt, Berlin, 1846, which distinctly places 

 the "Tempcl von Zeus Panhellenios" in tiie south 

 part of the island ; while the temple in the north- 

 east is called " Tempel von Athena." The Atlas 



