Nov. 15. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



383 



279. Peter Plancius Map of the World.— In 

 M. BlundeviU his Exercises, containing Eight 

 IVeatises, 6Lh ediliou, 4to., 1622, one of the eight 

 is described thus : 



" Item. A plaine and full description of Peter Plan- 

 cius his universall Mappe lately set forth in the yeare 

 of our Lord 1592, containing more places newly found, 

 as well ill the East and West Indies, as also towards 

 the North Pole, which no other Mappe heretofore 

 hath." 



Where is this Peter Plancius' map to be found? 



J. O. M. 



280. Derivation of Theodolite. — Can any of your 

 correspondents give the derivation of theodolite ? 

 I fear that eeaO|Uai 5oAos might be considered a libel. 



J. S. Wood. 



281. Lycian Inscriptions. — I should be glad to 

 hear what attempts have been made, and with what 

 success, to deeiplier the inscriptions upon the 

 Lycian monuments in the Britisli Museum. Col. 

 Mure, in his History of Grecian Literature, vol. i. 

 p. 84., speaks of them as at present unintelligible. 

 The character, he says, is a variety of the GrtECo- 

 Phoenician. I find several, if not the greater part, 

 of the letters in Gesenius's Monumenta Phoenicia, 

 especially Tab. 11. and 12. AVhat is the language 

 in which they are written? And if an aboriginal 

 tongue, over what portion of Asia did tlie stock to 

 which it belongs extend in the historical period, 

 and what is that stock ? Is it to that class of 

 dialects that the language of tiie gods, as Homer 

 distinguishes a certain tongue from the language 

 of men, belongs: which called the "night-jar" 

 XoAki's, named by men kvixivSis (II. 14. 291.) ; and 

 "the giant" Boiapewr, instead o£ 'Atyaiau (II. 2. 

 403.) ; and " the Xanthus, XdvBos, instead of I'ko- 

 /jLavSpo? ; and, which is more remarkable still, " the 

 hillock" on the plain of Troy, the arj.^a TroXvaKapO- 

 noio Mu/JiCT)?, while men named it Bari'eia (11. 2. 813.) 

 I have hitherto been accustomed to consider tiiese 

 names which the gods use to be the old Pelasgian 

 names, assured as I feel that the Pelasgi occupied 

 the north-west corner of Asia Minor before the 

 Greeks (Hellenes) took Troy, which event I have 

 looked upon as one of many in which the energies 

 and of the young and vigorous Hellenic family were 

 successfully exerted against their contemporaries 

 of the other less powerful descendants of the old 

 Pelasgic settlers in that part of the world. But 

 I shall be thankful for the information which 

 others wiser than I can give, even if it be but a 

 theory : accompanied with the facts on which it is 

 based, it will be worth attention. TiiuoPiiyLACT. 



232. Maltese Dialect. — Is it more reasonable to 

 assign the Arabic character of the Maltese di;ilect 

 to the fact of its early occupation by the Heljrew- 

 speaking Plitciiicians, or to tiie sui)se(pient Saracen 

 occupation ? or may its did'erence from Hebrew 

 and from Arabic be explained by the circum- 



stances of its history, as having been twice, at two 

 very different periods, occupied by invaders be- 

 longing to two branches of the same stock ? 

 Bochart, Canaan, i. 26., says that the name " ]\Ie- 

 lete" is Hebrew, meaning refngittm; and Dio- 

 dorus Siculus, v. cap. 12., uses the term Karacpvj-f) 

 concerning it so pointedly, that it would almost 

 seem as though he knew that to be the reason why 

 the Phoenicians gave it its name. Theophylact. 



283. Ilobhes's ''Leviathan" (Vol. iv., p. 314.).— 

 You have inserted my inquiry respecting the fron- 

 tispiece to Hobbes's Leviathan; I should also be 

 glad to know the interpretation put by any of 

 yt)ur readers on the various other symbols in that 

 plate. They are, on one side of the title, a castle, 

 a crown, a cannon, a pile of arms, and a field of 

 battle, in compartments one below another ; and 

 on the other side, a church, a mitre, a thunderbolt, 

 a collection of implements marked syllogism, di- 

 lemma, &c., and a tribunal. 



I have my own view of the meaning of each 

 part of this, which is at your service when required. 



\V. W. 

 Cambridge. 



284. Wigtoun Peerage. — Can any of your legal 

 correspondents inform me whether there exist any 

 reports of the addresses of the Lord Advocate for 

 Scotland, the king's Attorney-General, or the Lord 

 Chancellor, on the hearing or decision of this case 

 in the year 1782 ? 



The Lord Chancellor was Lord Thurlow ; the 

 Lord Advocate, Sir Henry Dundas; the Attorney- 

 General, Mr. AVallace. S. E. G. 



28-5. Sale by Candle. — Forty or fifty years 

 ago goods were advertised for public sale " by the 

 candle." Can any of your readers inform me of 

 the origin of this ? 



I may remark that it was the custom then at 

 some sales to have candles marked with red 

 circles ; and the moment the candle burned down 

 to the mark, the lot put up was knocked down to 

 the highest bidder ; and, at some sales, a common 

 candle was burned during the sale. J. S. A. 



Old Broad Street. 



Plt'itar (Quench ^n^Jucrrt. 



Derivation of TEra. — Will any of your corre- 

 spondents inform me of the derivation of the word 

 (P,ra, as, if derived from the Latin word ara, 

 no classical authority that I know of can be 

 adduced. In Ainsworth I find ara signifies a 

 kind of weed amongst corn ; a mark upon money 

 to show the value ; a reuuirkable period of time. 



J. N. G. G. 



[In Andrews' Latin- F.nnlish Lexicon our correspon- 

 dent will find the following as tlie second definition of 

 yTIra, " .'liiiA, JE, f. (from /Em, the plural of JEs), a 

 word belonging to Later Latin. I. In IMatbem. The 



