458 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 110. 



Sinaitic Inscriptions (Vol. iv., p. 382.). — The 

 decipherer of these inscriptions was the late Pro- 

 fessor Beer of Berlin. T. D. will find his alphabet, 

 tocrether with that of the Himyaritic inscriptions, 

 and others which resemble them, in Dr. (John) 

 AVilson's Lands of the Bible. E. H. D. D. 



Le Greene at Wrexham (Vol. iv., p. 371.). — A 

 survey of the lordships of Bromtield and Yale 

 (within the former of which this town is situated), 

 made by Norden about the year 1620 for Charles I., 

 then Prince of Wales, has been preserved in the 

 Harleian Collection in the British Museum. The 

 descriptive part is in Latin ; but before the names 

 of the places and streets in this town the French 

 article le is used, as Le highe street, Le hope 

 street, Le church street, Le beast market, Le 

 greene. The larger part of this Le greene (now 

 called " The Green") has still grass growing upon 

 it; and there is no tradition that either a granary 

 or corn-mill was ever situated there. i^" 



Wrexham. 



Cross-legged JSffigies (Vol. iv., p. 382.). — 

 In the parish church of Limington, Somerset, is a 

 figure of a cross-legged knight, with his hand on 

 the hilt of his sword, as if about to draw it. The 

 date of the foundation of the chantry in which he 

 lies is said to be 1329, and the mouldings and 

 windows appear to testify its correctness. 2. 



The Word 'P,li\<phs (Vol. iv., p. 339.). —Your 

 correspcmdent, the Kev. T. R. Brown, is right in 

 acquiescing in the ordinary derivation of dSeA^bs 

 from a and SeAt^us, but wrong, as I think, in en- 

 deavouring to find cognate forms in the Indo- 

 Germanic languages. The fact is, that the word 

 is solely and peculiarly Greek. The Sanscrit word 

 for brother is, as every body knows, hhratri (Latin, 

 f rater, &c.) ; and that this form was not entirely 

 unknown to the Hellenic races, is evidenced by 

 their use of (ftixxTpst, or (ppdrpri, in various senses, all 

 of which may easily be reduced to the one common 

 idea of brotherhood. How it happened that the 

 word (ppa.Tr]p was lost in Greek, and a^e\(phs sub- 

 stituted, we think we can satisfiictorily explain, 

 and, if so, the elucidation will make clearer an in- 

 teresting point in Greek manners. It appears 

 that they, in common with some Eastern nations, 

 looked upon the relationship between brothers of 

 the same mother as much closer in blood than 

 that in which the brothers were related through 

 the fatiier alone ; and hence the well-known law 

 ibrbidding die\<pot uixoixrjTploi. alone to marry. In 

 the same manner we find Abraham (Gen. xx. 12.) 

 using a similar excnse for marrying Sarah : 



"And yet indeed slie is my sister ; she is tlie daugliter 

 of my father, but not the daughter of my mother ; and 

 she became my wile." 



It is not dilficult, therefore, to understand how 

 this notion prevailing among the Greeks, might 



lead them to frame a new word from d and 5ix<t>vt, 

 to express the uterine relation of brothers, which 

 would soon in common use supplant the older 

 Indo-German term of (ppar^ip. For further reasons 

 which may have influenced the dropping of the 

 word (pparyp, I would refer to a learned article 

 on "Comparative Philology" in the last number 

 of the Edinburgh Review, by Dr. Max Miiller. 



AVith regard to the derivations suggested by 

 Mr. Brown from the Hebrew, Arabic, &c., I 

 think I am justified in laying down as a rule 

 that no apparent similarity between words in the 

 Semitic and Asian families can be used to establish 

 a real identity, the two classes of language being 

 radically and fundamentally distinct. J. B. 



Finger Pillories (Vol. iv., p. 315.). — Meeting 

 recently with a person who, although illiterate, is 

 somewhat rich in oral tradition and local folk lore, 

 I inquired if he had ever seen such a thing as that 

 described by Mr. Lawrence. He replied that he 

 had not, but that he had frequently heard of 

 these " stocks," as he called them, and that he be- 

 lieved they were used in "earlier days" for the 

 purpose of inflicting penance upon those parish- 

 ioners who absented themselves from mass for any 

 lengthened period. My informant illustrated his 

 explanation with a "traditionary" anecdote (too 

 fabulous to trouble you with), which had been the 

 means of imparting the above to him. Whether 

 correct or not, however, I must leave others to 

 determine. J. B. Colman. 



[Will our correspondent favour us with the tra- 

 dition to which he refers?] 



Blackloana Heresis (Vol. iv., p. 239.). — The 

 accounts given of Blacklow and his religious 

 heresy merely excite curiosity. Will no one fur- 

 nish some brief particulars of him and his pro- 

 ceedings ? For what was Peter Talbot famous, 

 and where may his history be read ? E. A. M. 



Quaker Expurgated Bible. — A Member of the 

 Society of Friends (Vol.iv., p. 412.) has answered 

 my Query respecting this Bible in a manner not 

 very satisfactory. He says " no committee was 

 ever appointed by the Society of Friends " to pub- 

 lish such a Bible, and that the Society adopt the 

 English authorised v-ersion only. The authority 

 from which I quoted did not say that the com- 

 mittee had been appointed by the Society of 

 Friends, or that the object of tlie proposed publi- 

 cation was to supersede the version authorised by 

 the Church, which (as is well known) is adopted, 

 as your correspondent states, by the Society. 

 What she states is this : — That about four years 

 ago a Committee of Friends intended to publish 

 such an edition of the Bible, for daily perusal in 

 Friends' families ; and that a prospectus was 

 printed, in which it was promised that every pas- 

 sage of the Bible would be carefully expunged 



