58 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'«> S. VI. 133., July 17. '68. 



ances are said to have been " as the colour of 

 amber." In each of these places, the Septuagint 

 has the words m '6pa.(ns TjKeKrpov : but whether 

 amber, or the metallic compound which went by 

 the same Greek name, be meant by the original 

 ■word, is of course a question for Hebrew scholars. 



David Gam. 



2om Davies (2"^ S. vi. 11.)— If H. B. C. had 

 looked to the authorities cited at the end of the 

 article which he alludes to (for the Nouvelle Bio- 

 graphic Generale adopts the very useful and com- 

 mendable practice of naming its authorities), lie 

 would have seen " Nichols' -Boi^yer, Bos well's //«y<; 

 of Johnson" referred to. On turning to Croker's 

 edition of Boswell's Johnson, London, 1835 (vol. 

 ii. p. 163.), I find the following note by Croker 

 on the words of the text, " his wife, who has been 

 celebrated* for her beauty." 



The sarcasm to which Mr. Croker alludes, ap- 

 pears to be the latter of the two quotations, and 

 not that relating to his wife ; so that the French 

 biographer has not stated the report, such as it is, 

 accurately. 'hXieis. 



Dublin. 



Jewish Family Names (2"* S. v. 435. ; vi. 17.) 

 — There is one circumstance connected with these 

 names which I think has not yet been mentioned 

 in "N". & Q." Although it greatly increases the 

 difficulty of tracing Jewish families to their origin, 

 the mention of it just now may probably lead to 

 some interesting elucidation. 



Some years ago I was acquainted with a He- 

 brew family named Bright, and the name being 

 quite new to me amongst them, I inquired how it 

 came to pass that they bore a name so little like 

 what their origin would have led me to expect. 

 I was told that at the time when persecution was 

 so rife upon the Continent, and many Hebrew 

 families fled for i-efuge to this countrj', it was not 

 uncommon to exchange their family name for that 

 of the town from whence they had come ; and my 

 friend's ancestors had originally resided in Bay- 

 reuth, which had gradually been corrupted to 

 Bright. N. J. A. 



Sibbes Family (-2°" S. v. 514.) — I am not en- 

 abled to say what the arms of this family are, but 

 1 imagine your correspondent is in error when he 

 says tliat the manor there referred to was sold by 



* " By Churchill, in The Rosciad, where, rather in 

 contempt of Daviea than out of compliment to his wife, 

 he exclaims : — 



" ' . . . . on ray life, 

 That Davies has a very pretty wife.' 



" Davies's pompous manner of reciting his part the 

 satirist describes with more force than delicacy : — 



" ' He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.' 



" This sarcasm drove, it is said (^post, April 7, 1778), 

 poor Davies from the stage. — C." 



his grandson ; whereas I am enabled to say that, 

 unless Bloraefield is in error, the manor was sold 

 by his son and heir Robert Sibbes in 1594. My 

 authority, through my MS. Index, is Blomefield's 

 Norfolk, vol. i. pp. 481, 482. 



John Nurse Chadwick. 

 King's Lynn. 



Can a Man be his Own Grandfather? (2"'' S. v. 

 434. 504.; vi. 19.)— May I be allowed a few 

 words of explanation ? Anon, says, that I think the 

 case referred to by W. J. F. unprecedented. I 

 confess I did think so at the time I read it, and 

 think it so still if it happened as at first stated. I 

 therefore remarked that it required some explan- 

 ation, and that explanation was afforded in a foot- 

 note at the time ; the consequence was that several 

 lines were omitted from my Note, which caused 

 Anon, to fall into the mistake he has done. He 

 will see that the case mentioned by him as having 

 come to his knowledge about thirty years since 

 does not bear the slightest resemblance to the one 

 referred to by me and by W. J. F., and conse- 

 quently is not, as he supposes, the same. 



W. R. M. 



I picked up at a friend's house the other even- 

 ing the following curious and ingenious puzzle, as 

 I take it to be, and which is very much after the 

 fashion of the question set and answered in the 

 affirmative by your correspondent W. J. F. in a 

 former number. I have copied it exactly as it 

 was shown me, except in one particular, and that 

 is, in the names of the persons alluded to, which I 

 have deemed prudent to suppress: giving instead 

 the fictitious names of Jones and Smith : — 



" Old Jones had two daughters by his first wife, of 

 which the youngest was married to old John Smith, and 

 the eldest to John Smith's son. Old John Smith had a 

 daughter b}' his first wife whom old Jones married. 

 Therefore old Smith's second wife (formerly Mi.ss Jones) 

 would call out, ' my father is my son, and I am my mo- 

 ther's mother; my sister is my daughter, and I am 

 grandmother to my brother.' " 



My friend did not know whether this had really 

 taken place or not, but it seems rather an impro- 

 bable afiair. 0. 



• 



Bertrand du Guesclin (2'"i S. v. 494. 526. ; vi. 

 18.) — From a note-book of a tour made many 

 years ago, which embraced Dinau in Brittany, I 

 am enabled to give you the epitaph, not on Du 

 Guesclin, but on his heart ! wliich was, it would 

 seem, retained there while his body was honoured 

 by sepulture in St. Denis among the French 

 kings. The style and sculpture of the inscrip- 

 tion are equally quaint, and are excised, or cut in 

 raised characters over the device "I'aigle eplpye 

 on a 2 tetes de sable coui'onnes d'or," twice re- 

 peated, once above and once belonr, and between 

 them a heart rudely carved : — 



"Cy gist le cueur: du: Messire bertrad du guesilqui cy 



