278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»* S. VI. 144., Oct. 2. '58. 



earth like a girdle. But since there was reason to fear 

 that its ollspring might destroy the world, God killed the 

 female, and mutilated the male. The flesh of the female 

 is salted, and preserved for the banquet which will be 

 prepared for the pions at the last day. The angel Ga- 

 briel will one day put the male to death, and a tent will 

 be made of its sliin foi: the use of the holy at the banquet 

 in question." 



This opinion is alluded in 2 Esdras, vi. 52. — 



"But unto Leviathan thou gavest the seventh part, 

 namely, the moist ; and hast kept him to be devoured of 

 whomthou wilt and when." 



The Plain Commentary on Ps. Ixxiv. 15., "Thou 

 smotest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and 

 gavest him to be meat for the people in the wil- 

 derness," says : 



"He smote down and crushed Pharaoh, as a hunter 

 smites down the ravening crocodile : and the dead bodies 

 of the Egyptians, once so strong and proud, were cast 

 upon the sea-shore for a prey to the wild beasts that peo- 

 pled the wilderness of Arabia." 



Adding, however, a note referring to the tradition 

 of the Talmud that the Leviathan was to form a 

 banquet for the elect at the last day. 



William Fbasee, B.C.L. 

 Alton Vicarage, Staffordshire. 



''Salutation and Cat'' (2"'» S. vi. 238.)— The 

 suggestions of your various correspondents are 

 remarkable for their ingenuity ; but probably it 

 must be left, after all, for each reader to adopt 

 the explanation which to himself appears most 

 satisfactory. That the "Salutation" originally 

 conveyed a religious allusion there can be no 

 reason to doubt ; though I remember seeing, many 

 years ago, in Perth, a sign over the door of the 

 inn so called in that city, which represented two 

 men ; one of whom greeted the other in very 

 friendly fashion, and to which was attached this 

 legend : " You're welcome to the City." No 

 doubt the strong anti-romanist feelings of our 

 northern fellow-subjects (or the better motive of 

 a profound reverence for Holy Writ), occasioned 

 this departure from the original meaning of the 

 sign. There seems to be no greater facility for 

 explaining the fanciful addition of the " Cat, " than 

 exists for illustrating other ridiculous signs ; such 

 as the " Pig and Whistle," the " Goat and Boots," 

 the " Bull and Pump," &c. Mr. Boys's idea is a 

 very reasonable one, but hardly more so than the 

 possible desire of a landlord to do honour to the 

 beauties of a favourite mouser. S. IL M. is not 

 without arguments in his favour, there being ac- 

 tually a " Madonna del Gatto," by Baroccio, which 

 seems to have escaped his recollection. Query, 

 however, can anyone refer to a known picture of 

 the "Salutation," in which a cat is introduced ? 



K. S. Q. 



Pillory (2"J S. vi. 245.) — I think that I saw 

 one not much more than twenty years ago at 

 Coleshill in Warwickshire. N. B. 



Lynch Laio (2°* S. vi. 247.) — I am inclined to 

 think that to Lynch, Lynching, Lynch law, and 

 all the combinations of the verb to Lynch, are not 

 the coinage of our American cousins, but that they 

 were taken over the Atlantic by some of the 

 earliest settlers from England in the American 

 colonies. I well remember an English lady in 

 Lincolnshire who used the word linge as signi- 

 fying to beat, about fifty years ago ; and she told 

 me she had heard it used by a magistrate of that 

 county about fifty years before that time, when 

 he was hearing an accusation against a prisoner 

 before him. The worthy magistrate was so in- 

 censed by the charge made against the prisoner, 

 that, without hearing his defence, he exclaimed, 

 "Give me a stick, and Pll linge him myself!" 

 Thus linging, in Lincolnshire, a hundred years 

 ago was very nearly what Lyncliing is in the 

 United States at the present moment, — a taking 

 of the law into your own hands. A sort of thong 

 used by shoemakers in the time of Beaumont and 

 Fletcher was called a lingel. (See Nares's Glos- 

 sary.) And as a strap was a very ready instru- 

 ment of punishment, it is probable that a lingel 

 was frequently used for that purpose, and the 

 phrase to linge, might be as common as to strap is 

 at this time. To linge would be in use in daily 

 parlance when the first colonists left England 

 (great many Qf them from Lincolnshire), and 

 linge law, now called Lynch law, might be intro- 

 duced as one of the rough necessities of the 

 settlement. This would be only one out of some 

 hundreds of words which are now called Ame- 

 ricanisms ; which are, in reality, good old English 

 words, used generally in England two hundred 

 years ago, and which have now become antiquated 

 and obsolete here, altliough retained in America. 



PisHEY Thompson. 



A Commoner's Private Chapel (2"^ S. vi. 233.) 

 — The answer to this question is wrong in stating 

 it to be doubtful whether the sacraments can be 

 administered in such places of worship without the 

 sanction of the local dio'cesan. I assume by local 

 diocesan the bishop of the diocese is meant, but 

 he has no power alone to permit the sacraments to 

 be administered in such places of worship. The 

 consent of the incumbent is necessary, and conse- 

 cration, or the bishop's licence, is also necessary. 



J. G. 



Casts of Seals (2°* S. vi. 147.)-— In reply to 

 Aliquis, respecting the ancient seals, I believe 

 that, with one exception, they can be obtained 

 from Mr. Robert Keady, 18. High Street, Lowe- 

 stoft. Jno. Peacock. 



" Thoughts in Rhyme by an East Anglian " (2"'^ 

 S. iv. 331.) — This volume was, I believe, the pro- 

 duction of Charles Feist, author of a volume of 

 Poems published in 1813, and other works. 



R. Inglis, 



