2-<» S. VI. 148., Oct. 30. '58.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



351 



to the public now that the Liber Hibernia has been 

 issued by the Commissioners. 



J. Emerson Tennent. 



The work quoted by Abhba under the former of 

 these names was never published in a separate 

 form, but is included in Part I. of that stupen- 

 dous repertory of the Official History of Ireland, 

 the Liber Munerum Publicorum Hibernice, — a work 

 which, after having been compiled, by special com- 

 mand, pursuant to an Address from the House of 

 Commons, a.d. 1810, and printed in 1824, was 

 never pulDlished, but suppressed by the English 

 government, for very sufficient reasons. 



These two ponderous volumes will be found in 

 the libraries of Trinity College, and the Royal 

 Dublin Society (presented by the now Right 

 Hon. Philip Cecil Crampton, LL.D., Judge of the 

 Queen's Bench), and a copy was some time ago in 

 the collection of the Repeal Association, which 

 was advertised for sale, on the dissolution of that 

 body, if I remember rightly, at a very high price. 



The government having since removed the re- 

 striction on the sale of this work, it can now be 

 procured through Messrs. Hodges and Smith, 

 Dublin booksellers, for about two pounds. 



A very exact collation of the contents of the 

 Liber Munerum, with interesting bibliographical 

 notes, will be found in the Preface to the 2nd ed. 

 (1851) of vol. i. of the Archdeacon of Cashel's 

 valuable Fasti Ecclesim HiberniccB. It contains, 

 says Dr. Cotton {loc. cit. p. x.k.), " a great mass of 

 curious information carelessly put together, and 

 disfigured by flippant and impertinent remarks of 

 the compiler most unbefitting a government em- 

 ploye." 



These observations of the venerable archdeacon 

 seem fully merited, and apply especially to the 

 first part of the work, which is from the pen of 

 " Rowley Lascelles of the Middle Temple, Barris- 

 ter-at-law." The drift of this composition seems 

 to be the upholding a policy of centralisation, and 

 discouragement of Irish nationality, an animus 

 which is sufficiently testified by the title of Part 

 I., which, so far from being, as quoted by Abhba, 

 a " History of Ireland," is styled — " Supplement 

 to the History of England ; or, Res Gestae Anglo- 

 rum in Hibernia." Sic vos non vobis ! 



The remaining six parts, however, of this great 

 national work, which is too little known, are very 

 valuable and important as registers of facts de- 

 rived from sources of undoubted authority. 



An index to the whole is a desideratum. 



John Ribton Garstin. 



TESTAMENT OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS. 



(2»<" S. vi. 173. 27G.) 

 In reply to Fuimus Rugbv, my copy, from 

 " tear and wear," is in one or two of the Testa- 



ments noticed imperfect ; but I have been able so 

 far to verify the following quotations given by 

 him from the edition in his possession. 



Reuben, p. 10. (of my copy), " The Fourth is the 

 Spirit of Smelling, wherewith cometh Delight," &c. 

 " Seeing" is treated of as the second particular, and 

 there appears to me no inaccuracy in the sense or 

 text. P. 12. " The Egyptian Woman (Potiphar's 

 wife, Memphitica,) did much to him (Joseph) by 

 using the help of Witches, and by offering him 

 Slaubar Sauses," &c. It is difficult to say what may 

 have been the composition and ingredients of these 

 dishes used to promote fascination. A passage 

 (p. 88. Joseph) may help to throw some light 

 on the obscurity : " and she sent me meat strewed 

 about with Inchantment." In vulgar speech, slab- 

 ber and slubber are still heard in respect to food 

 of a soft kind. 



Joseph, p. 84—94. The word seems throughout 

 invariably spelled " eunuch." P. 92. " She would 

 fain have spied me in desire of Sin," for " syped," 

 evidently a typographical error. Id. " Saying 

 Altho' they ask two Besaunces of Gold, see that 

 thou spare not for money, but Buy the child and 

 bring him to me. He paid 80 Golden Crowns for 

 me, and said to his Lady that he paid a 100," &c. 

 The Besand here referred to, is perhaps to be un- 

 derstood as the ancient piece of gold coin called a 

 Bysantine from having been first struck at By- 

 zantium or Constantinople. (For copious inform- 

 ation on this point, see Jamieson's Scottish Dic- 

 tionary, s. V. edit. 4to., 1808.) On the authority 

 of this lexicographer, " Wiclif uses the term be- 

 saunt as equivalent to talent." 



Juda, p. 38. " And they gave us Two Hundred 

 Quarters of Corn, Five Hundred Bates of Oyl, 

 and a Thousand and 500 measures of Wine," &c. 

 I take Bates, which occurs also in another part of 

 the book spelled in the same way, to mean baths, 

 a Hebrew measure equal to 7 gallons 4 pints 

 English wine measure. (See The State of the 

 Greatest King Solomon, by G. Renolds, Bristol, 

 1721, 8vo., p. 36.) 



Issachar, p. 52. " I have not Eaten my Meat 

 alone, nor removed the Bounds and Buttles of 

 Lands." It is probable that, in the connexion of 

 the phrase buttles is synonymous with the Scotch 

 word butt, defined by Jamieson (ut sup.), " A piece 

 of ground which, in ploughing, does not form a 

 proper ridge, but is excluded as an angle;" or 

 otherwise " for a small piece of ground disjoined 

 in whatever manner from the adjacent lands;" 

 and in a general view, to the honesty of the pa- 

 triarch who had respected his neighbours' land- 

 marks, and had not encroached on his property. 



The edition from which I quote is a neat speci- 

 men of the Glasgow press in its typography. It 

 is liberally interspersed with capitals in the text, 

 and with abundance of marginal references as to 

 the heads of the subjects discoursed on. A num- 



