2" 1 S. IX. J ax. 7. *G0.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



LOXDOX, SATURDAY, JANUARY!, 18C0. 



H». 210. — CONTENTS. 



NOTES: — The Bonasus, the Bison, and the Bubalus, 1 — 

 The Beffana, an Italian Twelfth Night Custom, 5 — The 



— Aldine Aratus, lb. — Bankrupts during the Reign of 

 Elizabeth, 6 — The King's Scutcheon, lb. — Alexander of 

 Abonoteichos and Joseph Smith — Peele's "Edward I." 

 lb. 



Minor Notes : — Sir Isaac Newton on the Longitude — 

 Relics of Archbishop Leighton — Longevity of Clerical In- 

 cumbents—Carthaginian Building Materials — Swift's 

 Cottage at Moor Park, 8. 



QUERIES : — Rev. Thomas Bayes, Ac., 9 — The Throw for 

 Life or Death, 10 — An Excellent Example: Portrait of 

 Richard II. — Peppercomb — Oliver Goldsmith — Memo- 

 rial of a Witch — Yoftregere — Crispin Tucker — The 

 Four Fools of the Mumbles — Cleaning a Watch on the 

 Summit of Salisbury Spire — Accident on the Medway — 

 Temple Bar Queries — Translations mentioned by Moore 

 — Bishop preaching to April Fools — The Yea-and-Nay Aca- 

 demy of Compliments — Ballad of the Gunpowder Treason 



— Dispossessed Priors and Prioresses — Supervisor — Ame- 

 rica known to the Chinese, &c, 11. 



Queries with Answers : —A Case for the Spectacles — 

 " Trepasser : " to die — Life of LordClive— " A propos de 

 bottes " — " The Ragman's Roll " — Claude, Pictures by, 13. 



REPLIES: — AVatson, Home, and Jones, 14— George Gas- 

 coigne the Poet, 15 — Barony of Broughton: Remarkable 

 Trial, 10 — Bocardo — Horse-talk — Claudius Gilbert — 



— Heraldic Drawings and Engravings — Three Church- 

 wardens — Notes on Regiments — Rev. William Dunkiu, 

 D.D. — Sir Peter Gleane — Spoon Inscription — Mrs. Myd- 

 dleton's Portrait — Lingard's " England : " Edinburgh and 

 Quarterly Reviewers, 17. 



Notes on Books, &c. 



fiattts. 



THE BONASUS, THE BISON, AND THE 

 BUBALUS. 



Herodotus, in the passage in which he describes 

 the camels of Xerxes as attacked by liens on their 

 march across the upper part of the Chalcidic pe- 

 ninsula, through the Paeonian and Crestonian ter- 

 ritories, mentions incidentally that there were, in 

 his own time, wild oxen in this region, whose horns, 

 of immense size, were imported into Greece (vii. 

 126. ; see " N. & Q.," 2 nd S. viii. 81.). 



Aristotle adverts to the bonasus in several pas- 

 sages of his works on natural history ; and in one 

 he gives a detailed description of the animal 

 (Hist. An., ii. 1. and 16.; ix. 45. ; De Part. An., 

 iii. 2.). The following is a summary of his ac- 

 count : — The bonasus, in appearance, size, and 

 voice, resembles an ox. It has a mane ; its colour 

 is tawny ; and it is hunted for the sake of its 

 flesh, which is eatable. Its horns are curved, and 

 turned towards one another, so as to be useless 

 for attack. Their length is somewhat more than a 

 (nrtdafiij, or palm (= 9 inches) ; their thickness is 

 such that each contains nearly half a chous (= 

 nearly 3 pints), and their colour is a shining 

 black. It is a native of Poaonia, and is found on 

 Mount Messapius, which forms the boundary of 

 Paeonia and Miedica. The Paconians call it by 

 the name of monajms. (H. A., ix. 45. ; compare 

 Camus, Notes, vol. ii. p. 135.) 



The preceding account of Aristotle is repeated 

 in an abridged form in Pseud- Aristot. de Mircib. 1., 

 where the name of the mountain is corrupted into 

 "Hoaivos, that of the animal into fi6\tv6os, and the 

 Paonian name into fj.6vu.mos ; and in Antig. Caryst., 

 Hist. Mir., 53., where the name of the mountain 

 is corrupted into Mtipcracos, and the Paconian name 

 of the animal into ixovutos. There is a short 

 notice of the same animal in JElian, Nat. An., vii. 

 3., where its Paeonian name is said to be n6vui/.. 

 The account of Aristotle is briefly reproduced by 

 Pliny, N. H, viii. 16. 



Messapius is known as the name of a mountain 

 in Bceotia (^sch. Ag., 284. ; Strab. ix. 2. § 13.),. 

 and as the ethnic appellative of tribes in Locris 

 and Iapygia (Thuc, iii. 101.) ; but the mountain 

 of that name on the borders of Paeonia is only- 

 mentioned in the passage of Aristotle just cited,. 

 Paeonia is the country lying between Macedonia 

 and the territory inhabited by the Thracian tribe 

 of the Maedi. (See Dr. Smith's Diet, of Anc. 

 Geogr., art. M.xdi.) 



Pausanias, writing about 170 a.d., and there- 

 fore at an interval of about 500 years from Aris- 

 totle, states that he had seen Paeonian bulls in 

 the Roman amphitheatre, which he describes as 

 shaggy over the whole body, but particularly on 

 the breast and neck (ix. 21. 2.). He likewise re- 

 cords a brazen head of a bison, or Paeonian bull r 

 dedicated at Delphi by Dropion, son of Deon,. 

 king of Paeonia ; and he proceeds to give a de- 

 tailed account of the manner in which these savage 

 animals were hunted. He speaks of them as ai>. 

 extant species, and says that they are the most 

 difficult of all animals to take alive (x. 13.). 



Oppian, the author of the Cynegetiea, a poem 

 composed about 200 a.d., describes the bison 

 (fiio-uv), and states that its name was derived from 

 its being an inhabitant of Bistonian Thrace. It 

 has (he says) a tawny mane, like a lion. Its 

 horns are pointed, and turned upwards, not out- 

 wards ; hence 1 it throws men and animals upright 

 into the air. The tongue of the bison is narrow 

 and rough, and with it he licks off the flesh of his 

 prey (Cyn., ii. 159—175.). 



Athenaeus, xi. c. 51., illustrates at length the 

 ancient custom of drinking from horns ; and he 

 cites Theopompus as stating, in the 2nd book of 

 his Philippica, that the kings of Paeonia, in whose 

 dominions there were oxen with horns so large as 

 to hold 3 and 4 choes (9 and 12 quarts), used 

 them as drinking cups, with silver and gold rims 

 round the mouth. 



An epigram in the Anthology, attributed to the 

 poet Antipater (who lived about 100 b.c), de- 

 scribes the head of a wild bull, dedicated by 

 Philip of Macedon, which he had killed in the 

 chase, upon the ridges of Orbelus. This mountain 

 was situated on the Paeonian frontier of his king- 

 dom (Anth. Pal, vi. 115.). An extant epigram of 



