150 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2 nd S. IX. Feb. 25. '60. 



in prose or meeter, but merely one of the devo- 

 tional and ejaculatory prayer and meditation 

 books of which there were many about the pe- 

 riod. For specimens of these, see Bentley's Mir- 

 ror of Matrones, where that pious student of 

 Graies Inne has laid all the female authors of the 

 religious class under contribution : take for ex- 

 ample the following from among other spiritual 

 trimmings for his Seven Seuerall Lamps of Vir- 

 ginitie, 1582 : — 



" The Praiers made by the right Honourable Ladie 

 Fraunces Aburgauennie, and committed at the houre of 

 hir death to the right worshipful Ladie Marie Fane 

 (hir onlie daughter) as a Iewell of health for the Soule 

 and a perfect path to Paradise, verie profitable to be vsed 

 of Euerie faithfull Christian man and woman." 



I leave it for the better informed to say if the 

 Lady Marie Fane here alluded to, and the Lady 

 Elizabeth Fane of Herbert are not one and the 

 same person. J. 0. 



Bazels of Baize (2 nd S. ix. 90.)— I thank your 

 anonymous correspondent Zo. for the information 

 which he has given me respecting " bazels of 

 baize ;" but I cannot commend either the cour- 

 tesy of his language, or the clearness of his style. 



This is far from being the first time that I have 

 noticed epithets, implications, and expressions 

 disfiguring the pages of " N. & Q.," which would 

 not have been used in conversation between gen- 

 tlemen ; or which, if inadvertently introduced, 

 would have been immediately explained or re- 

 tracted. I am not the only reader of " N. & Q." 

 who thinks that a reformation in this respect 

 would improve the character, and increase the 

 circulation of that very useful miscellany. 



Pishet Thompson. 



Stoke Newington. 



Noah's Ark (2 nd S. ix. 64.) — The word in 

 Genesis, nsfl, taivah, which we render ark, is 

 translated by the Septuagint Kigwrbs, a chest. Jo- 

 sephus describes it by \dpva£, a chest or coffin ; so 

 does Nicolaus of Damascus, as quoted by Jose- 

 phus. The same word in Exodus ii. 3. is trans- 

 lated by the Septuagint $[§i, the Egyptian word 

 (theevi) for chest, which is identical with H^ri ; and 

 as this word does not belong to the Shemitic 

 family, we may conclude that it is Egyptian, and 

 foreign to ithe Hebrew. In addition to this, the 

 form of this floating chest as given in Genesis, the 

 breadth of which was one-sixth of its length, the 

 height three-fifths of its breadth, with a it of, 

 comparable to a lid, sloping from a ridge with an 

 inclination of one in fifteen (4° nearly), together 

 with its four floors and the partitions therein, 

 made the word chest a more suitably descriptive 

 term than that of ship; for, with the exception of 

 its capacity for floating, it was unlike a ship, 

 having no keel, no stem or stern, no rudder, no 

 mast, no sail, no oar, no anchor and no cable. It 



was therefore not fitted nor destined for any voy- 

 age. The form of Noah's ark may be readily 

 conceived from inspection of one of our canal 

 boats when covered with tarpaulins, if the stem 

 and stern be cut off", and the ends be built up 

 square and perpendicular ; the stem and stern 

 are required to enable such boats to cut the 

 water, and to steer, so as to avoid passing barges ; 

 but these properties were not required in Noah's 

 ark. It may be presumed that Noah's ark did 

 not encounter very stormy weather, as it was not 

 adapted to scud before a gale of wind. In other 

 respects it appears to have been admirably adapted 

 for a floating habitation. I may add that there 

 can be no just pretension to consider such a float 

 as " the perfection of naval architecture," the 

 latter calling into exercise the highest branches 

 of pure and mixed mathematics. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



There does not appear to be any adequate 

 foundation for those traditional representations, 

 which exhibit Noah's Ark with a " flat bottom and 

 gable roof." With regard to the fitness cf the 

 Ark as a ship afloat, it is a curious fact that, in 

 the early part of the seventeenth century, the 

 Dutch began to adopt the practice of building 

 what have been called " Noachian " ships. These 

 were no other -than vessels constructed according 

 to the exact proportions of Noah's Ark, as given 

 Gen. vi. 15. ; ami they were found to answer re- 

 markably well, both for stowage and for sailing. 

 The earliest account of them which I have met 

 with is in the " Area Noa, sive Historia," 8fc. 

 Lugd. Bat. 1666, a small work by G. Hornius, 

 who relates: "Primum in Hollandia Petrum 

 Jannsen, . . . . et ipsum in ea urbe [Horn, in W. 

 Friesland] famosum civem, unam atque alteram 

 anno htijus seculi quarto [1604] secundum Area? 

 Noas proportionem navim .... struendam cu- 

 rasse. Unam longitudine cxx. pedum, latitudine 

 xx., profunditate xii." (p. 26.) 



Here it will be observed that the dimensions in 

 feet, 120, 20, 12, coincide, in their relative pro- 

 portion, with those of Noah's Ark in cubits, 300, 

 50, 30 ; each proportion, reduced to lowest terms, 

 being 30, 5, 3. 



These Noachian ships, according to Hornius, 

 though at first much ridiculed by seafaring men, 

 were soon found so serviceable as to overcome all 

 prejudice. They stowed, he says, one-third more 

 than other vessels requiring the same number of 

 hands, and were faster sailers ; so that, though 

 not found available for warlike purposes, they 

 were generally adopted by the Dutch in times of 

 peace. "Hujusmodi navium usus, durantibus in- 

 duces, passim apud Batavos invaluit." (Hornius, 

 P-27.) 



The "Area Noa?," which is pictured in the title- 

 page of Hornius's little book, is round-bottomed, 

 not flat. And if we are also to take it, which 



