2»<» S. IX. Mar. 3. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



169 



trifling revision. Far sinquante lead sinqaunte; for 

 noun read noum. I omitted to state that the work- 

 man who executed this monument lias cut some 

 straight lines between every line of the inscrip- 

 tion, apparently for his guidance. Now, after the 

 word Ave is the space of two lines and a quarter 

 not filled up : supposing that this was left blank 

 originally, and no portion of the inscription obli- 

 terated (which is doubtful), could it have been 

 designedly to add the date of the decease of Robt. 

 de H. at a subsequent period? Cl. Hopper. 



ELUCIDATION OF DURIE CLAVIE AT 

 BURGHEAD. 



(2 nd S. ix. 38. 106.) 



It is singular, but I think capable of proof, that 

 language, manners, and customs remain longest 

 uneftaced in the remotest and most distant cor- 

 ners in which they were once practised. In Por- 

 tugal the Roman language is still so identical 

 with the modern vernacular that Southey has 

 recorded a hymn to St. Ursula in good Portu- 

 guese, which would pass for classic latinity. It 

 begins — 



" Ursula, divina Virgo! famosos canto triumphos," 



and in that country the well-known perversion of 

 the h and v, in the old Roman pun, " SiJere est 

 rim re," is still found in full practice amongst the 

 uneducated : thus at an estalagem on the great 

 route from Lisbon to Oporto, I read on a small 

 board over the door, " acqui se Jend tuion &ino " 

 for the orthodox acqui se vend fawn vino ; and 

 farther on crossing by a ferry a river, which the 

 ferryman called .Bouga to Alcergaria, you will 

 find them written on the maps Vouga and Al&er- 

 geria respectively. 



In England the curious recumbent cross-legged 

 figures on our altar-tombs are confined exclu- 

 sively to the corner most distant from Asia, where 

 they undoubtedly had their* origin in the Mithria- 

 tie sculptures and emblems from Hindostan, and 

 from Lake Van, and the caverned temples of Ke- 

 refta. 



The Scandinavian Mythology and language 

 found an asylum beyond the boundaries of its first 

 practice, and almost beyond the limits of Europe, 

 in far distant Iceland, whence the Edda had to be 

 restored to teach the Northmen their ancient be- 

 lief and tongue. 



It is not, therefore, with any wonder we find 

 Scotland rife with reminiscences of Roman creed 

 and customs. Notwithstanding the severity of 

 his climate, the Highlander still clings to the Ro- 

 man tunic, shown in his kilt, and the plaid or 

 maund of the shepherd, representing the Roman 

 as his clothing. In their mythology we find 

 the Beltain of Pennant and Jamieson as an acknow- 

 ledged sacrificial ritual to the deity Bel or Belinus, 



and I have little doubt that a short statement will 

 show the same for the curious custom at Burg- 

 head of the " durie cliivie," and will also prove it 

 eminently mythical and Roman. 



The earliest indigenous deity of preromnnic 

 Italy was undoubtedly Janus, and his worship was 

 still kept up even when the conquering legion- 

 aries of the commonwealth had extended their 

 knowledge of foreign deities and brought home 

 the gods of Homer and Greece to usurp the 

 places of those which they long venerated from 

 Etruria. Ovid, in his Fasti, lib. i., is very dif- 

 fuse in his investigations on the nature and pro- 

 perties of the singular Bifrons: — 



'■ Quern tamen esse Deum te dicam Jane biformis? 

 Nam tibi par nullum Gnecia numen habet,'' 



and the resolution of this question by the deity 

 runs through many lines, and principally turns 

 upon his epithet as claviger, which, from the dif- 

 fering forms of davits and clavis, is explained as 

 key or club-bearer, and its consequences as jani- 

 tor. 



In the second volume of my Shakespeare's Puclt 

 and his Folkslore now under the press, it is part of 

 my argument to prove that Janus is identical with 

 Thor, from identity of name ; the etymology of 

 Janus from Janua being universally admitted, as 

 Thor in German still means a gateway, and Thiir 

 a smaller door. An undoubted British coin 

 with the double head of Janus from Ruding's 

 British Coinage, and the inscriptions ctjno and 

 camu on obverse and reverse, is additional corro- 

 boration, as well as many conformities of ritual, 

 particularly the curious Roman custom of shutting 

 the temple of Janus in time of peace, and opening 

 it during the contention of arms, coupled with 

 Thor's and den wildesJiigers riding out of the old 

 castle of Schnellarts in the Odenwald, whenever 

 war impends over Fatherland, as a correlative be- 

 lief. If, therefore, instead of Janus Claviger we 

 put as a mere translation or synonym of the Roman 

 deity our indigenous Thor or Thur, dropping the 

 Saxon D for the plain D, we gain the identical 

 durie clavie of our Scotch countrymen with merely 

 the addition of their usual diminutive, and thus all 

 the practices recorded by the correspondent who 

 broached the subject are very perfect portions of 

 a ceremonial ritual to the oldest European deity 

 known, whether Janus or Thor. 



William Bell, Phil. Dr. 



31. Burton Street, Euston Square. 



PLAYING CARDS. 



(2» d S. viii.432.) 



The pack of cards mentioned by C. F. is a com- 

 plete set of Taints, or Tarocchi cards, and probably 

 of Italian manufacture. The marks of suits men- 

 tioned by him, goblets, clubs (actual clubs or batons, 



