476
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9< 8. ix. JUNE 14, 1902.
&c. It will thus be seen that " A.-S.". differs
from all the other dialects ; and I have tried
to explain, over and over again, that modern
English is not derived from the A.-S. or
Wessex dialect, but from Mercian or Anglian.
The reason why the A.-S. form is given is
because it is so easily accessible, and every
one ought to know at least the alphabet of
it. Why pronunciation should be discussed
without reference to any of the established
facts about it, I do not understand.
WALTER W. SKEAT.
EULOGIES OF THE BIBLE BY HUXLEY AND DARWIN (9 th S. ix. 328, 374, 432). Dr. John Murdoch's booklet, 'Testimonies of Great Men to the Bible and Christianity,' is pub- lished by the Religious Tract Society.
H. JOHNSON.
" LUPO-MANNARO " (9 th S. ix. 329). I am interested in learning that " lupo-mannaro " is still prevalent in Italy. It is a form of werewolfism (a subject to which I have de- voted much study), and, indeed, it is identical with it, for a few centuries ago a madman with such tendencies would have been ac- credited with a magic wolf-skin, and the devil's ointment by means of which he could drop his human form. Lycanthropy has been at one time or another prevalent in every country of Europe, England and Ire- land not excepted. But the most terrible outbreak of that disease occurred in France about three or four hundred years ago, when such maniacs were treated as emissaries of Satan and enemies of God, and as loups- garous were tortured and burnt by the hundreds. This epidemic was caused by want and the incredible hardships of peasant life. It took its imaginative form from Ger- many, though there can be little doubt that the dull greyness of the people's lives tempted many who were sane to mimic the doings of those who were mad, purely for the sake of the horrible excitement and notoriety which such a course brought upon them. In 1521 two men afflicted with this disease, then called zooanthropy, were burnt at Poligny in the Jura; and sixty years later the malady was spreading all over France, increased by the barbarous methods taken to stamp it out. CLARE JERROLD.
Hampton -on-Thames.
Although Borrow in his account of the Zincali of Spain does not allude to this curious folk-name, yet wolf-madness is pro- bably traceable to other hot countries, for, as he says, the belief in the evil eye (to which it cannot be doubted a " lupo-mannaro "
was believed to be indirectly a victim) "is
all-prevalent in countries where the sun and
moon are particularly dazzling." Perhaps a
were -wolf was originally a man who had
become mad at the glance of the moon, and
had escaped to "dree his weird" of solitary
madness in the depths of the forest i.e., if
the etymology of " were " be accepted, that
it is equivalent to the Gothic vair and the
Latin vir. The operations of the " were-
wolf " were always at night. In the Perigord
the were-wolf is called louUerou, certain
men, especially bastards, being obliged at
each full moon to transform themselves into
these diabolic beasts, who will provide a sup-
ful of horrors to any one who cares to read
about them in Mr. Baring- Gould's * Book of
Were- Wolves,' 1865. So let no one who wishes
to avoid becoming a lupo - mannaro, and
a victim to the evil eye, "sleep uncovered
beneath the smile of the moon, for her glance
is poisonous, and produces insupportable
itching in the eye, and not unfrequently
blindness "; and, in the words of Psalm cxxi. 6,
" the moon shall not smite thee by night."
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
On lycanthropy, or were- wolves, the follow- ing may be consulted : Baring-Gould, 'Book of Were- Wolves,' 1865 ; Mayo, * Popular Super- stitions '; Pusey, 'Commentary on Daniel'; Camerarius, * Living Librarie,' 1621 ; Male- branch, ' Search after Truth,' 1694, i. 267 ; C. Prieur, ' Lycanthropie,' 1596; Dendy, 'Philo- sophy of Mystery,' 1847; Begbie, 'Super- natural Illustrations,' 1851 ; Walton, ' Com- plete Angler,' 1823, pp. 124-5; Montaigne, 'Essays,' Florio, 1897, iii. 344; Gairdner, 'Early Chroniclers, England,' 1883, p. 170; J.Edwards, 'Authority of Scriptures,' 1693, i. ; Willet, 'Daniel,' 1610, pp. 136-7 ; and the indexes of ' N. & Q.' W. C. B.
" WEEK-END" (9 th S. viii. 162, 292, 414, 511). I first heard this phrase at Ripley, Derby- shire, in 1884 ; but I now constantly hear- it employed in South Wales and in London. It is evidently a case of the spread of a word owing to its usefulness.
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.
Town Hall, Cardiff.
ROSSETTI'S 'RUGGIERO AND ANGELICA' (9 th
S. ix. 425). Geomancy is a kind of divination, but I am not sure that all writers who men- tion it know exactly what it is. In the story of ' Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp ' the brother of the African magician discovers the death of his brother through geomancy. Greene in his ' Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay ' speaks of pyromancy as the means of con- trolling the spirits of fire, and geomancy of
