506
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. v. JUNE 29, 1012.
(father of the country), the popular name
for the Emperor Charles IV. Prof. Louis
Leger, Vice -President of the Institut de
France, writes that Palacky stands for
Bohemia as Guizot and Augustin Thierry
stood for France, and he may be compared,
to some extent, with our own Macaulay.
FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Streatham Common.
NORSE MYTHS ILLUSTRATED ON "ANCIENT MANX GROSSES-. A slab, 7 ft. long, which was found used as- a gatepost of a field at Jurby, Isle of Man, has alongside the shaft o'f the cross the design of Sigurd in his pit, in the act of slaying the dragon ; below he is shown sucking the thumb he had burnt in roasting the dragon's heart. One of the talking birds and Sigurd's steed Grani are also shown. Designs on other crosses include the scene of eagle-headed Odin taking a hero to Valhalla; the wind giant Hrae-Svelgr, corpse-devourer, in the form of a war eagle (or vulture) tearing the body of a hero ; and Heimdall, the warder of the gods, standing at the foot of the rainbow bridge (Bifrost), blowing a blast on his horn (Gialla) to summon the gods to their last great battle at Ragnarok, where they have to encounter the giants, demons, and powers of evil. A slab (from Malew) shows Sigurd from his pit piercing the dragon. Above, Sigurd is shown holding the wand, upon which the dragon's heart is roasting over a fire, represented by three triangular flames, and sucking his burnt thumb, which reveals to him the knowledge of what the birds around are saying. On the other side the -steed Grani is shown above ; below the panel is broken.
The three Sigurd pieces known in the Isle of Man are claimed to have been carved by the famous Gaut Bjornson of Cooly. A few years ago Mr. Kermode catalogued the ancient Manx crosses, and Canon Quine has done so recently.
WILLIAM MACARTHUR.
Dublin.
" CHAZAN." As the famous Jewish tenor of Warsaw is, or was, to sing at a con- cert in the Albert Hall, and an Ameri- can colleague of his has already given a recital in another concert hall within the last few days, the title chazan has appeared in several English papers and been trans- lated as " singing priest " and " cantor." The true explanation of his office may be found in the ' Jewish Encyclopaedia,' s.v. \Hazzan,' in which the h is guttural.
L. L. K.
" CYNICAL." I was a little surprised
not to find the Continental sense of -the
word, in German zynisch, in French cynique,
mentioned in the ' N.E.D.,' though its use
is anything but rare. One example suffices :
" Few men are cynical or cold-blooded
enough consciously to assist in the con-
tinuance of disease." G. KRUEGER.
Berlin.
" VIEING." It is curious how frequently this anomaly finds a place even in standard literature. No one thinks of deriving such a form as " dicing " from die or as " lie ing " from lie, and yet " vieing," which is an exact parallel to such flagrant absurdities, imposes on many an incautious writer. An example which has caught the eye at the moment occurs in the 3s. 6d. edition (1888) of Kings- ley's ' Westward Ho,' chap. ii. p. 46. There it is recorded how Rose Salterne had bloomed into such a winsome damsel that the ardent swains of ten miles round Bideford were enamoured of her :
" So that all along the vales of Torridge and of Taw, and even away to Clovelly (for young Mr. Cary was one of the sick), not a gay bachelor but was frowning on his fellows, and vieing with them in the fashion of his clothes," &c.
One cannot but wonder if this hardy weed began with the stately growth of the novel, and if it has persistently survived through the numerous editions that have appeared since the three-volume issue of 1855.
THOMAS BAYNE.
RHETORIQUE FAMILY. Instances of this curious name occur in the seventeenth century, though I have not come across the name at other periods. The will of Martin Stibbs of Ashbury, Berks, 6 Aug., 1628, mentions John Rhetorique, son of Gualter Rhetorique ; Richard Rhetorique and Joseph Rhetorique, sons of said Gualter Rhetorique (P.C.C. 88 Barrington). In the P.C.C. Calendar for 1666 we find a John Rhetoricke, Middlesex (122 Mico); and again in the Calendar for 1667, Walter Retoricke, Middlesex (50 Carr). F. S. SNELL.
DESTRUCTION OF A LIBRARY AT GARGE BY WELLINGTON'S ARMY. The following cutting from a catalogue (No. 241) of Mr. Edward Baker, the Birmingham book- seller, is of historical interest :
" 1032 Imperial Almanack, 1805, par Testu, Paris, thick 8vo, calf, rare, 51. This is a relic of the victorious army under the Duke of Welling- ton after Waterloo, 1815. ' In July, 1815, the English army halted in the neighbourhood of Garge, which village was completely plundered, a magnificent library was torn to pieces and
