s. V.APRIL 28, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
345
regiments as the price. Probably both state
ments are excessive. I can find no mention
of the incident in Carlyle. Some things?
however, are certain. Frederick William was
not the man to give without receiving. He
did not value art or art-treasures in any way
Augustus, a brave man of enormous physica
strength, valued frail porcelain ; Frederick
William, a coward and a bully, adored big
soldiers. The Tsar got an " amber cabinet,'
a valuable yacht, a statuette of sornewhal
scandalous tradition, and other things ir
exchange for a yearly hundred of these value
less giants. Frederick William was frightenec
of the Tsar. He thought the Elector o:
Saxony was not so terrible, and sent his
recruiting scoundrels to kidnap big men in
Saxony. This was too much for even the
easygoing Augustus. A threat was enough
for a man of Frederick William's kidney ; anc
henceforth big Saxons had to be paid for
After all, " August the physically strong," as
Carlyle calls him, was a more estimable being
than the King of Prussia. If this incident it
true, it is pleasant to think, here at al
events, how much wiser he proved himself
The collections of Augustus remain a wondei
for their time. The useless Potsdam big men
of the ignorant Prussian were kicked igno-
miniously from history by Frederick the
Great. GEORGE MARSHALL.
Sefton Park, Liverpool.
In a journal kept by my grandfather, during the grand tour made by him to various Euro- pean courts in company with Lord Herbert and Dr. Coxe, he mentions seeing at Dresden, on 22 September, 1777, twenty-two jars of Indian china which Frederick William I., King of Prussia, had given to Frederick Augustus, King of Poland, for eight hundred dragoons mounted and equipped.
W. C. L. FLOYD.
GOTHIC " SPAURDS " (9 th S. v. 148, 273). It is usual to connect this with the O.H.G. spurt, " stadium "; and perhaps it may be related to G. Spur and to E. spur. But any connexion with E. sport is out of the question, as this is merely a clipped form of disport, and is of Latin origin, from L. portdre.
WALTER W. SKEAT.
THE OLDEST TRADING CORPORATION (6 th S. vi. 288, 456, 479). I trust the revival of this subject will be stimulated by the recently published ' Story of the Hudson Bay Com- pany,' vide Athenceum, 24 March, p. 359. And may I be permitted to ask if there are any printed records relating to "the Ham- burgh merchants, first incorporated anno 1296," mentioned on the fourteenth page of
the introduction in 'The Modern Gazetteer,'
by Mr. Salmon, 1746 ; also references to
trading corporations ante 1700 1 H. J. B.
COCKAYNE FAMILY (9 th S. v. 267). In a book entitled ' Cockayne Memoranda,' printed for private circulation in 1869 at Congleton, Miss PEACOCK will find full accounts of the various branches of the Cockayne family, in Derby- shire, Warwickshire, Bedfordshire, and other counties, with portraits, pedigrees, and views of mansions and monuments. I possess a copy given to me, as I am connected by marriage with the Cockayne family. A second volume is promised to complete the work. ISAAC TAYLOR.
MOUNTED INFANTRY IN EARLY TIMES (9 th S. v. 146). If COL. MALET will refer to Kawlinson's * Sixth Oriental Monarchy ' he will find a still earlier reference to mounted archers. The Romans led one of their highly disciplined, heavily accoutred armies into Parthia ; the Parthians, mounted and armed with bows and arrows, lightly equipped, and mobile to a degree, walked or rather rode round the Roman army and destined it. I regret I cannot give the page ; I have not the volume by me. Is there any earlier reference than this to the same kind of force 1 FRANK PENNY, LL.M.
Fort St. George.
PYTHAGORAS AND CHRISTIANITY (9 th S. v. 248). The Church has always approved of the particular branch of Pythagorean symbolism alluded to in the quotation from Bernard of Morlaix, who, by the way, is canonized by M. without any sufficient autho- rity. What is referred to by the "Via dextera Pythagorsea " is the letter Y, which the Pythagoreans took as a symbol of the two paths of life open to youth the right- hand narrow path of virtue (" via dextera ") and the broad left-hand path (" via Iseya " or 'lata") of vice (cf. Auson., 'Idyll.,' xii. 'De Literis Monosyllabis,'
Pyth agorae bivium ram is pateo ambiguis Y ; also Persius, iii. 56 ; Lact., y. 3, &c.). In the early centuries of Christianity the grow- ing Church was considerably influenced by
- he Neo-Py thagorean and Neo-Platonic philo-
sophies, but they were not definitely recog- lized. NE QUID NIMIS.
" SERIFF " (9 th S. v. 246). I found this word n the first four dictionaries I consulted. It s ceriph and seriph in Webster ; seriph, serif, ind ceriph in the ' Century Dictionary '; '.eriph in Ogilvie ; and ceriph in the * H.E.D.' Dhe last quotes from ' N. & Q.' the suggestion
