Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/330

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322


NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. APRIL 26, 1902.


ludith;* and in Larousse's 'Grand Diction- naire' (s.v. 'Candace') we are told (no authority being cited) that the eimuch was called Judas. If Indich, however, be the true reading, and is to be referred to the queen, as A Lapide supposes, it may simply represent the mode of spelling the name adopted in the Ethiopia version of the New Testament. For there, though the Greek K is regularly represented in other proper names, such as Caiaphas, Cana, Cornelius, by the letter corresponding to the Hebrew p, in this passage of the Acts Philip's convert is described as " eunuch of Queen '#endeke ("Hezewa ba 'Hendekes negesheta- ), the initial of KavSa/o? being here represented by the rough breathing (corresponding to the Hebrew n, Arabic kha), and the -s of the genitive, as previously stated, retained, as it also is in the Coptic (Boheiric) version. Bruce also w rites (' Travels,' vol. iv. p. 529) : "There is a tradition at Chendi that a woman whose name was Hendaqui once governed all that country ; whence we might imagine that this was part of the kingdom of Candace ; for if we write this name in Greek letters, it will corne to no other than Hendaqui, the native or mistress of Chendi or Chandi."

Several legends connect the eunuch with India. In the 'Synopsis de Apostolis et Discipulis Domini,' ascribed to Dorotheas Tyrius, it is stated that he preached in Arabia Felix, in the island of Taprobana (Ceylon), and throughout the whole Erythraean region. His tomb in the island just mentioned became famous for miracles, and, according to the

  • Historise Indicse ' (vol. iii.) of Petrus Massaeus,

cited by A Lapide, I.e., the footprint on Adam's Peak, said by the natives to be the Buddha's, was claimed for him by the Chris- tians. As this celebrated mountain was in the territory of the ancient kingdom of Kandy, the resemblance of that name to the queen's may have helped to localize the story. Names similar in sound occur also in Buddhist literature, Gautama's charioteer being called A r andaka, his horse Kamthaka, &c. ; and it is a somewhat curious coincidence that, while the sixtieth chapter of the first book of the ' Mahavagga,' one of the most ancient scrip- tures of the southern Buddhist Church, con- tains a reference to the transgressions of a novice named Kanaka and of a Bhikkhuni also named Kanaka, the very next chaptei (the sixty-first) states the law regarding the exclusion of eunuchs from orders, agreeing

  • So the name Judith is invariably printed ii

works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and it is obvious that one of these names more probably the latter, may be the result of a typo graphical error.


with that in the Apostolical Canons (' Const Apost.,' book viii.).

Candace seems to be the New Testamen antitype of the Queen of Sheba. Josephua 'Antiquities,' ii. 10, 2) identifies 2a/?a with yteroe, and in another place ('Ant.,' viii. 6, 5) represents the queen who visited Solomon as reigning over Egypt and Ethiopia. The Evangelists seem to nave taken the same view. Whiston holds that the expres- 1 sions "Queen of the south" and "Camel

rom the uttermost parts of the earth "

Matthew xii. 42, Luke xi. 31) must refer to I

he Arabian Saba ; but the former would have i

aeen theEthiopian queen's Egyptian title, and ; the latter reminds us of the Homeric description [* Od.,' i. 23) of her people as ca-^aToi dvSpuv. Fuerst, too, inclines to identify with Meroe the Sheba of Ezekiel xxvii. 22, whence spices, precious stones, and gold were brought to Tyre. Compare the queen's costly gifts to Solomon (1 Kings x. 2), the allusions in Psalm Ixviii. (Ixvii., Sept.) 29, 31, and the reference to the queen's treasures in Acts viii. 27.

Has the introduction of the name into Longfellow's poem * Helen of Tyre' any other source than the poet's fancy 1 Simon Magus loq.i addressing his Helen :

Thou hast been Queen Candace,

And Helen of Troy, and shalt be

The Intelligence Divine !

It seems doubtful which queen of the name is here alluded to. A reference to her who was the first royal convert to Christianity (unless Abgar of Edessa is ungallant enough to claim precedence) would not very well accord with the fact that the Acts and ecclesiastical tra- dition represent her as a contemporary of the Father of Heresy. But we must remem- ber Horace's dictum, ' A. P.,' 9, 10.

JOHN MA.C-CARTHY.


"J. HALLS BOOKE." SUCH is the inscription on the back of the engraved title-page in a copy of Edmund Bol ton's 'Nero Caesar,' 1627, in my hands. This inscription is repeated on the reverse side of the printed title-page, dated 1624, in the same volume. Besides, there are a number of manuscript marginal annotations scattered throughout the work, which I shall print entire in this note. If " J. Hall " was the annotator, the two autograph inscrip- tions are in a firm, clear, bold hand ; while the annotations themselves, as might be expected, are written in a much smaller and more contracted character. If I might venture an opinion, I should say that they