But before I dismiss you I shall not omit to entertain you with a few other queries, whereof perhaps you have not taken much notice. An pestis sit ex lege naturæ, ut dubitat Cardanus; id est, ne terra hominum numero non sufficeret? An detur pestis artificialis, "uti fertur de pulvere et unguento pestifero in peste Mediolanensi ?" An pisces sint a peste immunes? An a mundo condito plures occiderit pestis an gladius? An dentur temperamenta aloimodea pesti parum aut nibil subdita? Cur inter maximas Europæ urbes pestis Lutetiæ minus grassetur? Cum pestis sudoribus optimè discutiatur, cur detur pestis sudatoria, ut sudor Anglicus? An pestis sit perpetuo ambulatoria, nunquam ubique extincta? An ubicunque grassetur pestis, quatuor tempora, id est, principii incrementi status et declinationis, manifeste absolvet? An non æque mirum sit, quomodo desinat quam quomodo inciperit pestis? Cur in peste Hebraica nulla fiat mentio de separatione sanorum ab infectis, quæ tamen specialiter notatur in lepra? Unde verbum plague, emphatice pestem significans apud Anglos? An musica conferat in sananda peste? Questio oritur a praxi Thaletis Cretensis, qui pestem Spartanam musica curasse dicitur? Plutarch. An qui carbunculis et bubonibus liberantur a peste, sanantur simul a lue venerea? An quis variolis et peste simu laboret? An aeri infecto purgando sulphurata non præstent aromaticis; quibus tamen maxime secundum Galenum usus est Hippocrates? An balsamum sulphuris non sit addendum Theriacis ? An alexipharmacis absq. opio compositis sit nimis fidendum? A BRIEF REPLY TO SEVERAL QUERIES. [MS. SLOAN. 1827.] "AN Irish soldier who died phrenitical, in the hospital of Paris, made great vociferations, always having in his mouth words of this sound, bebeithe, bebaithe, bekelle; scarce affording any other words to any question or proposal; and therefore some, conceiving it had been his native language, brought one of his country unto him, who could make nothing of it." This account of yours seemed not at first very strange unto me, as I conceived them to be some fantastical words, proceeding from his phrenzy: nor could I afford any sense or solution thereof, till I fell upon the Epistle of Johannes Milesius unto Georgius Sabinus, De Funeribus Borussorum; whereof I found this description. "Cum ad sepulchrum effertur cadaver, plerique in equis funus prosequuntur, et currum obequitant quo cadaver vehitur, eductisque gladiis verberant auras, vociferantes, geygeithe, begaithe, pekelle; id est, aufugite, vos dæmones, in infernum!" Now, therefore, this person, having been a soldier about Russia, and under the Poles in Prussia, might probably have heard of this custom; and so, in the delirium and suggestion from his inflamed spirits, might fall into like apprehension of evil spirits, which produced this iterated conjuration from him. Upon an old picture of a man riding upon a bear, and a dead torn horse lying by. He that would amuse himself about odd pictures, especially of bears, may have enough to do to interpret the prophetical figures of Anselmus, and Abbot Joachim, which have some times passed under the name of the magical figures of Paracelsus, and after set forth by Paulus de la Scala; wherein you may meet with no less than three bears in one figure, one upon the pope's shoulders, and two by his sides. But, as for this picture, I am not of your opinion, that it is some emblematical piece, but rather historical, and made out of the legend of St. Corbinian, bishop of Freisingen, in Bavaria, who, travelling towards Rome, and coming late to a town in the Alps, when the gates were shut, was fain to lodge abroad, and his horse, straying, was killed and torn by a bear; which news being brought unto him by his servant Ansericus, he bade him go boldly on, and put the saddle of the horse upon the bear: which being done, St. Corbinian rode upon the bear to Rome, and then dismissed him. As to your other question, how the common expression, 'to tell noses,' implying the number of persons, came up, I can return you no distinct original, either for the time or occasion; and perhaps there needed no other than to account by the most visible and extant part of the face, except it had some such original as is to be met with in the history of Cuspinianus, concerning the great slaughter which Bajazet the second made of the Christian Hungarians and Croatians. "Maxima clades illata est, et septem millia hominum uno prelio interfecta. Victor hostis ut cæsorum numerus commodius iniretur, nares jacentium exsectas baltheolisque insertas secum extulit ;" and so in a short way, by telling the number of the noses which were brought to him, he knew how many he had slain in that battle. But, before I conclude, give me leave to propose these few queries concerning epitaphs unto you. ..... 1 Whether the epitaph of . . . . . ' in Herodotus be not the most ancient in good history or record? 2 Though Joshua be said by Rabbins to have had the sun upon his tomb, and we find, in the annals of Saliom, an epitaph of Abel, yet whether, from any good account, the ancient Hebrews used epitaphs? 1 ... .] Left blank in original. 2 Saliom.] "Salian."-Crossley. Whither siste viator be not improperly used in church epithets; that form being proper unto sepulchres placed of old by highways, and where travellers daily passed? Whether jocular and enigmatical epitaphs be allowable? What to think of epitaphs upon brutes, as that upon Boristhenes, the horse of Adrian? and that upon Roldano, Prince Doria's dog, still to be seen and read in his garden at Genoa? When that form of vlade xeiras, or hic jacet, came up, or where the most ancient to be met with in that form? What to think, that in the great number of old epitaphs and inscriptions collected by Gruterus, there are so few persons above fifty or sixty years old? What to think of that inscription set down by Procopius,3 upon a pillar not far from Tingis, "Nos Maurisi sumus qui fugimus a facie Jehoschuæ filii Nunis predatoris?" As for the other queries concerning John Port, Lammas, and O sapientia! upon the 16th of December, I must crave your patience till another opportunity. Upon the picture of a learned physician, Mr. S. of Bury, not drawn at large, but to the waist, was this obscure inscription, Hic meus Nausiphanes ut abortivus fuit olim The first part I remember to have read either in the Fragments of Lucillius, or some ancient poet, in this order: Nausiphanes. hic meus esto The second is in the third Satire of Horace, Adpellat Pætum pater; et Pullum, male parvus Si cui filius est, ut abortivus fuit olim Sisyphus. Nausiphanes I find mentioned as a philosopher in Cicero, De Natura Deorum. It is a name not easily to be met with, 3 Procopius.] This epitaph is also mentioned by Bochart.-Gr. either historically for any person, or grammatically for any signification; but literally expresseth "appearing in ships." Sisyphus was a person of short and low stature, and a famous dwarf of Marc Antony, Staturæ vix bipedalis, as Torrentius upon that place. And therefore this inscription seems to refer unto the picture, name, stature, or all; that is, "this my Nausiphanes, this curtailed and small piece which you behold drawn scarce to the waist, and as a man appearing, or as far as a man appeareth, above the deck of a ship, is such another as was Sisyphus, the dwarf of Antonius, of short and abortive stature, or much about the same measure." A thick piece of lead, about the compass of half a crown, found near North Walsham, in Norfolk. This piece upon one side containeth the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, with their names. On the other side this inscription: BONIFACIUS VIII. This seems to have been the seal of a papal bull. Boniface VIII was the first pope who introduced the solemn celebration of jubilees at Rome; and, to attract the greater concourse, sent bulls abroad into most part of Christendom, with indulgences and pardons unto such as should resort unto Rome. Of some of these bulls this might be the seal. Upon a copper medal sent me, of the compass of a shilling, but the figures much embossed. Upon the obverse side it representeth the head of Malatesta, with this inscription: Sigismundus Pandulphus Malatesta. Upon the reverse an arm extended out of the sky, with a rod in the hand. The inscription: Pontificii exercitus Imp. MCCCCXLVII. 4 This piece seems to have been made in honour of Pandulphus Malatesta, the Venetian general against the Bohemians, Istrians, and Furlans; more particularly for a great overthrow given them at Udine, where he took about seven hundred prisoners; for which the Venetians highly honoured him, and purchased for him the house of Luigi Taneri, in Furlans.] Malatesta defeated the These are probably the Furlans here Lord of Forli, in Italy, along with Sforza. meant. X |