378
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. xn. NOV. is, 1915.
It commences as follows (I give, of course,
the English translation) :
"One only kid, one only'ikid, which my father bought for two zuzim And a cat came and de- voured the kid which my father bought for two zuzim And a dog came and bit the cab," &c.
To give the whole story consecutively : "Then the angel of death came and slew the slayer, who had slain* the ox, which had drunk the water, which had extinguished the fire, which had "burnt the stick, which had smitten the dog, which had bitten the cat, which had devoured the kid, which my father had bought for two zuzim ; one only kid, one only kid."
It is generally regarded as a parable descriptive of incidents in the history of the Jewish nation, one interpretation of which is the following. Israel is the one peculiar people upon earth whom God purchased to Himself by the two tables of the law. The cat represents Babylon, the domestic member of the family of which the lion is a member. The Jewish nation was swallowed up in the Babylonian captivity. The dog refers to Persia, by which Babylon was overthrown. The stick was the Grecian empire. The fire ivas Rome, which overcame Greece and spread devastation around by the extent of its conquests. The water refers to the wresting of the Holy Land from the hands of the Romans. The remainder of the parable points to the future: the ox repre- sents the European nations by whom the Holy Land will be delivered from the pos- session of the Turks the slayer relates to a fearful war which is to follow and the angel of death to a pestilence in which all the enemies of Israel will perish.
JAS. M. J. FLETCHER. Wimborne Minster Vicarage.
{See 4 S. vii. 23 ; 5 S. iv. 29 ; 7 8. iv. 67 ; xii.oOS ; -88. i. 75, 152.1
REX, OR ST. GEORGE REX. I think that there was some note or query in ' N. & Q.' or ^elsewhere not very long ago concerning the >claim of some family called Rex to illegiti- mate descent from (?) George IV. Possibly the following extract may be of interest.
It is from ' A Dictionary of ^All Religions, and Religious Denominations,' by T. Williams, third London edition, date of ^Preface November, 1823, p. 302, under ~* Southcottians, the followers of Joanna Southcott ' :
"So lately as last December (1822), it was an- -nounced in a long advertisement, inserted in the J\ ew Times of Dec. 28th, that ' On the 17th instant, Mrs. John Phillips, Islington, (was delivered) of a son, who (says the apparently insane writer) is to oe named Daniel, Shiloh, Jiidah, St. George JRex' ; and all the descendants of both ' Isaac and Ishmael,'
are requested particularly to notice this ; but what
is become of 81. George Rex, the Editor has not
since heard."
That St. George Rex or Rex was to be a surname instead of Phillips appears to be meant.
It will be remembered that Joanna Southcott, who died 27 Dec., 1814, had early in her last year announced that she was to bring forth the Shiloh promised by Jacob. Presumably Mrs. John Phillips, who chose " Shilon " as one of her infant's names, was one of the followers of the " prophetess," even after the latter' s death.
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
SHELLEY'S " PECKSIE." In Dowden's ' Life of Shelley ' (i. 523) we read : " Why Mary was ' Pecksie ' must remain a Shelley an mystery " ; and the foot-note conjectures a possible connexion with a book of Mrs. Trimmer's. Seeing that at this precise time, June, 1815, Shelley was living jointly with Mary Godwin in a fairyland of their own making, and singly in the county of Devon, where he was house-hunting, is it not possible that he adopted the local term " pixy " and bestowed it playfully upon the one to whom he was then the " elfin knight " ? It would at least have been in keeping with all the circum stances. " Pixy " is also spelt " picksey " or " picksie," as in " picksey- stool" (mushroom), and, by metathesis, " piskie," as in " piskie-ring " : the vowel- shifting from i into e may have been quite phonetically accidental on Shelley's part, and, once accomplished, have been per- 1 etuated. G. L. DE ST. M. W.
Hampstead.
WE must request correspondents desiring in-
formation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
ROYAL ARTILLERY .: SWEDISH MEDAL. In Hart's 'Army List' for 1840 the services of Major Amherst Wright, Royal Artillery, include the following :
"Served the campaign of 1813 and 14 in Germany under the orders of the Prince Royal of Sweden, and was present at the siege of Wittemberg, cap- ture of Hanover and Lubeck, siege of Frederick Fort, and siege and surrender of Gluckstadt. Medal for the siege of Gluckstadt."
Is anything known about the medal ? It is probably a Swedish medal. Is there any printed account of the siege ?
J. H. LESLIE, Major.
31, Kenwood Park Road, Sheffield.
