74
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io< s. i. JAS. 2,3, 190*.
in the act at East Thurrock, Essex, and flayed
alive."
The fate of the specimen is interesting. Mr. Quekett lost it, and knew nothing for many years of what had become of it. In or about 1884, apparently, he was reading aloud to some gentlemen in the hall of the " Palace Hotel," Buxton, an account of a meet- ing of the British Association at Penzance. In this account he came across the fact that at the meeting a microscopic object, among others of special interest, had been exhibited by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, viz., a "Dane's skin," and that the specimen at Penzance had on it, word for word, what he had written on his lost treasure.
He exclaimed, "Why, this is my Dane's skin ! I lost it twenty years ago." After telling those present now he had obtained the specimen, he said aloud, " I wonder who that man is." Immediately afterwards the porter, who had heard the conversation, said, " Please, Mr. Quekett, I can tell you who that gentleman is. I was his footman and
valet for four years ; it is Mr. , who lives
at Castle, near Penzance." Mr. Quekett
wrote at once to the gentleman, whose name he does not give, claiming the specimen, and asking him how he had come into possession of it. The gentleman replied that the de- scription of the specimen and the account of the inscription were perfectly correct ; that it had been given to him by a lady in London ; that he greatly valued it ; and that should Mr. Quekett ever be in his part of the country and should wish to see it, he would have great pleasure in showing it to him. Beati possidentes.
Mr. Quekett died at the rectory, War- rington, on Good Friday, 1888. The preface of his autobiography is dated 12 January of the same year. ROBERT PIERPOINT.
St. Austin's, Warrington.
VICISSITUDES OP LANGUAGE (9 th S. x. 446 xi. 314, 356). The following notes from the Far East may be added as corroborating MR. H. LAWRENCE FORD'S reply at the second reference.
A striking instance of the languages of the conquered people becoming the study of their conquerors is furnished by Chinese. As often as China had been conquered by her neighbours, so many times has she supplanted or decomposed their languages ; thus, since the establishment of the present Manchurian Government (1G36), the Manchurians have been so assiduous in receiving the culture of the Celestials that at present their own language is becoming almost extirpated.
A few years after Kublai Khan's unparal-
leled failure in his attempts upon the
Japanese in 1281, the latter first appeared as
buccaneers on the Chinese coast. From that
time down to the seventeenth century the
Japanese played largely in the Eastern
world the part of the Normans. Their
depredations formed a constant source of
consternation among the Chinese, Coreans,
Indo-Chinese, and the peoples of Indonesia,
several principalities having been subdued
by them. Still, at present but a few words,
if any, and these limited to nouns only,
linger in those nations' languages as the
fossil fragments that mark faintly the former
power once possessed by the ever-invading
Japanese, whereas the Japanese descendants
in Indo-China and the Philippines have
entirely lost their own language.
Lately the Chinese are being extensively taught by the Japanese in the various lessons of modern civilization, in acquiring which the latter were sagacious enough to precede their old masters ; and the Chinese ought to acknowledge as an historical fact, as long as their memory shall last, the great assistance the Japanese are now rendering them. But it is very doubtful whether the Japanese language will much circulate and fix itself among the Chinese, as some enthusiasts hope. In fact, all the words necessary to these instructions are to be in Chinese, either original or japanized ; and in the latter case, owing to the identity of their writings, the Celestials, of course, would discover nothing Japanese, but solely their own vulgarism the tedious agglutinant syntax, the com- paratively scanty diction, as well as the simple insular traditions of the Japanese, being of no actual service or tempting charm to the Chinese, whose convenient mono- syllabic, very copious etymology, and variegated and comprehensive historical legends, are being more studied and availed of than ever by literary people in the Japan of to day. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.
Mount Nachi, Kii, Japan.
"GOD": ITS ETYMOLOGY (9 th S. xii. 465). The 'N.E D.,' s.v. 'God,' has the following :
" Some scholars, accepting the derivation from the root *gkeu-, ' to pour,' have supposed the etymological sense to be ' molten image ' (=Gr. XUTOI/), but the assumed development of meaning seems very unlikely."
Now Hesychius expressly ^states as follows : "Xyrov, -\(aa-Tov, KOI TO ^tap-a., Kat o eo-ros Ai'0os; i.e., "what is heaped up, a tumulus, a smooth stone" nothing whatever about a "molten image." In fact, the etymological treatment of the word in the 'N.E.D.' is not
