338
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vn. AJ-RIL 27, 1907.
Livia by the philosopher Areius Didymus of
Alexandria.
6. " Est bene non potuit dicere, clixit, erit." This is a modern (or possibly mediaeval) proverb rather than a classical quotation. J. G. Seybold in his ' Viri- darium Selectissimis Paroemiarum et Sen- tentiarum Latino- Germanicarum flosculis amoenissimum,' &c. (=' Lust - Garten/ von auserlesenen Spriichwortern,' &c.), Niirn- berg, 1677, gives on p. 154
EST, qui non potuit dicere, dixit ERIT, with the German equivalents " Alles mit der Zeit " and
Wenn etwas guts geschehen soil/ Ists heut nicht/ scnickt sichs morgen wol. EDWARD BENSLY. University College, Aberystwyth.
" WAX AND CURNELS " (10 S. vii. 267). It is many a long day since I heard any one speak of this painful malady, and, until now, I think I have never met its name in print. I should have set it down " waxen kernels." I believe the lumps were due to the effect of cold on the glands. The ' E.D.D.' has " wax-kernel," and defines it " a glandular swelling, esp. used of the glands of the neck." As the affection is supposed to be connected with growth, perhaps the spelling " waxing " would be better than that which I imagined for myself in " waxen," or that which MR. THOMAS RATCLIFFE renders by " wax and."
ST. SWITHIN.
This complaint is known under the name of " waxen kernels " in both Northampton- shire and Warwickshire, and refers to a swelling of the glands of the neck. I ob- serve that Wright (' Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English,' 1857) duly records the word : " Waxen-kernel, s. An enlarged gland in the neck. Palsgr."
I infer from MR. RATCLIFFE' s note that
in the locality from which he writes the
expression indicates two distinct complaints,
which may or may not occur simultaneously.
JOHN T. PAGE.
Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
MOURNING RITES IN PERSIA (10 S. vii. 230). The funeral rite? of the ancient Persians were no doubt largely identical with those of the Guebres and the Parsees of to-day, at all events with regard to exposing the bodies of the dead to the sanitary habit of the vulture (v. ' Persia and the Persians,' by S. G. W. Benjamin, 1887, p. 357). The peculiar method of sculpture followed by the modern Parsees appears to have been
customary with the ancient sun-followers-
in early Christian times (ibid.).
With regard to the mourning of the- modern Persians, who have been, of course,, since the Arab conquest, Mohammedans, it is stated in Kurd's ' Ceremonies ' (1815, pp. 389-92) that the fast of the Mohammedan Persians for the loss of a relative lasts forty days ; but none of the mourners wear black clothes, for that is looked upon as the colour of an evil spirit in fact, that of the devil. Between the intervals of their cries and lamentations they sit as if almost dead, clothed in " a brown gown, or one of a pale colour."
There is a valuable resume of the literature of Mohammedanism in T. P. Hughes's ' Dictionary of Islam,' pp. 405-7. But the funeral customs in other Mohammedan countries differ widely.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
It is the practice of the chief mourners in: Persia to tear their clothes and to keep their heads uncovered, and the feet naked, at least until all the ceremonies of burial have been performed. According to the received customs, the chief mourner gives an enter- tainment to all those who attend at the funeral. The length of mourning lasts, according to the means of the family, three,, five, or seven days, or even a month. At the end of that period some of the elders, both men and women, go round to the mourners- and sew up their rent garments.
If a man dies, the wife envelopes her head in a black shawl. Two or three days after the mourning period her female friends lead her to the bath, where they take off her mourning, put her on a clean dress, and dye her hands and feet with the khenah.
When life has entirely fled from the man,, cotton steeped in water is squeezed into his- mouth, his feet are carefully placed towards the kebleh, and the priest at his bed-head begins to read the Koran with a loud and singsong emphasis. A handkerchief is then placed under the man's chin, and fastened over his head ; his two great toes are also- tied together. All the company then pro- nounce the Kelemeh Schehddet (the profession of faith), a ceremony which is supposed to send the deceased out of this world a pure and well-authenticated Mussulman ; and during this interval a cup of water is placed upon his head. The murdeshur, or washers of the dead, are then called in, who bring with them the bier, on which the corpse is to be carried to the grave. The imareh which is a sort of canopy, adorned with
