ii s. ix. JAN. 24, i9M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
(37
" MEMMIAN NAPHTHA-PITS " IN TENNYSON.
- Among the " early sonnets " in Tennyson's
collected works there is one entitled ' Alex-
ander.' An editorial note in the Eversley
Edition tells us that it was first published
in 1872, although written much earlier.
It begins with these lines descriptive of
Alexander the Great :
Warrior of God, whose strong right arm debased
The throne of Persia, when her Satrap bled
At Issus by the Syrian gates, or fled
Beyond the Memmiari naphtha-pits, disgraced
For ever
That is to say, at the battle of Issus, Alex- ander slew the Persian satraps, or made them run a long way home. " Satrap," in spite of its capital letter, cannot mean Darius ; I take it that the singular, instead of plural, is mere poetic diction. But the significance of " Memmian " baffles me, and I venture to ask whether there is any justifi- cation at all for such a form.
Naphtha-pits might be passed on the way home from Issus. There was a naphtha- spring near Arbela (Strabo, p. 738, Casaubon =XVI. i. 4). Liquid bitumen, called naphtha, was found in the land of Susa (Susis) according to Eratosthenes (Strabo, 743 = XVI. i. 15), and some said it was found in Babylonia (ibid.). Herodotus (vi. 119) describes a naphtha-well but without tusing the word " naphtha " also in the neighbourhood of Susa. A naphtha-pit or -spring was admired by Alexander in Baby- lon, according to Plutarch (' Life of Alex- ander,' 35), and this may very likely be the passage that Tennyson had in his mind. But why should the naphtha pits be called
- ' Memmian " ? The Eversley Edition gives
us Tennyson's own note on the fairly obvious meaning of " Ammonian Oasis " later on in the sonnet, but leaves all other difficulties of the poem unexplained.
Susa was founded by Tithonus, the father of Memnon, and the citadel there was called Memnonium'( Strabo, 728 = XV. iii. 2). In Herodotus (v. 53, 54) Susa is the Mem- nonian city, and the royal palace Memnonia. Is it possible that Tennyson's Memmian is &, corruption of Memnonian ? The latter word could be used poetically as a synonym for " Eastern." In ' Paradise Lost,' x. 308, it is equivalent to " Susan " or " Persian " : Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea.
There is one Miltonic reminiscence already in the sonnet (" Chamian oracle," 1. 10) ; <cf. ' Paradise Lost,' Jv. 276,
old Cham, Whom Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove.
We shall but add another if we reject ^
mian " and restore Memnonian in Tenny-
son's text.
While on the subject of this poem it may be mentioned that the "two serpents'" (1. 6) that guided Alexander through the Libyan Desert to the Temple of Ammon are derived by Tennyson from Arrian (iii. 3), who here drew upon Ptolemy Lagus. For this and other information I am indebted to Prof. von Domaszewski. L. R. M. STRACHAX.
Heidelberg.
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.
"BAY" AND "TRAY." Kingsley in
'Water-Babies,' chap. ii. p. 67 (1863), says
of a stag: "You may know.... what his
rights mean, if he has them, brow, bay,
tray, and points." And twenty years later
R. Jefferies, * Red Deer,' chap, iv., has:
" Close to the head a point springs from the
beam and is curved upwards : this is called
the brow point. Just over it a second starts
this is called the bay. There is then an
interval, till some way up the beam, a third, the tray, appears." From this it seems that "brow, bay, and tray" are now well- established terms. We know that " brow " is, but it is curious that, while " bay and " tray " are known in the same connexion in a dozen authors since their use by Kingsley n the ' Water-Babies,' we have no example of them before Kingsley. If any such instances exist, I should be glad to have them, or to be told where they are to be found. It seems unlikely that Kingsley invented the terms, but I should be very glad to know where he found them, either in written or spoken use.
" TREE - BAIJL." In a work of 1710 called ' The Four Kings of Canada ' (reprinted by Garratt & Co., London, 1891), p. 33, it is said :
" The Children have a Game, like the Europeans, of Tree-Ball; likewise a Game with a Ball of Rushes, or Leaves of Indian Corn, which they toss up, and catch upon the point of a Stick.
We have not found" tree-ball " mentioned in any book of games. Can any reader of
- N. & Q.' enlighten us as to its nature ? ^ It
was apparently played by " Europeans," as well as American Indians, in 1710.
J. A. H. MURRAY.
Oxford.
