376
NOTES AND QUERIES. U-H.II NOV. 4, 1916,
-WKLTHEN (12 S. ii. 309). MR. HELI.IER
not 'j.ive the names of the two Somerset-
shire villages to which lie refers, but I have
notes of the occurrence of this name in that
county at Cannington, near Bridgwater, and
Pitminster, near Taunton, both of earlier
date than the instances he gives, and one, at
the former place, as late as 1807.
They are as follows :
Marriages.
Wyllyam Sterne and Welthyan Noorth, 13 June,
1597.
John Rawlin and Welthian Duddinge, 2 June, 1634. John Stowe and Wealthing Bond, 17 Aug., 1807.
PlT MINSTER.
John Bradbeare and Welthen Holcombe, 9 Nov.,
1620. William Penny and Welthian Northam, 17 Jan.,
1631. Humphery Pirn and Welthian Atnill, p. West
Buckland, 21 May, 1666.
Of the derivation of the name I cannot speak, but believe it to be local to Somerset, not having noted it elsewhere.
'STEPHEN J. BARNS. Frating, Woodside Road, Woodford Wells.
I do not think that this name could have been very uncommon in Somersetshire. At any rate, twelve infants received it at bap- tism in the parish of Wedmore from 1583 to 1674, each one belonging to a different family, and all but one with a different sur- name. Welthiana or Welthian is the visual form. The name is not given by Miss Yonge, nor have I ever met with it in the east of England. S. H. A. H.
THE SIGN VIRGO (12 S. ii. 251, 316). The constellation Virgo is supposed in its earliest human origin to have symbolized the Great Mother of Life, a conception afterwards elaborated and developed in the forms of Xeith, Isis, Eve, Ishtar, Astarte, Venus, and other deities. It is impossible to say when or by whom the signs of the Zodiac were originated. They are of immense antiquity, and were described in one of the works in Sargon's library, B.C. 3800, and are also named in the Vedas of approximately the same age. In a work entitled ' The Zodia, or the Cherubim of the Bible and the Cjjerubim of the Sky,' by E. M. Smith (Elliot Stock, 1906), an attempt is made to show that the knowledge of the constellations was of divine origin, and was supplementary to and in agreement with the message of the Holy Scriptures. This argument is sup- ported by a large number of analogies and correspondences. Whatever view may be
taken of the theory of the book, it is one which
contains much learning and curious know-
ledge.
Any connexion of Seth with the constella- tions is unknown to me, except so far as mrsy be inferred from the familiar story from Josephus, wherein the children of Seth art said to be " the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies and their order," to preserve which knowledge they erected those two famous pillars, one of brick and the other of stone, so that if the brick one should be washed away, the stone would survive much on the principle of Sir Isaac Xewton's two apertures in his backyard door, one for the hen and another for the chickens.
There is a marked correspondence between the signs of the Zodiac and the banners of the twelve tribes of Israel, and as the breast- plate of the Jewish high-priest contained twelveprecious stones, each engraved with the name of one of the tribes, one of these jewels would correspond with the sign Virgo in the constellations. In the work referred to it is pointed out that the star Spica in one of Virgo's hands represents not only an " ear of corn," but " offspring " generally, or, in Arabic, " the branch," and the author- connects this with the idea of the promised Messiah. ARTHUR BOWES.
Newton -le- Willows .
ST. SWITHIN is apparently unaware of the part Seth plays in rabbinical and Mussulman mythology. He is represented as a volu- minous author, divinely inspired, and as the originator of astronomy and many arts. It is doubtless to these legends that your querist refers, and to ask for their authority is asking a good deal. It is strange, however,, that anybody should take them, or affect to take them, seriouslv at the present day.
C. C. B.
"YORKER": A CRICKET TERM (12 S.. ii. 209, 276). A much-respected former member for York was caricatured in Vanity Fair with the word " Yerk " beneath the presentment. That I took to be a hit at the way in which he pronounced the name of his constituency, and it shows how easily " yerk " and " york " may be substituted for each other. When I read ' Othello ' last week I noticed that lago thought nine or ten times " to have yerk'd " his adversary under the ribs. This would have entailed a thrust with "a sudden and quick action," as Dr.. Schmidt of the ' Lexicon ' declares. Such should be that of the dentist who " yorke. out " a tooth.
