302
NOTES AND QUERIES. [2* s. N is., APRIL 12. 5C.
deratum by a note on Ilesiod's Scutum Herculis,
by Joannes Clericus, which will, I hope, be ac-
ceptable, together with some extracts illustrative
of the religion of the ancient Greeks.
" ' Tou ftev 4>peVas ee'AeTO Zevs.'
"Sic et ^Eschylus, cujus haec verba habet memoratus Plato :
' ebs fief O.ITIO.V fyvei /SpoTOi? 'Oral' KaKiaerat &<afia iraju.TrijSr)!' Se'Arj.'
"Deus causam praebet mortalibus, cum prorsus perdere domum vult. Incertus alius tragoedus in Grotianis ex- cerptis, p. 461. :
1 "Orac fie Aaifiwr, etc.'
"Alia multa similia impie dicta occurrunt apud Poetas, quorum Dii non multo meliores hominibus."
The sentiments of the Greek poets thus con- demned have been defended by other commen- tators on Hesiod. Robinson, in Scutum Herculis, adduces analogous language from Scripture ; and Graevius in his notes on Opp. et Dies, v. 15., "d\\' vw wayiciis" etc., vindicates their views on Pro- vidence.
" Penelope apud Homer. 'OSvcra-. *. ' Mata <J>iA7j,' etc.
" Nutrix dilecta, insanum te Dii fecerunt, qui possunt insipientem reddere, qui vel prudentissimus fuerit, et de- lirum prudentise compotem reddiderunt Nam et bene alius poeta :
Orav yap bpyr) Saifioviav,' etc.
" Quando ira deorum aliquem laedit, huic primo eripit prudentiam, et sanam mentem, et in deterius mutat consilia ut non videat quje peccat. P. Syrus Mimus : ' Fortuna quern vult perdere stultum facit.' "
BlBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.
Etymology : Caterpillar (2 nd S. i. 65.) MR. KEIGHTLEY thinks the common use of this word among the people might be objected against his Greek etymology. But query if it is of so com- mon use? Tell any child of the lower classes in the Midland Counties that the insect is a cater- pillar, and his reply will be, " Nae, it ain't ; it's a groobr At all events, it does not seem to have been long in popular use ; the old names were, grub, canker, and palmer-worm. In TopselFs History of Four-footed Beasts, part 2. : of ser- pents, ed. 1608, it states :
" The English Northren men call the hairie caterpillars oubuts, and the Southerne men usually term them pal- mer-worms. The Frenchmen call them Chattepeleuse."
And this seems a very likely source of our English word, which for a very long period was confined to books on Natural History and the educated classes.
At the same time I am at a loss to conjecture what objection can be made to Junius's etymology : " Gates piler a destroyer of cates, because it destroys the food of man and beast."
Earwig. MR. KEIGHTLEY objects to the Saxon derivation of this word, " because when significant names are given to animals, &c., they have been
always taken from some natural act or quality,
which is not the case here." MR. K.'s error arises
from his supposing ear, in earwig, to be the hu-
man ear ; whereas it is from the Saxon any
bud-flower (especially corn) which springs from
land, eared, ploughed, or cultivated. Wic is the
Saxon dwelling, and it is notorious that the
favourite habitat wic of the ear-wic is the bud-
ears of undeveloped flowers. The word was for-
merly frequently spelled according to this etymon,
Earwick. (Parkinson's Paradisus, p. 21., ed.
1629.) EDEN WARWICK.
English and Austrian Population (2 nd S. i. 227.) Your correspondent D. L., in his Note on Car- dinal ;, Wiseman's lecture on the Austrian Con- cordat, evinces a remarkable acquaintance with geography. We pass over his doubts as to the many millions of inhabitants in China, though we think the latest and most trustworthy writers on that country only corroborate all former state- ments in this respect. But when we come to the languages our gracious Queen would have to speak in order to converse with all her subjects, we find some tongues of which even Cardinal Mezzofanti had no knowledge. We always thought that the Welsh, Erse, and Gaelic were so nearly akin, that they might almost be reckoned as one language ; and they are certainly far more nearly allied than is the Bohemian to the Hun- garian, or German to Italian. We were not aware that the Manks language was still spoken in the Isle of Man. The next is, however, a serious matter ; for now when we are settling anew at Paris the boundaries of empires, it startles us to hear that Queen Victoria claims the sovereignty over the Ferro Islands. What says the King of Denmark to this ? Does England mean to send the Baltic fleet to Thorshaven, and hold the Ferro Isles till Denmark gives up the Sound-dues ? Next, as to Shetland and Orkney, I can vouch that the natives of these two groups of islands speak nought but English, and that too so well as to be immeasurably superior to the provincial dialects of most parts of England. Nor did I know till now that Danish was the language spoken on Heligoland !
India, indeed, would supply many languages and dialects : but if I mistake not, India is ex- cepted in the Cardinal's lecture, as reported in the quotation given by D. L. T.
Chess (1 st S. xii. 65.) Interesting references may be made to A Pedestrian Journey through Kussia and Siberian Tartary, by Captain John D. Cochrane, 8vo., London ; or in the two vols. 18mo. edit, in Constable's Miscellany, 1829, pp. 243. 249. ; and to Travels in Tartary, Thibet, Sfc., by M. Hue, translated by W. Hazlitt, two vols. 8vo., vol. ii. p. 259. J. P-
Birmingham.
