9* s. i. MAR. 5,
NOTES AND QUERIES.
199
t eals first with the 1,028 hymns known as the
' Hymns of the Rig- Veda,' to listen to which on the
1 art of a Sudra, or one of non-Aryan blood, became
I efore long an offence punishable by pouring in the
tirs molten lead, while to recite them, or even to
i amember the sound, was to be visited by still more
Edvere penalties, involving death. Dismissing as
i nprobable the expectation that comparative philo-
logy will solve the interesting problems connected
v/ith the past of the Indo-Aryans, our author finds
i i the Vedic hymns not only the first literary land-
marks in the history of India, but almost all that
can be definitely asserted concerning the primitive
Beliefs of the Aryans. The date of the Vedic hymns
seems to recede with the progress of light, and
there are those who date them so far back as 2,500
years B.C. Sacred treasures of the race, and "full
of the sound of the rush of moving waters," the
verses tell of the glories of the land the Aryan has
come to conquer and make his own from the Indus
to the distant Ganges. What we know of custom,
culture, and belief is found in these records of the
poet-priests. It is needless to say that here is a
storehouse for the student of comparative mytho-
logy. Passing by the Brahmanas, in which the
Brahmanic ritual, its origin and significance, are
incorporated, Mr. Frazer comes to the evidences of
a changing order of things found in the disquisitions
of the Upanishads. Before the teaching of the
Vedas and Upanishads was systematized in the
Brahma Sutras arose the strange belief, so deeply
impressed on the history of India, known as Bud-
dhism. The progress from Brahmanism to Buddhism
is closely traced, as is that of the ascetic and the
forest-dweller while the sacrificial fires still burned
in India. We cannot follow Mr. Frazer in his
history of the life of Buddha, or show its influence
as a revolt from Brahmanism, its failure to break
through the bonds of caste, and its ultimate banish-
ment "to its natural resting-place amid the
Scythian race." On these and other matters with
which our author deals, in a long and closely arguec
work, the reader must consult the book. Most
interesting and valuable chapters are those on the
epics and the drama, many translations from the
latter being given. Not a few will turn to the
closing chapters, in which the influence of Western
I civilization upon Indian thought is traced. It is
difficult to overestimate the erudition or the import
| ance of a book which demands close study from al
interested in primitive culture or careful about the
future of imperial interests in the most precious o
our Eastern possessions.
William Hogarth. By Austin Dobson. (Kegan
Paul & Co.)
THE appearance of a new edition, revised and en larged, of Mr. Austin Dobson's admirable mono graph on Hogarth is a matter on which the lover of literature and art are to be congratulated During the seven years in which the work has been before the public it has maintained its position am its authority, its worth as literature never havin been disputed. The welcome accorded it from th first was enthusiastic, and it has been held up as model of the manner in which the biography of a artist should be constructed. Though a tempting the great eighteenth-century satirist is not wholl a remunerative subject. Facts known concernin him are few ; his life after his successful elopemen and happy marriage was unromantic ; and his bi graphy is, in fact, little else than a record of h
rtistic production and an account of his friendships
nd feu da. For the purpose of extracting a bio
aphy from such inadequate materials Mr. Dobson
the best equipped of English writers. To a know-
edge of his subject and a sympathy with it such as
ne other writer alone possesses he adds a fami-
arity with the surroundings of the painter and
tie period in which he lived almost, it not quite,
nique. In the literature and art of that eigh-
eenth century, the more serious aspects of which
re hidden behind a veil of artificiality, Mr. Dobson
s steeped. He is, moreover, the possessor of a
.terary style both lucid and picturesque, and he
.lustrates his subject from the stores of a rich and
aried erudition. We have not now to treat his
rork as a novelty. The additions that further light
pon Hogarth has enabled Mr. Dobson to amass are
isible in every part of the subject, and are most
bvious, perhaps, in the bibliography, in which,
resides new entries, some of those previously
xisting are revised and enlarged. The index is
lotably augmented, to the great gain of the student,
tour new plates are said to enrich the edition.
?here are, however, more than four added illustra-
ions, one of the. most interesting being Mr. E. A.
Abbey's delightful design of ' A Hogarth Enthusiast.'
)ne new pHotogravure is the portrait of Henry
Fielding. STothing is to be added to what has been
said concerning Mr, Dobson's work, except that in
ts later form it is even more desirable than in the
brmer.
Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum. By W. G. Searle,
M.A. (Cambridge, University Press.) A DIRECTORY is not generally considered a book of absorbing interest ; and yet to the seeing eye and understanding mind it IB a veritable museum of primitive survivals and fossilized remains of an- tiquity. We remember a well-known philologist, now gone to his rest, who used to find a never- iailing source of entertainment, when he took his walks abroad, in noting and commenting on the names which met his eye over shop doors. An " onomasticon " is hardly more than a directory very much out of date, and that which now lies before us, carefully compiled and edited by Mr. Searle, though it may seem to the general reader a barren list of unmeaning vocables, will prove a valu- able quarry to the student of names, whether per- sonal or looal. It is, in fact, a register of Anglo-Saxon E roper names some 25,000 items in all gathered
- -om all quarters, from the time of Beda down to
the reigp of King John. Mr. Searle is content to efface himself and present his raw material without any attempt to annotate it or to point out the inter- esting bearings which his work possesses. For instance, many of these Anglo-Saxon names, which as Christian names or prenomens are utterly ex- tinct, still enjoy a posthumous existence in the shape of surnames. We have quite forgotten Put- toe, but we know Puttick (and Simpson). Godsall is evidently the modern representative of Godes- scealc ("servant of God" Heb. Obadiah), as Askell is of 2Esc-cytel, and Thurkell is of Thur-cytel. Wulfsige still lives in Wolsey, Regenweald (Reg- nold) in Reynolds, Regenhere and Reinere in Rayner. So Stan-cytel has passed through the forms Stannechetel and Stanchil into our present- day Stantial.
Moreover, the investigator of place-names will find here suggestive hints in such words as Dulwic, which seems to throw some light on the enigmatical
