66
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. JAN. 27, iwo.
to have a love of that colour, methinks Sam-
son had small reason for it." This Schmidt
explains by, "probably as the emblem of
youth and hope." But this is very insuffi-
cient ; and, if that were all, Samson had very
great reason to think himself wise. The
whole passage abounds in quibbles ; and
surely "the colour of lovers " implies not only
youth and hope, but also inexperience and
rawness, not without a further hint at a
longing melancholy of disposition. But when
Samson is said to have had " a love of that
colour," the allusion is obviously to Dalilah's
fickleness and treachery. Had she been true
and constant, had she been of a blue colour,
all had been well ; but she was " a woman
unconstant," and her colour was green.
WALTER W. SKEAT.
BOSWELL'S ' JOHNSON.' In a very interest- ing article on copyright in the January issue of the Edinburgh Review the writer says, " Boswell's * Life of Johnson ' has never been translated into any foreign language, though Dr. Birkbeck Hill has just discovered an abridgment of it in Russ."
WM. H. PEET.
THE BIBLE ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN DUTCH. This entertaining suggestion was launched into the world by Joannes Goropius Becanus, a physician of Antwerp, in 'Origines Ant- verpianse' (Antwerp, 1569). An edition of the 'Germania' of Tacitus, by Simon Fabricius (Augsburg, 1580), accepts and quotes the arguments. They are of a mixed order, but a main point is that the Hebrew proper names in Genesis are really German ; Adam, for instance, is the German Atkem, "breath." Our early literature has several references to Goropius. J. Eliot, in 'Ortho-epia Gallica : Eliot s Frvits for the French' (London, 1593), p. 20, suggests that he would have been good sport for Aristophanes ; R. Verstegan, in ' A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence,' 1605, p. 190, gives some account of the theory ; Jonson, in 'The Alchemist,' and Butler, in 1 Hudibras,' honour it with an incidental gibe. But it is startling to discover at the present day that the school of Goropius flourishes in the Transvaal. The Daily News for 2 Jan. lias this amazing story in its ' Notes on the War':
" A missionary was visiting a Boer family, and found that they were daily using, and therefore wearing out, a Bible that had been brought over with the family three centuries or so before from Holland. He pointed out to them that it was a trea- sure not so to be ruined. They agreed, but did not know where to get another to replace it. He pro- mised to make them a present of one. The old Boer was aghast ! ' But,' he said, ' the English do not
know anything about the Bible.' However, the
book, printed in Dutch by the Bible Society, was
duly presented. Of course, instead of the Dutch
Arms it had the English Arms on the front page.
The old man pointed this out. ' That is not the
Bible,' he said. A little further examination showed
him, however, to his amazement, that this was only
a matter of printing, and that otherwise the two
were identical. The explanation as to the Arms
led to a reference to the translation. ' Trans-
lation ? ' said the old man. ' This is no translation.
The words were originally said in Dutch.' Literally,
that represents the ordinary state of the up-
country Boer mind. They look upon the promises
and threaten! ngs of the Old Testament as person-
ally addressed to themselves and their forefathers.
They worship a purely tribal God, who has given
over 'the heathen as a prey to their teeth,' and
they, feeling themselves fully justified in so doing,
act towards them accordingly.
PERCY SIMPSON.
" KNOBKERRIE." This word and its ab- breviation kerrie are of such frequent occur- rence in books about South Africa that it is curious neither occurs in any English diction- ary. The meaning is a knobbed throwing- stick, a favourite weapon with natives. The prefix knob is obviously English. Kerrie ap- pears to be a Bushman's word ; at any rate, I find in the Bushman vocabulary, in the ap- pendix to Arbousset's ' Tour in South Africa ' (1852), the entry "Club, keri." John Barrow, 'Travels in Southern Africa' (1815), has a third orthography ; he calls it " the keerie, or war-club." Peter Kolbe, 'Account of the Hottentots' (1745), has " Kirri, a stick or staff." The Cape Dutch write kieri, knop- kieri ; for example, Mansvelt, who renders it wandelstok, walking-stick ; and in German books on South Africa it is spelled Knopfkirri. JAMES PLATT, Jun.
THE MARQUESS ATE OF WINCHESTER. (See 9 th S. iii. ^224, 364.) Recently in ' N. & Q.' I have noticed the absorption of this title in the dukedom of Bolton, which became extinct in 1794 by the death of Harry Powlett, sixth Duke of Bolton, and how the marquessate of Winchester emerged and passed to George Paulet, Esq., of Amport, who thus became thirteenth marquess.
Winchester is the premier marquessate in England, having been originally created in 1551. John Powlett, the fifth marquess, was noted for his gallant defence of Basing House, Hampshire, which was taken by storm in 1645 by the Parliamentarians. His son Charles was created Duke of Bolton by William III. in 1689, and thus absorbed in the dukedom the inferior title of marquess, where it remained until 1794.
Recently we have had to regret besides the deaths of many other gallant soldiers in South
