Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/421

T _--- ~- Q-S. vi. Non Q.-was - NOTES -AND QUERIES. an the latter are those respecting Hebrew fasting days. Jews have a great many more ays of self-denial than are dreamt of in the average journal1st’s philosophy. Two only need consideration now, via., the fast of Ab, or “Black Fast,” and the Day of Atonement, ‘or=“ White Fast.” For some in- scrutable reason the press recently described “ Yom Kippur ” as the “Black Fast.” This is absolutely wrong, except on the lucas a non lucendo principle. As a matter of fact, every- thing appertaining to this unique festival --Jews do not regard Atonement Day as a fast day _at all-negatives such an impression. The predominant colour is white, if the evening clothes of our gilded youth on Kol Nidré night (quite a modern innovation) be regarded as a negligible quantity. Bright- ness and joy are t e dominant notes of the sacred fane; the chanting of minister and choir is inspririting ; 'while the vestments, tapestries, s ull-caps, and “kittels” (gowns worn by the pious) are of purest white, indicative of a restless lon ing for an ideal spotlessness of living, The synago ue is brilliantly lit up; serenity fills the Iiearts of the worshippers. The very converse obtains on “Back Fast.” On 9 Ab the synagogue presents a funereal aspect; the curtains and vestments are black, the ark is shrouded in a pall, wailin and dirges illl t-he aisles, tear-streamed §aces dot the grief-stricken assemblage. This fast, com- memorative of the debacle, is indeed the blackest spot in the Jewish consciousness. In England fasting on 9 Ab' is declining rapidly ; in fact, it seems to be more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Now- adays nobody bothers much about it, except the sextpns on the look-out for visitors to t e cemeteries. The “White Fast,” however, is all the go, it presents such s tacular opportunities to the opulent; hiahce its popularity with all classes of the community apart from its‘deep spiritual si nificance and possibilities. ' M. L. BRESLAR. Percy House, South Hackney. Sr. Mzuzvm-:sons Cannon.--The celebration of _the five-hundredth anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the old paris church of St. Marylebone took place ast Sunday. The churc , which is said to be the smallest in London, is sometimes knpwn as_“Tho Hgiarth Church,” from its being depicted in ‘ e Rake’s Progress ’ and ‘The Idle Apprentice.’ Many of the Dukes of Portland are buried in the church ; Byron was baptized there in March, 1788. It will also be remembered that little Paul Dombey -was i ' toh ' bee christened there. The ghgiigliiyard cbhiainsn the tomb of Charles Wesley. N. S. S. THE GOLD STONE.-Mr. W. Hollamby, of Hove, has been the means of the recovery of the Gorsed or Gold Sf.OD8,_d€SCl'1b6d by Horsg field as one of the largest and most remarkable of the Druidical stones upon the Brighton Downs. Its length is 13 ft., the greatest width 9ft., and depth about 6ft., and it is said to have weighed about eleven tons, About seventy years ago, owing to _the damage done to his crops by curious visitors, the owner of the land on which it stood caused it to be buried. Its where- abouts was discovered only after one hun- dred trial holes had been sunlc. In ‘N . J: QQ of the 10th of November, 1866. MB. C. PURLING, in reply to H. C. (3"‘ S. x. 289), states that in Erredge’s ‘ History of Brighton, full particulars are ivcn of t e Gold Stone Bottom tragedies. The regiment quartered at Brighten mutinied, anr on the 13th of June, 1795, two of the men were shot at Gold Stone Bott/om. h N. S. S. t t Guerin. We must r uest correspondents desiring infor- mation on fariiilly matters of only private lnterpst to afix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. “’SDEYNs.”-In Ben Jonson’s ‘Every Man in his Humour ’ this exclamation or disguised oath is put into the mouth of Downright, “a plain squire”: “’Sdeyns,»I know not what I should saly to him, 1’ the whole world l” (II. i. 69). he word is not explained by Wheatley, who explains so much in his valuable notes in his edition 1877. Can any one suggest an etymology 'l A. L. Mnnsw. Oxford. Tun Onnsn or Rsusxnlsnzm.-Can any reader' of ‘N. & Q.’ give information as to this? I believe that t-he order has its head'- quarters in Calcutta, and has rendered ood service during the famine. A. N. z Fussen Pzwrsn PLATE.-will any reader of ‘N. Az Q.’ acquainted with the history of old wter plate say whether it was in use in Fiieance at the royal table or for the king’s household or in noblemen’s houses, and at what datesl One piece of pewter plate known to the writer has engraved upon it -the salamander crowned of Francis- I.,- sur-