464
NOTES .AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL DEO. 7, 1901.
done when the moon is waxing. This belie
is acted upon with a faithfulness which ma;
be called religious. Mr. Theodore Bent in hi
book 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland
says, referring to a fragment of pottery in
the shape of a pig which he had found ainids
the ruins of a temple :
" It is curious to note that ^Elian observes tha the Egyptians sacrificed a sow to the moon once year, and Herodotus says that the only deities t( whom the Egyptians were permitted to sacrifice pig were the moon and Bacchus." I should like to know whether the belief t< which I have referred is common in othe parts of England. M. CHAPMAN.
Hereford.
[See 4 th S. viii. 505 ; ix. 24, 297 ; 9 th S. vi. 173, 426 516 ; vii. 93.]
ACLAND OF CHITTLEHAMPTON. There is a pedigree of Acland of Chittlehampton in Tucketf's 'Devonshire Pedigrees,' p. 154 which brings the family down to James l.'s reign. Any information as to the latei descendants of this family would be wel corned. RALPH SEROCOLD.
ENTRIES IN PARISH REGISTER. I shall be obliged for information as to the following entries in a parish register : under date 1636, " Paid for whitening and painting the Church and the Septem " ; and under 1700, " 70 Marks or Letters for the poor to wear on the right arm according to the late act of Parliament.'
L. J. C.
EARLIEST EUROPEAN MENTION OF VEDAS. The earliest mention in Europe of the Vedas is said to be in a book called ' De Tribus Impostoribus,' a copy of which does not appear to be in the British Museum. Can any one give an account of this book, and quote the passage referring to the Vedas 1
W. CROOKE.
[Long articles on ' De Tribus Impostoribus,' by the late MR. R. C. CHRISTIE and MR. ELIOT HODGKIN, appeared 7 th S. viii. 449.]
" KATHMATH," A PRECIOUS STONE. On 18 Dec., 1205, King John acknowledged the receipt, " by the hand of brother Alan, pre- ceptor of the New Temple of London, and brother Roger the almoner," of (inter alia) "Mantellum de samitto vermeillio frettatum cum saphiris et kathmathis et perlis cum uno firmaculo
ante insuto Baldredum de eodem samitto cum
kathmathis et aliislapidibus Item unumfirmacu-
lurn cum iiij" r smaragdis iiij. saphiris et iiij. baleis et j. turkeiso in hardillone." 'Rot. Litt. Pat. ' 1835, p. 55, col. 1.
I do not find kathmath nor liardillo in either Du Cange or Trice-Martin. Can one of your readers tell me what the words mean? If
Mr. Trice-Martin sees this query, I hope he
will forgive my referring him to another
(9 th S. vii. 469), which he will doubtless be
able to answer at the same time. Q. V.
ANNE BILSON. Can any reader supply the maiden name and parentage of Anne, widow of Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, 1597-1616, and his administratrix (letters granted 25 June, 1616 ; see Chester's 'West- minster Abbey Registers,' Harl. Soc. Publ., vol. x. p. 113)1 Her husband, who was Warden of Winchester College 1581-96, was the first warden who married. Upon his relinquishing that post there was a struggle between Queen Elizabeth and the fellows as to the appointment of his successor, and it is interesting to notice that in his letter to Lord Buckhurst on 18 May, 1596 ( l Cal. St. P., Dom., 1595-7,' p. 228), Bilson quaintly alludes to his own marriage when he speaks of George Ryves, one of the candidates for the wardenship, as " the most likely to profit the house, being single (as I was for twelve years till I grew weary of solitary labour)." It may be added that Bilson had been head master at Winchester 1571-81, a fact which
xplains the somewhat obscure statement in the biography of him in the 'D.N.B.,' vol. v. p. 43, that " he is also stated by some (adds the ' Athense ') to have been a schoolmaster."
H. C.
SURNAMES DERIVED FROM FRENCH TOWNS. What present English surnames are derived trom places in Normandy or other parts of France 1 I believe Neville, Mowbray, Gurney, 3urdon, are some of them. G. HILL.
[Such must be very numerous. Let us suggest at once D'Aubigne, Beaumont, Bray, Granville, Har- court, Houlgate, May, Mortimer, Percy, Pyle, rlomilly, Sully, Surville, Tancarville, Tracy, Venables, Vernon, &c.]
' LES LAURIERS DE NASSAU,' SMALL FOLIO, 612. Some years ago I picked up a copy of
- his book, and I should be much obliged to
my of your correspondents who could tell ne anything about it. I think that it must >e scarce, as the only other copy that I have discovered is in the British Museum, and not ne of the many booksellers whom I have sked has ever heard of it. The book con- ains 284 pages, and 40 woodcuts, mostly >f battles and sieges. There is an engraved itle-page. On the frontispiece there is a >ortrait of Prince Maurice of Nassau, ngraved by la. Matham, and what I suppose o be his coat of arms is on the opposite )age. The letterpress is in French. The ook begins with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the rest of it gives an account
