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MOEDER, 248, 249, 250, Tottenham Court Road, ESTABLISHED 1862. Now ready, price 6s. LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1884. CONTENTS. — N° 231. NOTES:-Superstition in Italy, 421-Bibliography of Chaucer, 422-Nouns of Multitude, 423-Drowned Fiddlers, 424-Day of Pentecost-Telephony, 425-Death of Queen Henrietta Maria-New Words-Sulphur-Sympathy-Egoism: Egotism, 426. QUERIES:-Duchesse d'Aremberg-First Napoleon's Designs -Scavelman-Rev.E. Baldwyn-California Station-Rabbits -English Devils, &c.-Clough of Lichfield-R. Sulivan, 427 William Bradbridge-Oe -Cw. Ld.-"Sal et saliva"-"Dancing days"-Robert Burnel-Bedell Family-Canonries of York, -German Ballads-St. Nicholas: Nicodemus Emperors Zeno and Justinian; and Ascoli (Studj 428-Vigo Bay Bubble-M. A. Barber-"Wooden Walls "- Philip Stanhope-Authors Wanted, 429. "Fisherman of Scharphout"-Reformades, 432-Sicle REPLIES:-Boy Bishop of Norwich-Pestilence in England, brought back to Europe, at a time when she was 430-The 1 in Old German-A.M.: P.M.-The Mahdi-sufficiently established in the Christian faith to Cattle "asked in Church"-The Two Thieves at Calvary, 431 fear no longer the influences previously dreaded, Boones-Boon-days-Grace in Hall, 433-Bossuet-Dissent- they came obscured with an admixture of exing Registers-Th. Nash-Greek Mottoes-Episcopal Wig- traneous notions, which it took centuries to clear Glasgow Directory-Prince Tite, 434-Peter Vowel, 435- away. Witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, were not Rococo-Sabbath-Henshaw - Codling-Coming of Age- medieval superstitions; they were brought to Women with Male Names, 436-Grey Unlucky-Hyrned- the learned in the Arabian writings, and to the Notes on "Folk-Etymology "-Curious Book-plate, 437Remarkable Inscription-True Date of Birth of Christ- Vulgar by the invasion of the gipsies, and both Gopher Wood-Double Christian Names, 438-Eclipses of came in the wake of returning Crusaders, preceded, however, by many instances of learned Arabians and Jews from Spain and Sicily settling in France and Italy.b the Sun-It-Authors Wanted, 439. NOTES ON BOOKS:-Gairdner's Brewer's "Henry VIII." Notes. CURIOSITIES OF SUPERSTITION IN ITALY. (Continued from p. 364.) It is refreshing to turn from the contemplation of the vast waste of mental labour and bodily suffering which is connected with witchcraft to the pages of a modern Italian writer, Gabriele Rosa (Il Vero nelle Scienze Occulte, seconda edizione ampliata, Brescia, 1870), who traces very ingeniously that it even had its use, and was a necessity of the experience of our race. The study of the occult sciences had its place in the cultivation of the world. Out of astrology came the closer study of astronomy; out of alchemy, chemistry; out of the cabala, algebra; out of magic, magnetism and electricity. It is all very well to despise the stepping-stones when the opposite bank is reached; but would the torrent have been crossed without their aid? The pursuit of the occult sciences was a kind of crucible in which was purged away the dross of scientific studies of all the civilized nations of antiquity, leaving behind all that was precious; and the analysis of their history throws a useful light on the various phases of the progress of civilization. The tradition of the earlier Greek and Latin studies was, as Humboldt traces, carried into Arabia by the Nestorians when dispersed under the On the other hand, the embodiment of the idea of the marvellous has taken some few shapes in Italy which must not be passed over here, as they are spécialités of the country. The most important of these is the Befana. Though she brings good gifts at a holy season, occupying the same place in the nurseries of Italy, as the giver of Christmas This coincides with the double development, vulgar "We have and learned, pointed out by Cantù as above. positive documentary evidence that in the year 1423 a band of some four thousand persons of both sexes arrived in Bergamo, saying they had come from Egypt" (Calvi, Effemeridi, vol. ii,, quoted by Rosa). Moroni (lxxi. 63), while not himself altogether agreeing with him, shows that Muratori is inclined to throw all the blame of witchcraft on the immigration of gipsies in the fifteenth century, and censures those who permitted their entrance. He traces their origin (ciii. 474) to a Tatar tribe called Tschingani, dispersed by the conquests of Tamerlane, and refers for particulars of their connexion with Italy and points out that the story they put forward of having to Predai, Origine e Vicende de' Zingari (Milan, 1846), been condemned to a wandering life, because their ancestors had refused to receive the Holy Family during the flight into Egypt, was nothing but a crafty invention, which gained credit owing to the credulity of the times, posture came to be discovered, it was found impossible and procured them hospitality, and when later the im to eradicate them. Consult further Muratori, " Dei Semi delle Superstizioni ne' Secoli Scuri in Italia" in Dissertazione sopra le Antichità Italiane. Gipsies were great retailers and adapters of household tales. b Instances in Sprengel, History of Medicine, quoted by Rosa In Venice she is called Radodese (Tartarotti, p. 23). toys and goods, which St. Nicholas holds in Germany, and the "Enfant Jésus" in France, she is yet an ugly old hag in popular estimation, while under etymological treatment she always comes under the denomination witch and bugbear (lamia, spauracchio). Varchi describes her with red eyes, thick lips, and a furious expression, and the rag puppets representing her to Roman children to the present day are made as ugly as possible, and usually with blackened faces. St. Nicholas is supposed in Germany to send his gifts down by the chimney; in Rome, where few rooms have chimneys, the Befana is found, by the little ones who look for her, hanging by the side of the window on Epiphany morning, as if she had made her entrance that way, though the chimney is also put in requisition where there is one; a stocking, too, is the not infrequent receptacle of her gifts. Although Guadagnoli, in his Poeme Giocose, mentions traditions that Befana is the name of Herod's grandmother, of the maid of the High Priest who accused St. Peter of belonging to Jesus of Nazareth, or of an aunt of Barabbas, and suggests the conceit that the name may be derived by an anagram from far bene, there can be no doubt that it comes from Epifania,d and is, indeed, as often written Befania as Befana. All have heard of the fair of S. Eustachio in Rome (so called from the parish in which it is held), which is designed to provide the materials for the Befana's distribution. Among these are gilt pine cones, which are reckoned to unite in themselves the representation of the gold and incense of the Magi's offering. Amid the sweeping away of old customs which has resulted from the invasion of September, 1870, the children have succeeded in maintaining this practice at least in full vigour. Moroni mentions an offering or tribute which, up to the year 1802, used to be made to the Pope on Epiphany morning by the "Collegio de' Novantanove Scrittori Apostolici," consisting of a hundred ducats contained in a silver chalice, and which was called the Befana. In nursery parlance the Befana has two aspects: she not only brings gifts to good children, but is the terror of the naughty. "I'll tell la Befana of you," is an expression used to still noisy cries and all kinds of insubordination; and if such insubordination happens to occur about Epiphany time, the culprit may find that the Befana brings dust and ashes instead of toys. "Another bugbear," writes Moroni, which The Epiphany festival was instituted by St. Julius I. (339-52), but was never adopted by the Greek Church, which celebrated the Epiphany along with the Nativity (Moroni, iv. 279); and Rinaldi, the annalist, anno 58, number 91, quoted by Moroni, xxi. 296, says that the Apostles considered it a distinct festival, though celebrated at the same time as the Nativity. Moroni also says that in the Acts of St. Julian the feast bears the simple title of "apparitio.". conveys greater fear to the infantine mind than the Befana herself, and without any qualification of beneficence, is the threat that 'Bocio, Barbocio, or Barbone shall come to take you.' He does not offer any explanation of the former two, which, like our own ogre and bogie, are doubtless transpositions of orco, though the use of the word orco itself is also retained in that sense; and "far bau" to a child answers to our "playing bo-peep," which, of course, is connected with bogie. With regard to this use of Barbone, however, he refers to Muratori's account of the intense fear and hatred with which the cruelties of the Connétable de Bourbon's soldiers inspired the Romans, and shows it is hence mothers and nurses came to name him as the greatest source of fear known to them. Cancellieri (appendix, note xxx., and note vii.) also gives the same origin for the expression, and I can testify its use has not died out. R. H. BUSK. (To be continued.) BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAUCER. (See 6th S. viii, 381; ix. 138, 141, 361.) Separate works other than The Canterbury Tales: Troilus and Cressida.-1. Caxton's edition (no date or place), folio, single columns, 118 unnumbered leaves: Troylus and Creside explicit par Caxton." Copies are in the British Museum Library, at Althorp, and at St. John's College, Oxford. Dibdin, i. 313. "The 2. Wynkyn de Worde's, 4to., 1517. Noble and Amorous Ancyent Hystory of Troylus and Cresyde, compyled by Geffray Chaucer." Woodcut of the lovers, and the usual printer's device. Copies in the Duke of Devonshire's library and in the Cambridge Public Library. Dibdin, ii. 212. 3. Richard Pynson's folio, no date, but probably a portion of Pynson's complete impression of Chaucer, "emprinted at London in flete strete by Rycharde Pynson, printer unto the kynges noble grace," in 1526; double columns, woodcuts; fine figured title, "The Boke of Troylus and Creseyde," &c. Dibdin, ii. 515. 4. Latin version of part of the "Troilus and Cressida" by Sir F. Kinaston: "Amorum Troili et Creseidæ libri duo priores Anglico-Latini. Oxon., 4to., 1635." Part of an English Svo. edition of the same work was issued in 1796 by F. G. The following is analogous: "I heard a Roman father the other day stilling the cries of a peevish child with the threat, Take care! Vittor 'manuele will soon como and take girls as well as boys, and then I'll give you to him""("Roman_Correspondence," Westminster Gazette, April 1, 1871). It was at the moment of the first promulgation of the law of conscription. Further particulars may be found in 11 Quinquennio sopra lo Spauracchio dell' Orco che si fa ai Fanciulli, by Giov. Pontano, |