Garrison. 8vo. pp. 28; Philadelphia, Pa. 1877. (From "Antiquities of Freemasonry," by Geo. F. Fort. Philadelphia, 1877.) "Recent Theories on the Origin and Nature of the Tetragrammaton," by S. R. Driver. 8vo. pp. 20; Oxford, 1885. "On the Tetragrammaton," in the Luminous Unity, pp. 18-45, by Rev. M. R. Miller. 12mo. Philadelphia, 1874. "The True Pronunciation of the Divine Name Jahvah - Jehovah," by Russell Martineau. 8vo. London. ELIOT'S INDIAN BIBLE. What is the full title-page of Eliot's Indian Bible? JOHN. According to Henry A. S. Dearborn who wrote a "Sketch of the Apostle Eliot," it is "MAMUSSE WUNNEETUPANATAMWE UP-BIBLUM GOD NANEESWE NUKKONE TESTAMENT KAH WONK WUSKU TESTAMENT. NE QUOSHKINNUMUK NASHPE WUTTINNEMOH CHRIST NOH ASOOWESIT JOHN ELIOT. CAMBBRIDGE SAMUEL GREEN KAH MARMADUKE JOHNSON. 1663." "A HAWK AND A HANDSAW." Where does the phrase come from? LOGOS. A passage in Shakespeare's Hamlet seems to allude evidently to the hawk and hoop, or hoopee, of Egypt. Hamlet says, " My unclefather and aunt-mother are deceived." G. "In what, my dear lord?" Ham. "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw." Thomas Capell, editor of the Oxford edition of Shakespeare, changed "handsaw" to "hernshaw," which renders the passage intelligible. ("Hamlet," Act II, Scenc II.) THE SMALLEST REPUBLIC, This is not San Marino, nor Andorra, nor Moresnet, but the tiny Republic of Goust, in the Pyrenes, which contains less than one hundred inhabitants, all of whom are Romanists. The sole occupation of these people is the weaving of wool and silk. Their government consists of an assembly of old men called the council. They pay no taxes nor imposts of any kind, and therefore have no need of collectors. They have neither mayor, priest, nor physician. They baptize their children, bury their dead, and perform their marriage ceremonies all beyond the boundaries of the town, or in the neighboring village of Laruns. If any one wishes to marry a wife he must go away from home to find her. Among the peaceful residents of this microscopic republic are several centenarians. No one is really poor, and none are rich. The language which they talk is a mixture of French and Spanish, and their numbers, and manners, have remained unchanged for several centuries.-Frankfort Times. THE PHOENIX. (Vol. VI, pp. 236, 246, 253, 298.) I have been much interested in the fabulous history of the phoenix; but there is another and more plausible explanation to the story. John Goodridge wrote and published a book, in 1781, entitled: "The Phoenix, an Essay; being an attem pt to prove from history and astronomical calculations, that the Comet, which by its approximation to our Earth, occasioned the change made at the Fall, and at the Deluge, is the Real Phoenix of the Ancients." This is a duodecimo book of 74 pages, illustrated, divided into seven sections. Sections 1 to 4 are a discussion of comets in general. Sections 5 to 7 give his theory of the comet's appearance at the Fall, at the Deluge, and that it will appear again in its regular visit in 2250, when the great conflagration will take place-the end of this worldand the Millenium will begin. The period of the comet's visit near this mundane sphere is 575, or a trifle less; this agree sapproximately with the age of the phoenix, whose age is generally set at 600 years, though a few say 500 years. From Adam to Noah the comet made three visits, the time being about 1725 years. Chronologists generally assign 1656 years from the creation to the flood. Mr. Goodridge says the comet's period may have been a trifle shorter than now from disturbing influences. Some chronologists make the time more than 1656 years; Josephus makes it 2256 years; and the Septuagint makes it 2262 years. Mr. Goodridge finds by records that the comet appeared B. C. 44; next, A. D. 531 (according to Leibnitz and Zonarus); next, it appeared in 1106 (according to Leibnitz and Hevelius); the last appearance was in 1680, when it was observed by Newton, Halley, Flamstead, and other astronomers; the next appearance will be about 2250, when it will come sufficiently near the earth to cause the great conflagration. The theory is a curions one. G. S. C. THE HEBREWS. From whom do the Hebrews take their name? JOHN L. SAMUEL. Josephus says (Antiquities, Bk. I, chap. vi, sec. 4) that the son of Arphaxad was Heber, "from whom they originally called the Jews Hebrews." Abram is the first person called "the Hebrew," in King James' version; the Septuagint is perates, and means "the passenger," that is, Abram, the passenger, who had lately passed over the river Euphrates. "The Encyclopædia Britannica" (Scribners' ed.), article "Hebrews," says the word means crosser, he who crossed over. The author of this passional poem is Mrs. Mary Bayard Clarke, wife of Judge Clarke, of Newberne, N. C. It was written as a "penpicture" of a painting of the "Star-eyed Egyptian," on exhibition in New Orleans. Her husband would not let her publish it till she was over fifty years of age, when it appeared in the Galaxy, April, 1877. The edition of the Galaxy was soon exhausted, and a hundred copies of the poem were privately printed by a New York lady and distributed to friends, among whom was Rose Eyting, who was then playing the character of Cleopatra in Chicago. Later the poem was printed in the New York Sunday Mercury. It appeared in the Argonaut Christmas Annual for 1881, with several other poems devoted to "the glorious sorceress of the Nile." The poem, with a fine tribute to the author, appears in a handsome volume of "Pen Pictures," gathered, written, and published in 1888, by Cynthia Leonard,-dedicated "To the great throbbing heart of humanity, whether it beat with love and appreciation of all things pertaining to the grandeur of the age, in science, art, literature, or the great attainments in mechanical genius or the heart that throbs in sympathy for the ills, misfortunes, and intense sufferings that daily increase in our midst; to this great human heart I dedicate this little effort." "A BIPED WITHOUT FEATHERS." (Vol. VI, p. 332.) Plato is reputed to have defined man, the anthropos, as a "biped without feathers." Those who set the story going, also add, that Diogenes, the cynic, plucked a cock and exhibited it at the Akademeia, with the words, "Behold, here is Plato's man.” A. WILDER. SOLUTION TO THE KNIGHT'S TOUR PROBLEM. (Vol. VI. p. 315.) "As knight upon the checquered board From square to square leaps boldly on, As fiercely on the Persian horde, Down poured the Greeks at Marathon. And through life's long hard battle day, First correct solution received from Miss M. J. McAllister, Man- Waste - Basket of Words, [From Journal of American Folk-Lore, Vol. II, No. V, 1889. ] Alibo. In the "Autobiography of Henry Tufts," p. 117 (Dover, N. H., 1807), he says: "To prove an alibi (not alibo)." Does the word" alibo occur elsewhere?-T. W. Higginson, Cambridge, Mass. Briggle. To be in an uneasy mental condition, to shift the attention rapidly from one thing to another. "Don't briggle so." In commom use in Ohio-Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass. Briggly.-Adjective of the foregoing. Expressive of mental and physical restlessness. Coast. In confirmation of the conclusion, noted in previous numbers, that this word, in the sense of skipping over the snow on a sled, was originally confined to the local dialect of Boston, it may he men-. tioned that, as shown by careful inquiries, the term was entirely unknown in Salem, at a distance of sixteen miles on one side, as well as in Plymouth, removed thirty miles on the other. Mowkie.-A louse, as I have heard the word employed in Boston. (E. F. Child, Cambridge, Mass.) Doubtless an old English word, although not found in the glossaries, and connected with the German Mücke (English midge), a fly, a gnat. It might be guessed that it once had this signification, and was euphemistically used for louse; in support of which it may be mentioned that at the present day, in rural districts of New England, the term bug is so employed,—to say louse being considered objectionable and vulgar. Pass.-In New England the ordinary term used to express the throwing and catching of a ball by two or more persons is pass. "Let's go out and pass." In New York and Pennsylvania the verb is catch. "Let's go out and catch." The noun also is catch.-W. H. Garrison, Philadelphia, Pa. (From Pixilated.-Lost, bewildered, confused. A local term of Marblehead. For example, when an oarsman has been negligent: "We'll be pixilated 'n' driven on th' rocks an' ye don't wake up.' the novel "Agnes Surriage," by E. L. Bynner, Boston, 1887, p. 56.) The word, no doubt, is the same as the obsolete English pixy-led, that is, misguided by a fairy. Pixy is a form of Puck (by derivation meaning simply a little one, a boy; see "Grimm's Mythology "), part of whose business or pleasure, as we read in "Midsummer Night's Dream," is to " Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm.” Roomthy. This good old word, of which the dictionaries quote examples from Drayton and Fuller, is used by Judge Sewell. "His (Mr. Edward Taylor's) very roomthy and good new meeting-house." (Diary, Vol. III, p. 319.)-H. W. Haynes, Boston, Mass. I. QUESTIONS. —0—0—0— Who is the author of, and where found, the following lines? "Bright was the hour When Israel's Princes, in their pride and power, Knelt in the temple's court, the living flame, The accepted sacrifice to all proclaim. Brightly the splendor of the Godhead shone, In awful glory from his living throne; Then bowed was every brow, no human sight Could brave the splendor of that flood of light That veiled His presence,-and His awful form, Whose path the whirlwind is,-whose breath the storm." A. F. C. 2. Are there more than three words in the English language that end with ealth? Namely, health, stealth, and wealth (commonwealth and wealth considered the same). LOGOS. 3. What were the names of the three mountains, or hills, from which Boston (Tri-mountain) was formerly called? A lecturer referred to them as Beacon Hill, The Highlands, and Mount Auburn. Was he correct? BEACON. 4. Who were the Cabiri mentioned so often by classical authors? J. E. B. 5. Is there anywhere published a bibliography of the writings and speeches of Daniel Webster; also, of Charles Sumner, and Theodore Parker? COLLECTOR. 6. William Cuninghame author of a work on "Chronology of the Scriptures," 1839, claimed to have discovered a new equation which he called the "Trinal Fraction." It is stated to be as follows: He states that it is an important factor in the solution of many of the chronological cycles, eras, etc. Will some one explain how, by an example ? TYRO. 7. Who adopted the spelling of the new State to be Dakota? It is well known that Longfellow in his "Hiawatha," and others, have spelled the word Dacotah. OBSERVER. 8. Why was the Order founded by Loyola called Jesuits? C. 9. What was the name of the first vessel launched in Massachusetts Bay, and when? IO. A. L. F. What is the English of the following epitaph of date 472? X. LEVITAE CONIVNX PETRONIA FORMA PVDORIS HIS MEA DEPONENS SEBIBVS OSSA LOCO PARCITE VOS LACRIMIS DVLCES CVM CONIVGE NATAE |