Chapter V: Belgravia, Feb. 18, 1850

_What are Depinges?_--In the orders made in 1574 for regulating the fishery at Yarmouth, the Dutch settlers there are "To provide themselves with twine and _depinges_ in foreign places." What are Depinges?

J.S.B.

* * * * *

REPLIES

ORIGIN OF THE JEWS-HARP.

The "Jews-harp," or "Jews-trump," is said by several authors to derive its name from the nation of the Jews, and is vulgarly believed to be one of their instruments of music. Dr. Littleton renders Jews-trump by _Sistrum Judaicum_. But no such musical intrument is spoken of by any of the old authors that treat of the Jewish music. In fact, the Jews-harp is a mere boy's plaything, and incapable of in itself of being joined either with a voice or any other instrument; and its present orthography is nothing more than a corruption of the French _Jeu-trompe_, literally, a toy trumpet. It is called _jeu-trompe_ by Bacon, _Jew-trump_ by Beaumont and Fletcher, and _Jews-harp_ by Hackluyt. In a rare black-letter volume, entitled _Newes from Scotland_, 1591, there is a curious story of one Geilles Duncan, a noted performer on the "Jews-harp," whose performance seems not only to have met with the approval of a numerous audience of witches, but to have been repeated in the presence of royalty, and by command of no less a personage than the "Scottish Solomon," king James VI. Agnes Sampson being brought before the king's majesty and his council, confessed that

"Upon the night of All-hallow-even last, shee was accompanied as
well with the persons aforesaid, as also with a great many other
witches, to the number of two-hundredth; and that all they
together went to sea, each one in a riddle or sive, and went
into the same very substantially, with flaggons of wine, making
merrie, and drinking by the way, in the same riddle or sives, to
the Kirk of North Barrick in Lowthian; and that after {278} they
had landed, tooke handes on the lande and daunced this reill or
short daunce, singing all with one voice,

"'Commer goe ye before, commer goe ye:
Gif ye will not goe before, commer let me.'

"At which time, she confessed that this Geilles Duncan (a
servant girl) did goe before them, playing this reill or daunce
uppon a small _trumpe_ called a _Jews-trumpe_, until they entred
into the Kirk of North Barrick. These confessions made the King
in a wonderfull admiration, and sent for the said Geilles
Duncan, who upon the like _trumpe_ did play the saide daunce
before the Kinge's Majestie; who in respect of the strangenes of
these matters tooke great delight to be present at their
examinations."

It may be as well to mention that in the Belgic or Low Dutch, from whence come many of our toys, a _tromp_ is a rattle for children. Another etymon for _Jews-harp_ is _Jaws-harp_, because the place where it is played upon is between the jaws. To those who wish to learn more upon the subject, I beg to refer them to Pegge's _Anonymiana_; Dauncy's _Ancient Scottish Melodies_; and to my edition of Chettle's _Kind-Harts Dream_ printed by the Percy Society.

Edward F. Rimbault.

[We are indebted also to Trebor, E.W.D., J.F.M., and F.P. for
replies to this Query. They will perceive that Dr. Rimbault had
anticipated the substance of their several communications.]

* * * * *

ÆLFRIC'S COLLOQUY.

I must trouble you and some of your readers with a few words, in reply to the doubt of "C.W.G." (No. 16. p. 248.) respecting the word _sprote_. I do not think the point, and the Capital letter to _saliu_ in the Latin text, conclusive, as nothing of the kind occurs in the A.-S. version, where the reading is clearly, "_swa hwylce swa_, on watere swymmath sprote." I have seen the Cottonian MS., which, as Mr. Hampson observes, is very distinctly written, both in the Saxon and Latin portions; so much so in the latter, as to make it a matter of surprise that the doubtful word _saliu_ should ever have been taken for _salu_, or _casidilia_ for _calidilia_. The omission of the words _sprote_ and _saliu_, in the St. John's MS., would only be evidence of a more cautious scribe, who would not copy what he did not understand.

Your correspondent's notion, "that the name of some fish, having been first interlined, was afterwards inserted at random in the text, and mis-spelt by a transcriber who did know its meaning," appears to me very improbable; and the very form of the words (_sprote_, _saliu_, supposing them substantives), which have not plural terminations, would, in my mind, render his supposition untenable. For, be it recollected, that throughout the answers of the Fiscere, the fish are always named in the _plural_; and it is not to be supposed that there would be an exception in favour of _sprote_, whether intended for _sprat_ or _salmon_. Indeed, had the former been a river fish, Hulvet and Palsgrave would have countenanced the supposition; but then we must have had it in the plural form, _sprottas_. As for the suggestion of _sprod_ and _salar_, I cannot think it a happy one; salmon (_leaxus_) had been already mentioned; and _sprods_ will be found to be a very confined local name for what, in other places, are called _scurfes_ or _scurves_, and which we, in our ignorance, designate as salmon trout. In the very scanty A.-S. ichthyologic nomenclature we possess, there is nothing to lead us to imagine that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors had any corresponding word for a salmon trout. I must be excused, therefore, for still clinging to my own explanation of _sprote_, until something more _specious_ and _ingenious_ shall be advanced, but in full confidence, at the same time, that some future discovery will elucidate its truth.

S.W. Singer.

Feb. 19. 1850.

* * * * *

REHETING AND REHETOURS.

As Dr. Todd's query (no. 10. p. 155.) respecting the meaning of the words "Reheting" and "Rehetour," used by our early English writers, has not hitherto been answered, I beg to send him a conjectural explanation, which, if not conclusive, is certainly probable.

In the royal household of France, there was formerly an officer whose duty it was to superintend the roasting of the King's meat; he was called the _Hâteur_, apparently in the sense of his "hastening" or "expediting" that all-important operation. The Fr. _Hâter_, "to hasten or urge forward," would produce the noun-substantive _Hâteur_; and also the similar word _Hâtier_, the French name for the roast-jack. If we consider _Rehâteur_ to be the reduplicate of _Hâteur_, we have only to make an allowable permutation of vowels, and the result will be the expressive old English word "Rehetour," an appropriate name for the royal turnspit. Wycliffe uses it, I think, in the sense of a superfluous servant, one whose duties, like the Hâteur's, were very light indeed. He compares the founding of new Orders in an overburthened Church-establishment to the making of new offices in a household already crowded with useless (and consequently idle and vicious) servants. The multitude of fat friars and burly monks charged upon the community were "the newe rehetours that ete mennes mete," &c.

The term, thus implying an useless "do-nothing," would soon become one of the myriad of choice epithets in the vulgar vocabulary, as in the instances from Dunbar and Kennedy.

In a better sense, a verb would be derived, easily; "to rehâte," or "rehete," i.e. "to provide, {279} entertain, or refresh with meat," and thence, "to feast with words," as used by Chaucer and the old Romancists.

Mr. Halliwell's authorities for rendering the participle "Rehating" by "Burning, or smarting," are not given; but if such a meaning existed, it may have a ready explanation by reference to the Hâuteur's fireside labour, though suggestive of unskilfulness or carelessness on his part.

John Westby Gibson.

5. Queen Square, Aldersgate Street, Feb. 8. 1850.

In answer to Dr. Todd's inquiries, I would say, first of all, the "rehatours" of Douglas and the other Scots are beside his question, and a totally different word. Feelings cherished in the mind will recur from time to time; and those malevolent persons, who thus retain them, were said to _re-hate_, as they are now said to re-sent.

But the verb really in question is, _per se_, a perfectly plain one, to re-heat. The difficulty is as to its use. The primary use, of course, is to _heat again_. The nearest secondary use is "to cherish, cheer, or comfort, to refocillate;" which is too plain to require more words. Another secondary meaning is "to re-vive or to re-kindle" in its metaphoric sense. This may be said well, as of life, health, or hope; or ill, as of war, hatred, grief; or indifferently, as of love. What difficulty Mr. Tyrwhitt could find in "the revival of Troilus's bitter grief" being called "the reheating of his sore sighs," I cannot imagine. Even literal heat is not wanting to sighs, and is often ascribed to them by poets: and lovers' sighs are warm in every sense. I think Tyrwhitt has thrown upon this passage the only darkness that involves it.

Now comes the more difficult point, which alone concerns Dr. Todd in his highly interesting labours upon Wycliffe. And the method which, until better advised, I should be inclined to follow with those passages, is to take the word nearly, though not exactly, in what seems to have been its most usual sense; not indeed for comforters or cherishers, but for those who promote comfort and convenience, viz., ministers or servants. It does not at all follow, because he is blaming the introduction of these persons as expensive, superfluous, and otherwise evil, that he describes them by a word expressive of evil. As a ministering angel would be a reheting angel, so I take a rehetor here to be simply a minister, one who waits upon your occasions and serves you.

A.N.

* * * * *

ARABIC NUMERALS.

The history of the Arabic numerals, as they are generally called, is so mixed up with that of the use of the decimal scale, that they form, in fact, but a single inquiry. The mere history of the bare forms of symbols has, doubtless, its use: but then it is only in the character of _matériel_ for a philosophical discussion of the question--a discussion into which the natural progress of the human mind and the urgency of social wants must enter largely.

It might at first sight appear, from the cognate character of the Hebrew and Arabic languages, that the idea of using a single symbol for each number, might originate with either--with one as likely as with the other. But on reflection it will readily appear that the question rather resolves itself into one respecting the "hand-cursive" of the Jews and Saracens, than into one respecting the constitution of the languages. Of the Jewish we know nothing, or next to nothing, at the period in question; whilst the Arabic is as well known as even our own present style of calligraphy. It deserves to be more carefully inquired into than has yet been done, whether the invention of contracting the written compound symbols of the digital numbers into single symbols did not really originate amongst the Jews rather than the Saracens; and even whether the Arabs themselves did not obtain them from the "Jew merchants" of the earlier ages of our era. One thing is tolerably certain:--that the Jew merchant would, as a matter of precaution, keep all his accounts in some secret notation, or in cipher. Whether this should be a modified form of the Hebrew notation, or of the Latin, must in a great degree depend upon the amount of literary acquirement common amongst that people at the time.

Assuming that the Jews, as a literate people, were upon a par with their Christian contemporaries, and that their knowledge was mainly confined to mere commercial notation, an anonymous writer has shown how the modifications of form could be naturally made, in vol. ii. of the _Bath and Bristol Magazine_, pp. 393-412.; the motto being _valent quanti valet_, as well as the title professing it to be wholly "conjectural." Some of the speculations in it may, however, deserve further considerations than they have yet received.[1]

The contraction of the compound symbols for the first nine digits into single "figures," enabled the computer to dispense with the manual labour of the _abacus_, whilst in his graphic notation he retained its essential principle of _place_. It seems to be almost invariably forgotten by writers on {280} the subject, what, without _this principle_, no improvement in mere notation would have been of material use in arithmetic; and on the other hand that the main difference between the arithmetic of the _abacus_ and the arithmetic of the _slate_, consists in the inevitable consequences of the denotation of the single digits by single symbols.

The _abacus_, however, in its ordinary form, is essentially a decimal instrument: but its form was also varied for commercial purposes, perhaps in different ways. I never heard of the existence of one in any collection: but there is preserved in the British Museum a picture of one. This was printed by Mr. Halliwell in his _Rara Mathematica_--not a fac-simile, but a rule and type representation of it, ciphers being used by him for the circles in the original. Mr. Halliwell gives it without note or remark; and evidently had not divined its meaning. This was done, however, soon after in a review of Mr. Halliwell's book in the _Philosophical Magazine_. I am not able at this moment to refer to either, so as to give exact dates: but is was somewhere from 1838 to 1840.

Perhaps, however, I am giving "E.V." information that may be irrelevant to his purpose; though it may of some use to another class of inquirers. I proceed, therefore, to one or two notices that seem to have a more direct bearing on his object:

1. Chasles' _Aperçu Historique sur l'Origine et le Développement de Méthodes en Géométrie_; passim, but especially in note xii.: 4to., Bruxelles, 1837.

2. Chasles' several notices in _Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Acad. des Sciences._ All subsequent to the "Aperçu."

His _Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de Ville de Chartres_ should also be consulted, if accessible to "E.V." Copies of it, however, are very rare in the country, as it was privately printed and never published. If, however, your correspondent have any serious inquiry in view which should render his consultation of it desirable, I can put it in his power to do so personally through you.

3. Libri, several notices in the same series of papers.

4. Libri, _Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques en Italie_. Several places. Bactulica. Paris, 1838-1841. 4 tomes. 8vo.

5. Peacock (Dean of Ely), "Arithmetic," in the _Encyclopædia Metropolitana_. This is now, I believe to be had either separately, or in the volume devoted to pure "Mathematics."

6. De Morgan, _Penny Cyclopædia_ in loc., and occasionally elsewhere in the work.

7. Leslie's _Philosophy of Arithmetic_.

8. Humboldt, in a paper which is translated in the _Journal of the Royal Institution_, vol. xxix.

I believe a good many other references might be made, with little trouble, to foreign Mémoires; and (perhaps still more to your correspondent's apparent purpose) to some amongst the Mémoires that relate to inscriptions and topography, rather that amongst those relating directly to science or literature. However, the two parts of the subject cannot be effectively studied separately from each other; and I am not without a hope that these straggling notes may be of some use to "E.V."

Under the view of inscriptions it occurs to my memory that in two or three places on the church of St. Brelade in Jersey, there are marked four vertical straight lines, which are interpreted by the natives to signify the Arabic numerals 1111; as the date MCXI of the building of the church. The church is evidently a very ancient one, and it is agreed to be the oldest in the island, and the island historians assign it to the early part of the 12th century. For these symbols being coeval with the building I do not vouch: as (though it is difficult to say what may constitute antiquity in the look of four parallel lines) I confess that to my eye they had "as modern a look" as four such lines could well have. The sudden illness of one of my party during our visit (1847), however, precluded my examining that beautiful spot and its interesting little church with the care I should have wished.

I may be allowed to suggest the necessity of some degree of caution in discussing this question: especially not to assume that any Arabic numerals which appear in ecclesiastical inscriptions are coeval with the dates they express; but rather inquire whether, from the condition of the stone bearing the inscription, these numbers may not have been put there at a later period, during repairs and alterations of the building itself. It is for many reasons improbable, rather than otherwise, that the Arabic numerals should have been freely used (if used at all) on _ecclesiastical structures_ till long after the Reformation: indeed they are not so even yet.

But more. Even where there is authentic evidence of such symbols being used in ecclesiastical inscriptions, the forms of them will tell nothing. For generally in such cases an antique form of symbol would be assumed, if it were the alteration of a "learned clerk;" or the arabesque taste of the carver of the inscription would be displayed in grotesque forms. We would rather look for genuine than coeval symbols of this kind upon tombs and monuments, and the altar, than upon the building itself; and these will furnish collateral proofs of the genuineness of the entire inscriptions rather than any other class of architectural remains. The evidence of the inscriptions on "Balks and beams" in old manorial dwellings is especially to be suspected.

T.S.D.

Shooter's Hill, Feb 11, 1850.

[Footnote 1: In vol. iii. of the same work is another paper by
the same author, entitled, "Conjectures respecting the Origin of
Alphabetic writing," pp. 365-384. Reference to these papers is
principally made, not on the ground of any assumed merit, but
because _all_ that has been written on any given subject ought,
if possible, to be brought before the minds of those engaged in
the prosecution of the inquiry.]

_Arabic Numerals._--If you think the following {281} title will do for your correspondent "E.V." (No. 15. p. 230.), please to communicate it to him:

"Mannert, K., de Numerorum, quos arabicos voc., vera origine
pythagorico; e. Fig. aen. 8vo. Nürnberg, 1801."

Oscar Heun.

Cambridge, Feb. 11. 1850.

_Arabic Numerals_ (No. 15. p. 230.).--Your correspondent should consult Peacock's "History of Arithmetic" in the _Encyclopædia Metropolitana_; and, if he can get them, the notes to Chasles' _Aperçu Historique des Méthodes en Géométric_, and various papers of Mr. Chasles, published in the _Comptes Rendus_ of the French Institute. He may perhaps find some information in De Morgan's _Arithmetical Books_, particularly at p. 14.