A Slip of Coleridge's.-" Has any one ever called attention to the extraordinary blunder, in describing natural phenomena, which occurs in the Ancient Mariner' of Coleridge? At the moment of the terrific apparition of the phantom ship, we read how "The western wave was all aflame, The day was well-nigh done; Rested the broad bright sun.' Then comes the awful game of dice, then the sunset, and then the instantaneous tropical night and the miserable efforts of the steersman, when "Clomb above the eastern bar The horned moon, with one bright star But if the moon rose in the east and gradually climbed the sky, she was at or near her full opposite the sun. Hence she could not be horned, or have a star within either tip. The crescent moon, with her horns, is of course seen in the west, at or near sunset, and the crescent moon is steadily setting and getting lower in the sky from the instant of its appearance. It may also be crescent in the east at sunrise, but this has no application here. "The significance of this error is twofold. First, Coleridge is one of those authors whom his admirers generally will not allow to be criticised; he is supposed to be justified by a kind of inspiration in anything he ever wrote. In such circumstances, there is some satisfaction for those whose taste is for a wholly different style of composition, and who consider Coleridge a peculiarly proper subject for criticism, to find the sort of mistake in him which, if made by Scott, Byron, or Moore, would have instantly brought down on the offender a swarm of harpies. "But there is a much deeper significance in this mistake. It shows that a poet, of undoubted genius and skill in composition, who has planned and composed a poem with profound thought and care, may in the course of forty lines admit an impossible incongruity, unnoticed by himself, and, as time has shown, unnoticed by three generations of readers. Yet it is precisely such incongruities that cause the various German critics to cut up the Iliad and Odyssey into separate poems, and declare that no one man could have composed either of them. Coleridge tells us himself that he is indebted to Wordsworth for two lines of the poem. Lachmann would undoubtedly argue that one of these two poets must have stopped his hand soon after describing the sunset, and then the other have inserted the description of the moon" (Atlantic Monthly). Eccentric Burials (Vol. iv, pp. 143, "" the etc.).—I find in the "Book of Days following account of an eccentric burial in the time of the Commonwealth : "Dugdale has preserved for us an account of the funeral of the wife of a gentleman, of good means, but cynical temper. The gentleman was Mr. Fisher Dilke, Registrar of Shustoke; his wife was a sister of Sir Peter Wentworth, one of the regicide judges. 'She was a frequenter of conventicles; and dying before her husband, he first stripped his barn-wall to make her a coffin; then bargained with the clerk for a groat to make a grave in the church-yard, to save eight-pence by one in the church. This done, he speaketh about eight of his neighbors to meet at his house, for bearers; for whom he provided three twc-penny cakes and a bottle of claret [this treat would cost 25. at the utmost]. And some being come, he read a chapter in Job to them till all were then ready; when, having distributed the cake and wine among them, they took up the corpse, he following them to the grave. Then, putting himself in the parson's place (none being there), the corpse being laid in the grave, and a spade of mould cast thereon, he said, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust;' adding, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation ;" and so returned home.''' T. C. RATTER. BUFFALO, N. Y. Oriana (Vol. v, pp. 148, etc.).-May not the name of Oriana, wife of Amadis of Gaul (Wales) and daughter of Lisuarte, King of England, be an echo of the name of Oriuna, wife of Carausius, Emperor or King of Britain? G. PHILADELPHIA, PA. are Infinitesimals.-There are some very minute insects-as the Cynipida for instance -which have other, still minuter species that are parasitic upon them, the Chalcidida, for instance. The typical genera Cynips and Chalcis. But more wonderful still, the very eggs of some of these minute species are infested by still smaller species. These eggs furnish sufficient aliment for the perfect development of the very minute species that infest them. There are many of these smaller species that are never seen except by a microscopic specialist; but they exist all the same, and are every day, in season, doing more towards the destruction or extermination of the more noxious species, perhaps, than all the human remedies ever discovered. LANCASTER, PA. S. S. R. Lakes Drained (Vol. v, pp. 274, etc.). -The Dowaltown Loch, a lake in the county of Wigtown, Scotland, was artificially drained in 1862. This lake was remarkable for its crannogs, or prehistoric lake dwellings; and from its bed valuable remains of prehistoric household implements were taken. It is stated by Bertius that a large brackish or saline lake called Moer once occupied a large part of Flanders, stretching from Furnes to Bergues (see De Peyster's "Hist. of Carausius," p. 169, note). NEW JERSEY. G. The Last Crusade.-It is known and only known to an extremely small minority, the last dying spark of the crusades cast a glimmer of glory on the fourteenth century. In October of the year 1365, Peter de Lusignan, King of Cyprus, besieged Alexandria in Egypt. It is entitled to claim as a crusade since adventurers of several Christian nations participated. Considerable obscurity envelops the operation, which seems to have failed, as usual, from want of provisions. Fordun, "Scotishe," Vol. ii, P. 488, mentions Norman Lesley, his countryman, as a prime actor. There was an old Scottish poem on the feats of Sir Walter, brother to this worthy, Duke of Seygaroch in France. Fordun and also Martland's poems, Michaud's "Crusades," Vol. iii, Bk. xvi, pr. 116-120, give further particulars. The latter says Alexandria was captured and burned, but abandoned after four days' occupation, so that without subduing the Mussulmans, they irritated them." Browne may be more correct; he furnishes the Moslem side of the story. Shaban Ascrâf, who was then Sultan of Egypt, was the first who ordered the sheûfs, or descendants of the prophet, Mohammed, to wear a green turban, by which they are still to be distinguished. while on this subject note this correction : "Old Kahira [or Cairo] is not Fastut, as almost always asserted, but Misr-el-attike, further south" ("Travels in Africa, Egypt and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798,” London, 1799, by William G. Browne). TIVOLI, N. Y. And ANCHOR. Dialect Forms (Vol. v, pp. 115, etc.). OHIO. P. R. E. Man-of War (Vol. iii, p. 308).—I do not see any special difficulty about this word. A ship, though of the feminine. gender, is often called a man in composi--Coppy-wood for a coppice, or copse, is not tion. Thus we read of a merchant man, an unknown to English literature; quait for East India man, or a Guinea man. At sea, quoit, is much used in New England. an American shipmaster will always speak of an English ship as "an English man." I suppose that in reality it is the master of the vessel who is the merchant man, or the English man, and not his ship. The idea in "man-of-war" is no doubt precisely similar. So "a rover" is either the pirate, or his ship, more than that, the ship itself may be called "a pirate." PITTSBURGH. CONRAD M. CRESSON. Tree-lists (Vol. iv, pp. 249, etc.).—In an anonymous Latin Goliard poem, "De Clarevallensibus et Cluniacensibus" ("The Monks of Clairvaux and of Cluny "), printed with the poems of Walter Map, but probably not his, verses 9-30, there is a beautiful list of trees and herbs, too long to quote here. NEW JERSEY. G. A MEDIUM OF INTERCOMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, GENERAL Copyrighted 1890, by The Westminster Publishing Co. Entered at the Post-Office, Philadelphia, as Second-class Matter. Vol. V. No. 25. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1890. $3.00 per year. $1.75, 6 months. $1.00, 3 months. 10 cents per number. THE American Notes and Queries PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE WESTMINSTER PUBLISHING COMPANY, 619 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. SAMUEL R. HARRIS, EDITOR. Single copies sold, and subscriptions taken at the publishers' office. Queries on all matters of general literary and historical interest-folk-lore, the origin of proverbs, familiar sayings, popular customs, quotations, etc., the authorship of books, pamphlets, poems, essays, or stories, the meaning of recondite allusions, etc., etc.—are invited from all quarters, and will be answered by editors or contributors. Room is allowed for the discussion of moot questions, and the periodical is thus a valuable medium for intercommunication be tween literary men and specialists. Communications for the literary department should be addressed: EDITOR AMERICAN NOTES AND QUERIES. All checks and money orders to be made payable to the order of The Westminster Publishing Company, 619 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. CONTENTS. NOTES:-Curious Bibles, 289-Flying-Fish, 291-The Phonograph Anticipated, 292. QUERIES:-Mud Baths, 294. REPLIES:-Ildegerte of Kotzebue-Mount St. Elias, 294. - REFERRED TO CORRESPONDENTS:-CandlewoodPainted Desert - Ceylon and Junk-ceylon Boanerges Metla-Raystown Branch-Tenth Muse-Alco-Agony of Prayer, 295-Shrieking Pits-No Snakes in Iceland-Poet Squab-Caisson Disease-Recoupment by Magic, 296. COMMUNICATIONS:-Men of Humble Origin, 296—Origin of Place Names-Dread of Happiness-Strange and Curious Poisons, 297-Ancient Master Builders, 298-The Deepest Lake Known-Greek Words in Chinese-A Mine of Beeswax, 299-Jenkins-Lakes Drained-Adam's Peak, 300. BOOKS AND PERIODICALS:-300. ПОЛЕЅ. CURIOUS BIBLES. The "Curious Bibles" is a general name given to certain editions of the Bible which are prized by the mild lunatics known to medical men as bibliomaniacs, not for any intrinsic value, but because they contain various odd misprints or mistranslations. Foremost among them is the Breeches Bible, so called because in the third chapter of Genesis it speaks of Adam and Eve as having "made themselves breeches" of fig leaves. This edition first appeared in 1560, in quarto form, and we owe it to the English reformers exiled at Geneva. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth it served as the regular family Bible, its popularity being largely due to the Calvinistic comments that liberally besprinkled the margin. 66 The Bug Bible, which appeared in London in 1561, and was originally known as Matthew's Bible, is indebted for its curious sobriquet to the fact that the fifth verse of the ninety-first Psalm is translated, "So thou shalt not need to be afraid of any bugges by night." The original idea of the word-a goblin or spook-is still to be traced in bogie, bugbear, bugaboo. The Wicked Bible, printed in London in 1631, was so called because the negation was omitted in the seventh commandment, thus placing an awful injunction upon the faithful. This is much sought after, because it was promptly suppressed, the printer being fined £300 by Archbishop Laud. The money, it is said, was devoted to the purchase of a supply of Greek type for the University of Oxford. The Vinegar Bible was printed in 1717 at the Clarendon Press, and is so known because the Parable of the Vineyard in the title to the twentieth chapter of St. Luke is printed "Parable of the Vinegar !" The Whig or Placemaker's Bible (1561, 1562) obtained its name from an error occurring in St. Matthew v, 9, where "Blessed are the placemakers is substituted for "peacemakers." The Treacle Bible (1568) has the passage in Jeremiah," Is there no balm in Gilead?" rendered, "Is there no treacle in Gilead ?" And the Douay (Roman Catholic) version has been described as the Rosin Bible, because the same passage has the word rosin instead of treacle. Many years ago there existed in the Stowe library the "Book of Gospels," on which the English kings, down to Edward VI, took the coronation oath, with a huge brazen crucifix, which the monarchs kissed on its cover. The binding was of ponderous oak boards, an inch or so in thickness, fastened by huge leather thongs. The Printers' Bible makes David pathetically complain that printers (in place of princes) have "persecuted without a cause." The author of this translation may have been indulging in a sly hit at the intelligent compositor, which many authors of the present would gladly reëcho. There are some other curious Bibles of more recent dates: The Ears-to-car Bible * * ("Who hath ears to ear, let him ear," Matthew xiii, 43), printed in 1810; The Standing-fishes Bible ("And it shall come to pass that the fishes shall stand upon it," etc., Ezekiel xlvii, 49), printed in 1806; The Wife-Hater Bible ("If any man come to me, and hate not his father * yea, and his own wife also," etc., Luke xiv, 26), printed in 1810; The Discharge Bible ("I discharge thee before God," I Timothy v, 21), printed in 1806; Rebekah's-Camels Bible ("And Rebekah arose, and her camels,' Genesis xxiv, 61), printed in 1823; To-Remain Bible ("Persecuted him that was born after the spirit to remain, even so it is now," Gal. iv, 29). " The latter typographical error, which was perpetuated in the first 8vo Bible printed for the Bible Society, takes its chief importance from the curious circumstances under which it arose. A 12mo Bible was being printed at Cambridge in 1805, and the proof-reader being in doubt as to whether or not he should remove a comma, applied to his superior, and the reply, penciled on the margin, "to remain," was transferred to the body of the text and repeated in the Bible Society's 8vo edition of 1805, 1806, and also in another 12mo edition of 1819. A WICKED PRAYER-BOOK. Besides a Wicked Bible, commented upon in our last number, there is also a Wicked Prayer-book, which has only been discovered recently. One copy is known to exist in this country, belonging to Mr. John Michels, of New York. The Prayer-book in question was printed by Charles Bill, Henry Hills and Thomas Newcomb, printers to the King's most Excellent Majesty, in the year 1686, just one year after James II became King of England. This Prayer-book is specially interesting as being the first prayerbook which contained those special forms of prayers of a political character which were ordered to be read on special days, with fasting, in every church throughout the land. The first of these was devoted to the memory of the "Martyrdom of the Blessed King Charles I," and the last "a form prayer with Thanksgiving, for the happy deliverance of the King, and the Three Estates of the Realms, from the most of Traitorous and bloudy intended Massacre by Gun-powder." But the distinguishing feature of the book is the printer's error in the portion devoted to the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. Here the Epistle, 1 Gal. v, 16 verses, is printed as follows: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in past time, that they who do such things, shall inherit the kingdom of God." The reader will not fail to notice that the word not had been omitted after the word "shall," which would make it read "shall not inherit the kingdom of God." This puts a very different construction on the passage. Mr. Michels was much interested to know whether this error had been noticed and corrected by the printers and publishers, or whether it had run through an entire edition. So he reported his discovery to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who requested his librarian to make a report based on the collection of Lambeth Palace. Here is the report in full: "THE LIBRARY, LAMBETH PALACE, 1890. "In compliance with an inquiry as to certain editions of the Book of Common Prayer, preserved in Lambeth Palace Library, I beg to make the following report: Both "There are two copies (duplicates) of the folio edition of 1686 in the library. these in the epistle for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, have the words, shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." There is also a copy of the octavo edition of 1686, referred to by Mr. Michel; this copy also has the words "shall not inherit." Of editions of before and after that of 1686, the following are in this library: 1680-1685-Both of these have "shall not inherit." Of subsequent editions, 1692, 1705 (?), 1707 and 1721-all these contain the words" shall not inherit." If the omission of the word “not” in Mr. Michel's copy of the Prayer-book of 1686 It was clear from this report that the error had been discovered and corrected in the latter part of the edition printed. The librarian of the British Museum wrote to say they had no copy of the octavo Prayer-book of 1686, and asked a photograph copy of the page containing the omitted "not." The Bodleian Library had a duplicate. copy of the book, and the librarian wrote to say their copy "has the 'not' omitted as in your copy, it is inserted with the pen." He also reported: "I have examined this epistle in several prayer-books, just before and after this date. They all have not, except one edition, viz., Charles Bill, Henry Hills and Thomas Newcomb, 1688, 8vo. This edition omits the not." This report, taken with that from Lambeth Palace, shows that the error was corrected, but that the same printers two years later published an edition in which the same error was reproduced-a remarkable circumstance, which furnishes strong evidence that both errors were due to intentional alterations of the type, and not to mere typographical error. This view appears to have been entertained by a writer of the period, who stated: "These errata were none of the printer, but egregious blasphemies and damnable errata of some sectarian." It appears that a printer named Field, who was a partner of Hills, was fined £1500 for purposely corrupting a text. D'Israeli also mentions that Hills and Field printed Bibles with abundant errata, "reducing the text of the Scriptures to nonsense or blasphemy." FLYING-FISH. So far as I am informed, all the book-authorities declare that the course of the flyingfish through the air is not a true flight. But my own impression is (and it is based upon |