Minor Notes.
Hippopotamus, Behemoth.
—The young animal which has drawn so much attention hitherto, will increase in attractiveness as he acquires his voice, for which the zoologist may now arectis auribus await the development. It has appeared singular to many who knew the Greek name of this animal to signify river-horse, that he should be so unlike a horse. Nevertheless, the Greeks who knew him only at a distance, as we did formerly, named him from his voice and ears after an animal which he so little resembles in other respects. The Egyptian words from which the Behemoth of Job (chap. xl. v. 10.) are derived, more fitly designate him as water-ox, B-ehe-moūt = literatim, the aquatic ox.
T. W. B.
Lichfield.
Curious Inscription (Vol. iv., pp. 88. 182.).
—My ecclesiological note-book supplies two additional examples of the curious kind of inscription communicated by your correspondents J. O. B. and MR. E. S. TAYLOR (by the way, the one mentioned by J. O. B. was found also at St. Olave's, Hart Street; see Weever, Fun. Mon.). These both occur at Winchester Cathedral: the first near a door in the north aisle, at the south-west angle:—
☜ ILL PREC
AC ATOR
H VI ☞
AMBVLA
The other on the south side:
CESSIT COMMVNI PROPRIVM JAM PERGITE
QVA FAS. 1632.
☞
ACR S ILL CH
S A IT A ORO
ERV F IST F
☜
W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.
[This curious inscription, with a translation, is given by Milner, in his History of Winchester, vol. ii. p. 90.]
Coins of Edward III. struck at Antwerp in 1337.
—Ruding, in his Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain (3rd ed. p. 212.), describing the coins of Edward III. (who often resided on the Continent, and whose sister Eleanor was married to Raimond III., Duke of Guelder), says:
"In November A.D. 1337, according to Grafton, the king was made vicar-general and lieutenant to the emperor, with power to coin money of gold and silver. He kept his winter at the castle of Louvain, and caused great sums of money, both of gold and silver, to be coined at Antwerp."
And in the note:
"Chronicle [of Grafton?] sub anno. Froissart also mentions this fact. The silver coins were probably struck with English dies, and consequently are not now to be distinguished."
Now, you will oblige me by informing your English readers, that though these may have been struck with English dies, they can readily be distinguished from other English coins by the legends. They are represented on Pl. viii., Nos. 19. and 20., in my Munten der voormalige Hertogdommen Braband en Limburg, van de vroeyste Tijden tot aan de Pacificatie van Gend. The type is wholly English, and agrees with the coins of Edward III., as I have remarked in the text. The Moneta nostra indicates a joint coin (i.e. common to the emperor and to the king); as Coin No. 3. Pl. xxxiii. was probably a joint coin of Edward III. and Philip VI., King of France.
P. O. VAN DER CHŸS.
Leiden.