[482] ‘Deinceps regnante in ea Jebusæo, dicta Jebus, et sic ex Jebus et Salem dicta est Jebussalem. Unde post dempta b littera et addita r, dicta est Hierusalem.’ Matthæi Paris Historia Major, p. 43. This reminds me of another great writer, who was one of the fathers, and was moreover a saint, and who, says M. Matter, ‘dérive les Samaritains du roi Samarius, fils de Canaan.’ Matter, Hist. du Gnosticisme, vol. i. p. 41.
[483] ‘Humber rex Hunnorum … ad flumen diffugiens, submersus est intra ipsum, et nomen suum flumini reliquit.’ Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 19.
[484] These two opinions, which long divided the learned world, are stated in Le Long, Bibliothèque Historique de la France, vol. ii. pp. 5, 49.
[485] See a curious allusion to this in De Thou, Hist. Univ. vol. viii. p. 160; where, however, it is erroneously supposed to be a Russian invention.
[486] ‘The Silesians are not without voluminous writers upon their antiquities; and one of them gravely derives the name and descent of his country from the prophet Elisha.’ Adams's Letters on Silesia, p. 267, Lond. 8vo, 1804.
[487] In 1608, Coryat, when in Zurich, was ‘told by the learned Hospinian that their city was founded in the time of Abraham.’ Coryat's Crudities, vol. i. Epistle to the Reader, sig. D. I always give the most recent instance I have met with, because, in the history of the European intellect, it is important to know how long the spirit of the Middle Ages survived in different countries.
[488] They were ‘seuls enfants légitimes’ of Abraham and Sarah. Monteil, Divers Etats, vol. v. p. 19.
[489] Mathew Paris, who is apprehensive lest the reputation of Sarah should suffer, says, ‘Saraceni perversé se putant ex Sara dici; sed veriùs Agareni dicuntur ab Agar; et Ismaelitæ, ab Ismaele filio Abrahæ.’ Hist. Major, p. 357. Compare a similar passage in Mezeray, Histoire de France, vol. i. p. 127: ‘Sarrasins, ou de la ville de Sarai, ou de Sara femme d'Abraham, duquel ils se disent faussement légitimes héritiers.’ After this, the idea, or the fear of the idea, soon died away; and Beausobre (Histoire Critique de Manichée, vol. i. p. 24) says: ‘On dérive vulgairement le nom de Sarrasins du mot arabe Sarah, ou Sarak, qui signifie effectivement voleur.’ A good example of a secular turn given to a theological etymology. For a similar case in northern history, see Whitelocke's Journal of the Swedish Embassy, vol. i. pp. 190, 191.
[490] Early in the fourteenth century, this was stated, in a letter to the Pope, as a well-known historical fact. See Lingard's Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 187: ‘They are sprung from Scota the daughter of Pharaoh, who landed in Ireland, and whose descendants wrested, by force of arms, the northern half of Britain from the progeny of Brute.’
[491] Mr. Wright (Narratives of Sorcery, 8vo, 1851, vol. i. p. 115) says, ‘The foundation of the city of Naples upon eggs, and the egg on which its fate depended, seem to have been legends generally current in the Middle Ages;’ and he refers to Montfaucon, Monumens de la Mon. Fr. vol. ii. p. 329, for proof, that by the statutes of the order of the Saint Esprit, ‘a chapter of the knights was appointed to be held annually in castello ovi incantati in mirabili periculo.’