*** Correspondents sending Lists of Books Wanted are requested to send their names.
*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to Mr. Bell, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.
Notices to Correspondents.
Dick the Treble will find the Gloucestershire Ballad George Ridler's Oven in our 4th Volume, p. 311.
Hogmanay. Our Correspondent J. Bd., who inquires the etymology of this word, is referred to Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Brand's Popular Antiquities (ed. Bohn. 1849), vol. i. p. 460., for the very numerous and contradictory derivations which the learned have given of it.
W. W. (Stilton.) The stone of which our Correspondent has forwarded an impression appears to be one of those gems called Abraxas, used by the Gnostic and Basilidian heretics. On it is a double serpent, and the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet, Α Ε Η Ι Ο Υ Ω, which constantly appear on their engraved stones, and to which they referred certain mystical ideas. These were worn as amulets: sometimes used as love charms; and our Correspondent will find some curious facts about them in an old Greek papyrus just published by Mr. Godwin, in the Proceedings or Transactions of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
C. E. F. is informed that Mr. Eaton's proportion of ten grains of salt to the pint is quite correct; and he will find it produce a most agreeable tint.
G. S. "The Cataract of Lodore" will be found in Longman's one-volume edition (1850) of Southey's Poetical Works, p. 164.
Rubi. We have several communications for this Correspondent. How may they be forwarded?