Variety is pleasing.—Looking over my last year's note-book, I find the following morceau, which I think ought to be preserved in "N. & Q.:"
"Nov. 30, 1851. Observed in the window of the Shakspeare Inn a written paper running thus:
'To be raffled for:
The finding of Moses, and six
Fat geeze(!!).
Tickets at the bar.'"
R. C. Warde.
Kidderminster.
Rome and the Number Six.—It has been remarked lately in "N. & Q." that in English history, the reign of the second sovereign of the same name has been infelicitous. I cannot turn to the
note I read, and I forget whether it noticed the remarks in Aubrey's Miscellanies (London, 8vo., 1696), that "all the second kings since the Conquest have been unfortunate." It may be worth the while to add (what is remarked by Mr. Matthews in his Diary of an Invalid), that the number six has been considered at Rome as ominous of misfortune. Tarquinius Sextus was the very worst of the Tarquins, and his brutal conduct led to a revolution in the government; under Urban the Sixth, the great schism of the West broke out; Alexander the Sixth outdid all that his predecessors amongst the Tarquins or the Popes had ventured to do before him; and the presentiment seemed to receive confirmation in the misfortunes of the reign of his successor Pius VI., to whose election was applied the line:
"Semper sub sextis perdita Roma fuit."
W. S. G.
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Zend Grammar.—The following fragment on Zend grammar having fallen in my way, I inclose you a copy, as the remarks contained in it may be of service to Oriental scholars.