—In the parish church of Limington, Somerset, is a figure of a cross-legged knight, with his hand on the hilt of his sword, as if about to draw it. The date of the foundation of the chantry in which he lies is said to be 1329, and the mouldings and windows appear to testify its correctness.
ב.
The Word Ἀδελφὸς (Vol. iv., p. 339.).
—Your correspondent, the Rev. T. R. BROWN, is right in acquiescing in the ordinary derivation of ἀδελφὸς from ἀ and δέλφυς, but wrong, as I think, in endeavouring to find cognate forms in the Indo-Germanic languages. The fact is, that the word is solely and peculiarly Greek. The Sanscrit word for brother is, as every body knows, bhratri (Latin, frater, &c.); and that this form was not entirely unknown to the Hellenic races, is evidenced by their use of φράτρα, or φράτρη, in various senses, all of which may easily be reduced to the one common idea of brotherhood. How it happened that the word φρατὴρ was lost in Greek, and ἀδελφὸς substituted, we think we can satisfactorily explain, and, if so, the elucidation will make clearer an interesting point in Greek manners. It appears that they, in common with some Eastern nations, looked upon the relationship between brothers of the same mother as much closer in blood than that in which the brothers were related through the father alone; and hence the well-known law forbidding ἀδελφοὶ ὁμομητρίοι alone to marry. In the same manner we find Abraham (Gen. xx. 12.) using a similar excuse for marrying Sarah:
"And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife."
It is not difficult, therefore, to understand how this notion prevailing among the Greeks, might lead them to frame a new word from ἀ and δέλφυς, to express the uterine relation of brothers, which would soon in common use supplant the older Indo-German term φρατὴρ. For further reasons which may have influenced the dropping of the word φρατὴρ, I would refer to a learned article on "Comparative Philology" in the last number of the Edinburgh Review, by Dr. Max Müller.
With regard to the derivations suggested by MR. BROWN from the Hebrew, Arabic, &c., I think I am justified in laying down as a rule that no apparent similarity between words in the Semitic and Asian families can be used to establish a real identity, the two classes of language being radically and fundamentally distinct.
J. B.
Finger Pillories (Vol. iv., p. 315.).
—Meeting recently with a person who, although illiterate, is somewhat rich in oral tradition and local folk lore, I inquired if he had ever seen such a thing as that described by MR. LAWRENCE. He replied that he had not, but that he had frequently heard of these "stocks," as he called them, and that he believed they were used in "earlier days" for the purpose of inflicting penance upon those parishioners who absented themselves from mass for any lengthened period. My informant illustrated his explanation with a "traditionary" anecdote (too fabulous to trouble you with), which had been the means of imparting the above to him. Whether correct or not, however, I must leave others to determine.