Meaning of Carnaby (Vol. iii., p. 495.).
—ARUN inquires as to the meaning of Carnaby as the name of a street. Carnaby is a surname probably deriving from the parish of Carnaby in Yorkshire. It has become a Christian name in the family of —— Haggerston, Bart., since the marriage of an heiress of Carnaby's into that family.
Streets are often called after proper names.
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Scandinavian Mythology (Vol. ii, p. 141.).
—Your correspondent T. J. has called attention to the tradition-falsifying assertion of Mr. G. Pigott, that the custom with which the Scandinavians were long reproached, of drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, has no other foundation than a blunder of Olaus Wormius in translating a passage in the death-song of Regner Lodbrog.
The following extracts from the curious and learned work of Bartholinus, De Causis Contemptæ a Danis Adhuc Gentilibus Mortis, will, I think, show that the subject deserves further inquiry before we consent to place this ancient historical tradition in the category of vulgar errors. Speaking of the banquets of the beatified heroes in Valhalla, Bartholinus says:
"Neque tamen ex communi animalium cornu elaborata pocula in Valhalla viserentur; sacratiora desiderabantur ex cæsorum craniis inimicorum confecta, quæ apud Danos vel ex Daniâ oriundos, alias quoque gentes, in summo erant pretio."—Lib. ii. cap. xii. p. 555.
In proof of this assertion he quotes the following authors; Herodotus (lib. iv. cap. 65.) and Plato (Euthydemus), who attribute this custom to the Scythians. Aristotle is supposed to allude to it, De Repub. lib. vii. cap. 2. In the Historia Miscellanea, lib. vi., it is mentioned as a custom of the Scordisci; and similar customs are recorded of the Panebi by Nicolaus Damascenus, of the Essedones by Solinus and Mela, of the Boii by Livy (lib iii. cap. 24.), of the Celts by Silius Italicus (lib. ii.), of the Langobards by Paulus Diaconus (lib. i. cap. 27.). The last-mentioned author informs us that these skull cups were alled "scalæ;" upon which Bartholinus remarks—
"Unde genus, undeque morem ejusmodi conficiendarum paterarum unde etiam nomen scalæ iis inditum, ex septentrione nempe traxerunt Langobardi manifestum facient Vaulundar qvidu.