Various - Notes and Queries, Number 13, January 26, 1850

With regard to its provincial English name, Barnabee , the correct interpretation might be found in Barn-bie , the burning, or fire-fly, a compound word of Low-Dutch origin.

We have a small black beetle, common enough in summer, called PÂN, nearly hemispherical: you must recollect that the â is as broad as you can afford to make it, and the final n is nasal. Children never forgot, whenever they caught this beetle, to place it in the palm of their left hand, when it was invoked as follows:—

which means, being interpreted,

As he uttered the charm, the juvenile pontiff spat on poor Thammuz, till a torrent of blood, or what seemed such, "ran purple" over the urchin's fingers.

Paul-Ernest Jablonski's numerous readers need not be told that the said beetle is an Egyptian emblem of the everlasting and universal soul, and that its temple is the equinoctial circle, the upper hemisphere. 1 1 Pantheon Ægypt. tom. 1. p. 63.

As a solar emblem, it offers an instructive object of inquiry to the judicious gleaners of the old world's fascinating nursery traditions. Sicilian Diodorus tells us that the earth's lover, Attis (or Adonis), after his resuscitation, acquired the divine title of PAPAN. 2 2 Diodor. Sic. Biblioth. p. 134. To hazard the inoffensive query, why one of our commonest great beetles is still allowed to figure under so distinguished a name, will therefore reflect no discredit upon a cautious student of nearly threescore years. The very Welsh talked, in William Baxter's time, of "Heaven, as bugarth PAPAN," the sun's ox-stall or resting-place; and here you likewise find his beetle-majesty, in a Low-Norman collection of insular rhymes:—

By the help of Horapollo, Chiflet's gnostic gems, and other repertories of the same class, one might, peradventure, make a tolerable case in favour of the mythological identity of the legend of Ladybird—that is, the sun-chafer , or barn-bie , the fire-fly , "whose house is burnt, and whose bairns are ten," of course the first ten days of the Egyptian year 4 4 Or the dog-days. Each sign has three Decans, or captains of ten. —with the mystical stories of the said black or dark blue lords of radiance, Pân and Papân .

The Egyptians revere the beetle as a living and breathing image of the sun, quoth Porphyry. 5 5 Porphyr. apud Euseb. Præp. iii. 4. That will account for this restless delver's extraordinary talismanic renown. I think the lady-bird is "the speckled beetle" which was flung in hot water to avert storms. 6 6 Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 37. cap. 10. Pignorius gives us the figure of the beetle, crowned with the sun, and encircled with the serpent of eternity; while another, an onyx in the collection of Abraham Gorlæus, threatens to gnaw at a thunderbolt. 7 7 Chiflet, p. 133. A genuine cockroach , and a formidable one. I think the English word of Spanish origin.

Reuven's book on the Egyptian Museum, which I have not seen, notices an invocation to "the winged beetle, the monarch ([Greek: tyrannos]) of mid-heaven," concluding with a devout wish that some poor creature "may be dashed to pieces."

Can any of your readers inform me what is meant by "the blood of the Phuôn ?"

Yours truly,

St. Martin's, Guernsey, Jan. 9. 1850.

I send you a few Notes, collected out of the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster.

1stly. Some regarding the weight of bells in ancient days:—

"1526. The first bell weith ccccc lb.

The second bell weith ccccccxxj lb.

The third bell weith ixCvj lb.

The fourthe bell weith M.x lb.

The fyfthe belonging to our grete Lady

Bretherhed MvjCxiiij lb.

The sume of all the weight MMMMVIIC Li lb.

"1592. The broken Tennor waied xvjCxxj lb.

The new tennor ys. xiijC di

The greatest bell ys xxjC and di at lvjs. the C.

The iiij bell ys xvijC and di and xiiij lb.

The xiiij bell taken awaie was xiijC di.

The ij bell carried awaie was viijCiij qters.

The new bell viijC di.

Som totall of the bells, yron, tymber, and

workmanshipp lxxvl. vs. vd."

This appears to have been a sorry bargain, for soon after occur sad complaints of these bells, "very falsly and deceytfully made by Valentyne Trever." Perhaps your correspondent "CEPHAS" may explain the following entry:—

"1846. Item, paid for makying of a newe clapper to

Judas bell xd."

2ndly. Some entries, which make up a little history of a rood-loft:—

"1460. Item, sol' pro le skoryng de la belles sup' le

Rode lofte iiijd.

"1480. Item, paide for a doore in the rode lofte to

save and kepe the people from the Orgayns

xijd.

Item, paide to a carpynter for makyng of the

Crucyfix and the beme He standeth upon xls.

Item, paide for kervying of Mary and John

and the makyng newe xxxiij s . iiij d .

Item, for gilding of the same Mary and John

and the Crosse and iiij'or Evangelysts

vj l . vj s . viij d .

"1530. Item, payd to a labourer for helpying up the

Roode Loft into the stepull viij d .

"1534. Payd for a present for Mr. Alford and Mr.

Herytage for ther good wyll for tymber for

the newe Rode lofte ij s . ij d ."

The fickle tyrant Henry VIII. dies; a more consistent reign happily ensues.

"1548. Item, for the takying downe of the Roode, the

Tabernacle, and the Images iij s . vj d .

Also payd to Thomas Stokedale for xxxv ells

of clothe for the frunte of the Rode Lofte

whereas the x Commandements be wrytten,

price of the ell vj d . xxiij s . iiij d .

Also payd to hym that dyd wryght the said

x Commaundements and for ther drynking

lxvj s . ix d ."

Queen Mary succeeds the boy-king Edward VI., and restores the Ritual of her Church.

"1566. Item, payed for the Roode, Mary and John x l .

"1557. Item, for peyntyng the Roode, Mary and John

xl s .

For makyng xvij candilsticks for the roode-light

xj s . iiij d ."

Upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth once more, and this time for ever, the rood was destroyed, and the loft, though "reformed," did not long survive it.

"1559. Payde to John Rialle for his iij dayse work

to take downe the Roode, Mary and John

ij s . viij d .

For clevying and sawyng of the Roode, Mary

and John xij d .

"1560. Rec'd for the beame the Roode stood on, for

boords and other tymber parcell of the

Roode loft xlij s .

For the rest of the stuf belongying to the

Roode lofte ix l .

For the great clothe that hong before the

Rode xx s .

Item, paide to joyners and labowrers abowt

the takying downe and new reformyng of the

Roode Loft, &c. xxxvij l . x s . ij d .

Item, paide for boordes, glew, nayles, and