Notes and Queries, Number 186, May 21, 1853 | Page 3

however, having returned from a successful expedition, he remarked to
the Athenians, in allusion to the previous sarcasms, that in this
campaign at least Fortune had no share. Plutarch, who relates the latter
{495} anecdote in his Life of Sylla, c. 6., proceeds to say, that this boast
gave so much offence to the deity, that he never afterwards prospered
in any of his enterprises. His reverse of luck, in consequence of his
vainglorious language against Fortune, is also alluded to by Dio
Chrysost. Orat., lxiv. § 19., edit. Emper. It will be observed that
Plutarch refers the saying of Timotheus to a single expedition; whereas
Bacon multiplies it, by extending it over a series of acts.
P. 172. "Cicero reporteth that it was then in use for senators that had
name and opinion for general wise men, as Coruncanius, Curius,
Lælius, and many others, to walk at certain hours in the Place," &c.
The passage alluded to is De Orat., iii. 83. The persons there named are
Sex. Ælius, Manius Manilius, P. Crassus, Tib. Coruncanius, and Scipio.
P. 179. "We will begin, therefore, with this precept, according to the
ancient opinion, that the sinews of wisdom are slowness of belief, and
distrust."
The precept adverted to is the verse of Epicharmus:
"[Greek: naphe kai memnas' apistein? arthra tauta tôn phrenôn.]"
P. 180. "Fraus sibi in parvis fidem præstruit, ut majore emolumento
fallat."
Query, Where does this passage occur, as well as the expression
"alimenta socordiæ," which Demosthenes, according to Bacon, applies
to small favours.
L.
* * * * *

ERECTION OF FORTRESS AT MICHNEE AND PYLOS.
Mr. Dartnell, Surgeon of H. M. 53rd regiment, gives the following
account of the building of a fort which has lately been erected at
Michnee to check the incursions of the Momunds into the Peshawur
Valley:
"There was little to be done, except to build a fort, and here the officers
had to superintend and direct the working parties which were daily sent
out.... Laborers from far and near, Cashmerees, Caboolees, men from
the Hindoo Koosh, Afreedees, Khyberees, &c., all working together
with hearty goodwill, and a sort of good-humoured rivalry.... It is only
when working by contract, however, that the Cashmeree displays his
full physical powers, and it is then perfectly refreshing, in such a
physically relaxing and take-the-world-as-it-goes sort of a country as
this, to observe him.... And then to see him carry a burden! On his head?
No. On his back? Yes, but after a fashion of his own, perfectly natural
and entirely independent of basket, or receptacle of any kind in which
to place it. I have now in my garden some half-dozen of these labourers
at work, removing immense masses of clay, which are nearly as hard as
flint, and how do they manage? My friend Jumah Khan reverts his arms,
and clasping his hands together behind his back, receives the pyramidal
load, which generally overtops his head, and thus he conveys it to its
destination," &c.--Colburn's United Service Magazine, December, 1852,
pp. 514, 515.
Thucydides tells us that as soon as the crews of the Athenian ships,
weatherbound at Pylos in the spring of the year B.C. 425, had made up
their minds to kill time by fortifying their harbour of refuge,--
"They took the work in hand, and plied it briskly.... The mud that was
anywhere requisite, for want of vessels, they carried on their shoulders,
bending forwards as much as possible, that it might have room to stick
on, and holding it up with both hands clasped fast behind that it might
not slide down."--Book iv. chap. 4. (Smith's Translation.)
C. FORBES.

Temple.
* * * * *
HOVEDEN'S ANNALS--BOHN'S "ANTIQUARIAN LIBRARY."
Considering the cheap issue of all standard works of reference a great
boon to the general student, I was predisposed to welcome heartily Mr.
Bohn's Antiquarian Library. If, however, cheapness be accompanied
by incorrectness, the promised boon I conceive to be worthless; even
one or two glaring errors rendering the student distrustful of the entire
series. I was led to form the first of these conclusions on receiving vol.
i. of a translation of the Annals of Roger de Hoveden, by Henry T.
Riley, Esq., barrister-at-law; who introduces the work by a flourish of
trumpets in the Preface, on the multifarious errors of the London and
Frankfort editions, and the labour taken to correct his own; to the
second by observing, whilst cutting the leaves, the following glaring
errors, put forward too as corrections:--Vol. i. p. 350., Henry II. is
stated by the Annalist to have landed in Ireland, A.D. 1172, "at a place
which is called Croch, distant eight miles from the city of Waterford."
Here Mr. Riley, with perfect gravity, suggests Cork[1] as the true
reading!! Can it be, that a barrister-at-law,