Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850 | Page 5

or errand boys, of Edinburgh.
5. _Fun_, perhaps Irish, _fonamhad_, jeering, mockery (Lhuyd,
_Archæologia Britannica_).
6. _Bumbailiff._--The French have _pousse-cul_, for the follower or
assistant to the sergeant.
7. Epergne, perhaps _épargne_, a save-all or hold-all. Here seems no
more difficulty in the transfer of the name than in that of chiffonier,
from a rag-basket to a piece of ornamental furniture.
8. _Doggrel._--Has the word any connexion with _sdrucciolo_?
9. _Derrick._--A spar arranged to form an extempore crane. I think
Derrick was the name of an executioner.
10. _Mece_, A.-S., a knife. The word is found in the Sclavonic and
Tartar dialects. I thinly I remember some years ago reading in a
newspaper of rioters armed with "pea makes." I do not remember any
other instance of its use in English.
F.Q.
* * * * *
MISTAKES IN GIBBON.
The following references may be of use to a future editor of Gibbon;
Mr. Milman has not, I believe, rectified any of the mistakes pointed out
by the authors cited.
In the Netherlands ... 50,000 in less than fifty years were ... sacrificed
to the intolerance of popery. (Fra Paolo, _Sarpi Conc. Trid._ 1. i. p. 422.
ed. sec. Grotius, in his _Annal. Belq._ 1. v. pp. 1G, 17. duod., including
all the persecutions of Charles V, makes the number 100,000. The
supposed contradiction between these two historians supplied Mr.
Gibbon with an argument by which he satisfied himself that be had
completely demolished the whole credibility of Eusebius's history. See
conclusion of his 16th book.) [Mendham's _Life of Pius V._, p. 303.
and note; compare p. 252., where Gibbon's attack on Eusebius is
discussed.]
In Forster's _Mahometanism Unveiled_, several of Gibbon's statements
are questioned. I have not the book at hand, and did not think the
corrections very important when I read it some time {277} back. The
reader who has it may see pp. 339. 385. 461-2. 472. 483. 498. of the
second volume.
In Dr. Maitland's _Dark Ages_, p. 229. seq. note, a gross blunder is

pointed out.
See too the _Gentlemans Magazine_, July, 1839, p. 49.
Dr. Maitland, in his _Facts and Documents relating to the ancient
Albigenses and Waldenses_, p. 217. note, corrects an error respecting
the Book of Sentences.
"Gibbon, speaking of this _Book of Sentences_, in a note on his 54th
chapter, says, 'Of a list of criminals which fills nineteen folio pages,
only fifteen men and four women were delivered to the secular arm.'
Vol. v. p. 535. I believe he should have said _thirty-two_ men and eight
women; and imagine that he was misled by the fact that the
index-maker most commonly (but by no means always) states the
nature of the sentence passed on each person. From the book, however,
it appears that forty persons were so delivered, viz., twenty-nine
Albigenses, seven Waldenses, and four Beguins."
The following mistake was pointed out by the learned Cork
correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, I think in 1838; it has
misled the writer of the article "Anicius", in Smith's _Dictionary of
Ancient Biography_, and is not corrected by Mr. Milman (Gibbon,
chap. xxxi. note 14 and text):--
"During the first five ages, the name of the Anicians was unknown. The
earliest date in the annals of Pighius is that of M. Anicius Gallus, Tr.
Plebis A.U.C. 506. Another Tribune, Q. Anicius, A.U.C. 508, is
distinguished by the epithet Prænestinus."
We learn from Pliny, _H.N._ xxxiii. 6., that Q. Anicius Prænestinus
was the colleague as curule ædile of Flavius, the famous scriba of
Appius Cæcus, B.C. 304, A.U.C. 450. (See Fischer, _Röm. Zeittafeln_,
p. 61-2.) Pliny's words are--
"[Flavius] tantam gratiam plebis adeptus est ... ut ædilis curulis
crearetur cum Q. Anicio Prænestino."
Gibbon's chapter on Mahomet seems to be particularly superficial; it is
to be hoped that a future editor will correct it by the aid of Von
Hammer's labours.
J.E.B. MAYOR.
Marlborough College.
* * * * *
MINOR NOTES
_"Ockley's History of the Saracens," and unauthentic Works._--At the

end of a late edition of Washington Irving's _Life of Mahomet_, those
"who feel inclined to peruse further details of the life of Mahomet, or to
pursue the course of Saracenic history," are referred to Ockley. Students
should be aware of the character of the histories they peruse. And it
appears, from a note in Hallam's Middle Ages (vol. ii. p. 168.), that
Wakidi, from whom Ockley translated his work, was a "mere fabulist,"
as Reiske observes, in his preface to Abulfeda.
Query, Would it not be well, if some of your more learned
correspondents would communicate to students, through the medium of
"NOTES AND QUERIES," a list of such books as are genuine but not
authentic; and authentic but not genuine, or altogether spurious? or
would point out the sources from which such information