Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850 | Page 6

can be
obtained?
P.H.F.
_The Hippopotamus._--Your correspondent L. (Vol. ii., p. 35.) says,
"None of the Greek writers appear to have seen a live hippopotamus:"
and again, "The hippopotamus, being an inhabitant of the Upper Nile,
was imperfectly known to the ancients." Herodotus says (ii. 71.) that
this animal was held sacred by the Nomos of Papremis, but not by the
other Egyptians. The city of Papremis is fixed by Bähr in the west of
the Delta (ad ii. 63.); and Mannert conjectured it to be the same as the
later Xoïs, lying between the Sebennytic and Canopic branches, but
nearer to the former. Sir Gardner Wilkinson says, several
representations of the hippopotamus were found at Thebes, one of
which he gives (_Egyptians_, vol. iii. pl. xv.). Herodotus' way of
speaking would seem to show that he was describing from his own
observation: he used Hecatæus, no doubt, but did not blindly copy him.
Hence, I think, we may infer that Herodotus himself saw the
hippopotamus, and that this animal was found, in his day, even as far
north as the Delta: and also, that the species is gradually dying out, as
the aurochs is nearly gone, and the dodo quite. The crocodile is no
longer found in the Delta.
E.S. JACKSON
_America._--The probability of a short western passage to India is
mentioned in _Aristotle de Coelo_, ii., near the end.
F.Q.
_Pascal's Lettres Provinciales._--I take the liberty of forwarding to you

the following "Note," suggested by two curious blunders which fell
under my notice some time ago.
In Mr. Stamp's reprint of the Rev. C. Elliott's Delineation of Romanism
(London, 8vo. 1844), I find (p. 471., in note) a long paragraph on
Pascal's _Lettres Provinciales_:--
"This exquisite production," says the English editor, "_is accompanied,
in some editions of it, with the learned and judicious observations of
Nicole_, who, under the fictitious name of Guillaume Wendrock, has
fully demonstrated the truths of those facts which Pascal had advanced
without quoting his authorities; and has placed, in a full and striking
light, several interesting circumstances which that great man had
treated with perhaps too much brevity. _These letters ... were translated
into Latin by Ruchelius_."
From Mr. Stamp's remarks the reader is led to conclude that the text of
the Lettres Provinciales {278} is accompanied in some editions by
observations of Wendrock (Nicole), likewise in the French language.
Now such an assertion merely proves how carelessly some annotators
will study the subjects they attempt to elucidate. Nicole translated into
Latin the _Provincial Letters_; and the masterly disquisitions which he
added to the volume were, in their turn, "made French" by
Mademoiselle de Joncoux, and annexed to the editions of 1700, 1712,
1735.
As for Rachelius, if Mr. Stamp had taken the trouble to refer to
Placcius' _Theatr. Anonym. et Pseud._, he night have seen (Art. 2,883.)
that this worthy was merely a German _editor_, not a translator of
Pascal cum Wendrock.
The second blunder I have to notice has been perpetrated by the writer
of an otherwise excellent article on Pascal in the last number of the
British Quarterly Review (No. 20. August). He mentions Bossuet's
edition of the _Pensées_, speaks of "_the prelate_," and evidently
ascribes to the famous Bishop of Meaux, who died in 1704, the edition
of Pascal's _Thoughts, published in_ 1779 by Bossuet. (See pp. 140.
142.)
GUSTAVE MASSON.
_Porson's Epigram._--I made the following Note many years ago:--
"The late Professor Porson's own account of his academic visits to the
Continent:--

"'I went to Frankfort, and got drunk With that most learn'd
professor--Brunck: I went to Worts, and got more drunken, With that
more learn'd professor Ruhncken.'"
But I do not remember where or from whom I got it. Is anything known
about it, or its authenticity?
P.H.F.
* * * * *
QUERIES.
"ORKNEYINGA SAGA."
In the introduction to Lord Ellesmere's _Guide to Northern
Archæology_, p. xi., is mentioned the intended publication by the
Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, of a volume of
historical antiquities to be called _Antiquitates Britannicæ et
Hibernicæ_. In the contents of this volume is noticed the _Orkneyinga
Saga_, a history of the Orkney and Zetland Isles from A.D. 865 to 1234,
of which there is only the edition Copenhagen, 1780, "chiefly printed,"
it is said, "from a modern paper manuscript, and by no means from the
celebrated Codex Flateyensis written on parchment in the fourteenth
century." This would show that the Codex Flateyensis was the most
valuable manuscript of the work published under the name of the
_Orkneyinga Saga_, of which its editor, Jonas Jonæus, in his
introductory address to the reader, says its author and age are equally
unknown: "auctor incertus incerto æque tempore scripsit." The
Orkneyinga Saga concludes with the burning of Adam Bishop, of
Caithness, by the mob at