Notes and Queries | Page 2

the name of Lutici, {314} as appears from Adam of Bremen, Helmond,
and others, and the Sclavonic word liuti signified _wild, fierce_, &c.
Being a wild and contentious people, not easily brought under the
gentle yoke of Christianity, they figure in some of the old Russian
sagas, much as the Jutes do in those of Scandinavia; and it is
remarkable that the names of both should have signified giants or
monsters. Notker, in his Teutonic paraphrase of Martianus Capella,
speaking of other Anthropophagi, relates that the Wilti were not
ashamed to say that they had more right to eat their parents than the
worms.[1] Mone wrote a Dissertation upon the Weleti, which is printed
in the _Anzeigen für Kunde des Mittelalters_, 1834, but with very
inconclusive and erroneous results; some remarks on these Sclavonic
people, and a map, will be found in Count Ossolinski's Vincent
Kadlubek, Warsaw, 1822; and in Count Potocki's _Fragments Histor.
sur la Scythie, la Sarmatie, et les Slaves_, Brunsw., 1796, &c. 4 vols.
4to.; who has also printed Wulfstan's Voyage, with a French translation.
The recent works of Zeuss, of Schaffarik, and above all the Geschichte
der Deutschen Sprache, of Jacob Grimm, throw much light on the
subject.
On the names Horithi and _Mægtha Land_ Rask has a long note, in
which he states the different opinions that have been advanced; his own
conclusions differ from Mr. Hampson's suggestion. He assigns reasons
for thinking that the initial H in Horithi should be P, and that we should
read Porithi for Porizzi, the old name for Prussians. Some imagined
that _Mægtha Land_ was identical with Cwen Land, with reference to
the fabulous Northern Amazons; but Alfred has placed Cwenland in

another locality; and Rask conjectures that _Mægth_ signifies here
_provincia, natio gens_, and that it stood for Gardariki, of which it
appears to be a direct translation.
It appears to me that the Horiti of Alfred are undoubtedly the Croati, or
Chrowati, of Pomerania, who still pronounce their name Horuati, the H
supplying, as in numerous other instances, the place of the aspirate Ch.
Nor does it seem unreasonable to presume that the Harudes of Cæsar
(_De Bell. Gall._ b. i. 31. 37. 51.) were also _Croats_; for they must
have been a numerous and widely spread race, and are all called
_Ch_arudes, [Greek: Aroudes]. The following passage from the
Annales Fuldensis, A. 852., will strengthen this supposition:--"Inde
transiens per Angros, Harudos, Suabos, et Hosingos ... Thuringiam
ingreditur."
Mr. Kemble[2], with his wonted acumen, has not failed to perceive that
our Coritavi derived their name in the same manner; but his derivation
of the word from Hor, lutum, Horilit, lutosus, is singularly at issue with
Herr Leo's, who derives it from the Bohemian Hora, a mountain, Horet
a mountaineer, and he places the Horiti in the Ober Lanbitz and part of
the Silesian mountains.
Schaffarik again, says that _Mægtha Land_ is, according to its proper
signification, unknown; but that as Adam of Bremen places Amazons
on the Baltic coast, probably from mistaking of the _Mazovians_? it is
possible that _Mægthaland_ has thus arisen. In 1822 Dahlmann
(Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Geschichte, t. i. 422.) gave a
German version of King Alfred's narration, where the passage is also
correctly translated; but as regards the illustration of the names of the
people of Sclavonic race, much yet remains to be done.
It is to be hoped that some competent northern scholar among us may
still remove, what I must consider to be a national reproach--the want
of a correct and well illustrated edition of the Hormesta, or at any rate
of this singularly interesting and valuable portion of it.
S.W. SINGER.

Feb. 21. 1850.
[Footnote 1: "Aber Welitabi, die in Germania sizzent, tie wir Wilze
heizen, die ni scáment sih niche ze chedenne, daz sih iro parentes mit
mêrem réhte ézen súlin danne die wurme." Albinus, in his Meissnische
Chronicle, says they had their name from their wolfish nature.]
[Footnote 2: The Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 9. note.]
* * * * *
THE FIRST COFFEE-HOUSES IN ENGLAND.
As a Supplement to your "NOTES ON COFFEE," I send you the
following extracts.
Aubrey, in his account of Sir Henry Blount, (MS. in the Bodleian
Library), says of this worthy knight,
"When coffee first came in he was a great upholder of it, and hath ever
since been a constant frequenter of coffee-houses, especially Mr. Farres
at the Rainbowe, by Inner Temple Gate, and lately John's Coffee-house,
in Fuller's Rents. The first coffee-house in London was in St. Michael's
Alley, in Cornhill, opposite to the church, which was set up by one ----
Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant, who putt him
upon it) in or about the yeare 1652. 'Twas about 4 yeares before any
other