NOTES AND QUERIES: Medium of Inter-Communication FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, "When found, make a note of."- CAPTAIN CUTTLE. SECOND SERIES.-VOLUME NINTH. JANUARY-JUNE, 1860. LONDON: BELL & DALDY, 186. FLEET STREET. 1860. 2nd S. IX. JAN. 7. '60.] NOTES AND QUERIES. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1860. No. 210.-CONTENTS. NOTES:-The Bonasus, the Bison, and the Bubalus, 1- The Beffana, an Italian Twelfth Night Custom, The -Aldine Aratus, Ib.-Bankrupts during the Reign of MINOR NOTES:- Sir Isaac Newton on the Longitude Relics of Archbishop Leighton-Longevity of Clerical In- QUERIES:- Rev. Thomas Bayes, &c., 9-The Throw for rica known to the Chinese, &c., 11. bottes The Ragman's Roll"-Claude, Pictures by, 13. REPLIES:-Watson, Horne, and Jones, 14- George Gas- coigne the Poet, 15-Barony of Broughton: Remarkable Trial, 16- Bocardo Horse-talk- Claudius Gilbert- Heraldic Drawings and Engravings- Three Church- wardens-Notes on Regiments-Rev. William Dunkin, - Quarterly Reviewers, 17. THE BONASUS, THE BISON, AND THE Herodotus, in the passage in which he describes the camels of Xerxes as attacked by lions on their march across the upper part of the Chalcidic pe. ninsula, through the Pæonian and Crestonian ter- ritories, mentions incidentally that there were, in bis own time, wild oxen in this region, whose horns, of immense size, were imported into Greece (vii. 126.; see "N. & Q.," 2nd S. viii. 81.). Aristotle adverts to the bonasus in several pas- sages of his works on natural history; and in one he gives a detailed description of the animal (Hist. An., ii. 1. and 16.; ix. 45.; De Part. An., iii. 2.). The following is a summary of his ac- count:-The bonasus, in appearance, size, and voice, resembles an ox. It has a mane; its colour is tawny; and it is hunted for the sake of its flesh, which is eatable. Its horns are curved, and turned towards one another, so as to be useless for attack. Their length is somewhat more than a σridaμn, or palm (=9 inches); their thickness is such that each contains nearly half a chous (= nearly 3 pints), and their colour is a shining black. It is a native of Pæonia, and is found on Mount Messapius, which forms the boundary of Pæonia and Mædica. The Paeonians call it by The preceding account of Aristotle is repeated Messapius is known as the name of a mountain Pausanias, writing about 170 A.D., and there- Oppian, the author of the Cynegetica, a poem composed about 200 A.D., describes the bison (Biowy), and states that its name was derived from its being an inhabitant of Bistonian Thrace. It has (he says) a tawny mane, like a lion. Its horns are pointed, and turned upwards, not out- wards; hence it throws men and animals upright into the air. The tongue of the bison is narrow and rough, and with it he licks off the flesh of his Athenæus, xi. c. 51., illustrates at length the ancient custom of drinking from horns; and he cites Theopompus as stating, in the 2nd book of his Philippica, that the kings of Pæonia, in whose dominions there were oxen with horns so large as to hold 3 and 4 choes (9 and 12 quarts), used them as drinking cups, with silver and gold rims An epigram in the Anthology, attributed to the poet Antipater (who lived about 100 B.C.), de- |