Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

"Come, and where the commands of the gods point the way, let us follow."

-ANCHISES

VOL. XIV.

SEPTEMBER, 1896.

No. 9.

MASTEMA. Mastema is often mentioned in "Little Genesis," generally with the epithet "supreme," or "highest" The Hebrew word Mastemah is found in Hosea ix, 7 and 8, in the sense of "hatred,” where the Septuaginta has Mania, and Aquilla Egcótesis. The word in the Ethiopian is written Mastema, in the Latin Mastima, and in the later Greek Mastiphat. In the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, the form is Mansemat.

The account of the evil demons is given in the "Book of Jubilees," sometimes called the "Little Genesis."

"A race of evil demons sprang from the sinning angels, who vexed and deceived and tortured the sons of Noah so grievously that they came to their father and asked his intercession to free them from their malice. Noah prayed to God to check their power and withhold them from having dominion over the righteous seed. The Lord commanded his angels to take and bind them and cast them into the place of torment; but Mastema, the chief of the demons, requested that some might be left to execute his will on the earth; and God permitted one-tenth of them to remain, reserving the rest for the place of judg ment. And to counteract the diseases which the demons had introduced among mankind, one of the good angels taught Noah the use of medicines and the virtues of herbs, all which lore he wrote in a book and imparted it to his son Shem before his death."

SIX MILLENNiums of BardESAN.

There is a translation of a calculation by Bardesan, in "Spicilegium Syriacum," by William Cureton (p. 40), London, 1855, that is somewhat remarkable. He calculates the revolutions of the bodies then known, and endeavors to bring them into a cycle of six milleniums. Bardesan lived in the latter half of the second century, according to the "Cyclopædia of Biography," by Parke Godwin. There is also a translation of his planetary calculations appended to "The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs " (p. 111), published by T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871. N. AND Q., Vol. VI, p. 258.)

(See also “Bardesan, a man of antiquity, and renowned for his knowledge of events, has written in a treatise composed by him touching the synods of the heavenly luminaries with one another, saying thus:

"2 circuits of Saturn are 60 years, 5 circuits of Jupiter, 60 years; 40 circuits of Mars, 60 years; 60 circuits of the Sun, 60 years; 72 circuits of Venus, 60 years; 150 circuits of Mercury, 60 years; 720 circuits of the Moon, 60 years; and this is one synod of them all, that is to say, the time of one synod of them; so that hence it appears, that for 100 of such synods there would be 6,000 years, in this manner: "200 circuits of Saturn are 6,000 years; 500 circuits of Jupiter, 6,000 years; 4,000 circuits of Mars, 6,000 years; 6,000 circuits of the Sun, 6,000 years; 7,200 circuits of Venus, 6,000 years; 12,000* circuits of Mercury, 6,000 years; 72,000 circuits of the Moon, 6,000; and Bardesan made these calculations when he was desirous of show. ing that this world would stand only 6,000 years.'

* According to the first statement above this should be 15,000.

HARP OF THOUSAND STRINGS. (Vol. XIV, p. 120.) "Strange, that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long."-Watts' Hymns, book 11, hymn 19.

"For he played upon a harp of a thousand strings, the spirits of just men made perfect."-Hardshell Baptist Sermon.

The Harp of a Thousand Strings; or Laughter for a Lifetime." Dick & Fitzgerald, New York, 1858-1861.

J. FRANCIS RUGGLES, Bronson, Mich.

GRACE GREEN.

(Vol. XI, pp. 224, 278.)

"RUTH RATHBURN The real name of the person who wrote poems under the pseudonym of "Ruth Rathburn," during the '60s, in the Manchester press, was Grace Green, instead of Greenwood as stated in your eleventh volume (p. 278), as I am informed by one of her fellow-seamstresses.

ZODIACAL SIGNS AND TWELVE APOSTLES. (Vol. XII, p. 48; XIV, p. 208.) This question has been asked several times. We have accidentally come upon the information desired. It is given in the work entitled "The Sphere of Marcus Manilius made an English Poem," by Edward Sherburne (p. 140). London, 1675. He says:

"But since some have endeavoured to abrogate, the Ancient Ethnick Names and Figures of the several Asterisms, and to introduce a new Uranography, by representing the Celestial Constellations under Sacred and Christian Figures and Denominations, as Schillerus in his Cœlum Stellatum Christianum, and Bartschius in his Celestial Globe. We shall here for the Satisfaction of such as have not seen the same, add the following Synopsis of that Christian Astronomical Design, shewing the new Morphoses of the Zodiacal Signs."

Aries. Saint Peter, according to Schillerus; according to Schickardus, Abraham's Ram offered in the Room of Isaac.

Taurus. Saint Andrew; or according to Hartsdorfius, the offering or Burnt-Sacrifice commanded, Leviticus i, 3.

Gemini.

Saint James the Elder, according to Schillerus; according to Schickardus, Jacob and Esau.

Cancer. Saint John the Evangelist.

Leo. Saint Thomas, according to Schillerus; according to Schickardus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

Vigo. Saint James the Younger, according to Schillerus; according to Schickardus, the Virgin Mary.

Libra. Saint Philip, according to Schillerus; according to Hartsdorfius, the Tekel or Balance of Balshasar, Daniel v, 27.

Scorpius. Saint Bartholomew.

Sagittarius. Saint Matthew; according to others, Ishmael, Genesis xxi, 20.

Capricornus. Saint Simon.

Aquarius. Saint Jude; according to others, Naaman, I Kings

XXV, 14.

Pisces. Saint Matthias, according to Schillerus; according to Schickardus, the two Fishes in the Gospel, John vi, 9.

PROPOSITIONS. Doubling the dimensions of a cube octuples its contents, and doubling its contents increases its dimensions between 25 and 26 per cent.

The trisection of an arc of a circle trisects the angle of the arc. E. J. GOODWIN, M. D. Solitude, Ind.

MEANING OF NAMES. What is the meaning of my name, Clymene, CLYMENE. and my sister's name, Doris ?

These names suggest those of the Nereids or sea-nymphs given in the Iliad, especially the first mentioned. Thirty-three names are given by Homer, and are as follows in John Stuart Blackie's translation, Vol. III, p. 207:

"The Nereids in the briny depths profound
Answered her sorrow, and in friendly troops came sistering round.
There Glaucè was, and there Thalia and Cymodocè,
Nisæa, Speio, Thoè, and the full-eyed Haliè,
Cymothoë, Actæa, Limnoreia, and Iæra,

Amphithoë and Agavè, and Melitè and Mæra,
Pherousa, and Dynamenè, Dexamène, and Proto,
Amphinomè and Panopè, Nemertes, Doris, Doto,
Kallianassa, Kallianeira, and the far-famed Galatea,
Ianeira, Ianassa, and the rich-haired Amathea,
Apseudes, Clymenè, and Orithyia, maids divine,

Whoso were Nereids numbered in the depths of the billowy brine.

-Iliad, XVIII, 37-51.

A translation of these Greek names are given in Blackie's notes, Vol. IV, p. 353, as follows:

Actæa-Nereid of the rocky-shore.
Agave-running on both sides.
Amathea-queen of voice.
Amphinomè-the surrounder.
Amphithoë-the shouter.
Apseudes-the shiner.

Clymenè-mountain rusher.
Cymodocè-wave-receiver.
Cymothoë-wave racer.
Dexamène-the powerful one.
Doris-all voice.
Doto-the milk-white.
Dynameme--the bringer.
Galatea-queen of beauty.

Glaucè-sea-green, or sea-bright.
Haliè-the briny.
Iæra the honeyed.

Ianassa-wedded to voice.
Ianeira-the famous.
Kallianassa-the infallible.
Kallianeira-the truthful.
Limnoreia-salt marshes.
Mæra-the giver.

Melitè glorious, splendid.
Nemertes-the giver.
Nisæa-Nereid of the isle.
Orithyia-the sandy.

Panopè of the beautiful husband.
Pherousa-the first.

Proto-the receiver.
Speio-Nereid of the cave.
Thalia-the blooming.
Thoè-the runner.

(N. AND Q., Vol. VII, p. 72; IX, p. 53.)

"All the earth I wandered over seeking still the beacon light,
Never tarried in the daytime, never sought repose at night;
Till I heard a reverend preacher all the mystery declare,
Then I looked within my bosom, and 'twas shining brightly there."

CAYSTER. I receive a periodical called The Cäyster. named ?

We cannot say why the publication is so named. sical Dictionary" says of this word:

66

Why is it so JOHN THOMAS, Anthon's "Clas

Cäyster or Cäystrus, a rapid river of Asia, rising in Lydia, and, after a meandering course, falling into the Ægean sea near Ephesus. Near its mouth it formed a marsh called Asia Palus, or the Asian marsh, and the same with that of Asios leimón of Homer (Iliad 11, 461), much frequented by swans and other water-fowls. The Cäyster is now called the Kitchik Minder, or Little Mænder, from its winding course."

Now whether The Cäyster takes it name from this river, which was a favorite place for swans which fowl is said to sing the sweetest just before it dies, and thus characterizes the feelings and sentiments of those who profess and practise the doctrine promulgated by the periodical, we cannot say; or whether it is so called on account of its meandering in circulation among the people may be a reason. The Cäyster is edited and published by Geo. P. Pierce, Deshler, Ohio, at 25 cents a year, monthly. Its text is: "The end is come; it awaketh against thee." Among the tenets are: "Resurrection by reïncarnation; celibacy and love are requisite to the new birth, to life luxuriant here and to immortality hereafter." The leading article in No. 28 is "Thummim, the Bride, a stone cut out without hands; the Stone of Israel; her light is like to a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal." The Hebrew word Thummim is plural and means "Truths," or "Perfections."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

We will state here that R. C. Jebb says, in a note, in his "Introduction to Homer" (p. 44), that the name Asian as quoted from Homer is the first extant trace of the word, now applied to one of the grand land divisions of the globe.

THE SISTERS OF THE EARTH. Thus time moves on seven wheels; he has seven naves; immortality is his axle. He is at present all these worlds.-ATHARVA VEDA, Hymn xix, 53.

The light is above all the Seven Worlds, as a Monad before or above the triad of the Empyreal, Ethereal, and Material Worlds. -PROCLUS (cited by Simplicius on the Zoroastrian Oracles).

The seven worlds became in Persia the seven Karshvare of the earth; the earth is divided into seven Karshvare, only one of which is known and accessible to man, the one on which we live, namely, Hvaniratha.-JAMES DARMESTETER, Introduction to Vendidad, p. lx.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »