DERIVATION OF "STERLING" AND "PENNY"
Your correspondent suggests (No. 24. p. 384.) an ingenious derivation for the word
Sterling
; but one which perhaps he has been too ready to adopt, inasmuch as it helped his other derivation of
peny
, from
pecunia
or
pecus
. I quote the following from
A short Treatise touching Sheriff's Accompts
, by Sir Matthew Hale: London, 1683:
"Concerning the second,
viz.
the matter or species whereof the current coin of this kingdom hath been made, it is gold or silver, but not altogether pure, but with an allay of copper, at least from the time of King H. I. and H. II., though possibly in ancienter times the species whereof the coin was made might be pure gold or silver; and this allay was that which gave the denomination of Sterling to that coin,
viz.
Sterling Gold, or Sterling Silver. Wherein there will be inquirable,
"1. Whence that denomination came?
"2. How ancient that denomination was?
"3. What was the allay that gave silver that denomination?
"For the former of these there are various conjectures, and nothing of certainty.
"
Spelman
supposeth it to take that denomination from the Esterlings, who, as he supposeth, came over and reformed our coin to that allay. Of this opinion was
Camden. A Germanis, quos Angli
Esterlings,
aborientali situ, vocarunt, facta est appellatio; quos
Johannes
Rex, ad argentum in suam puritatem redigendam, primus evocavit; et ejus modi nummi
Esterlingi,
in antiquis scripturis semper reperiuntur
. Some suppose that it might be taken up from the
Starre Judæorum
, who, being the great brokers for money, accepted and allowed money of that allay for current payment of their stars or obligations; others from the impression of a starling, or an asterisk upon the coin.
Pur ceo que le form d'un Stare, dont le diminutive est Sterling, fuit impressit on stamp sur ceo. Auters pur ceo que le primer de cest Standard fuit coyn en le Castle de Sterlin in
Scotland
pur le Roy
Edw. I. And possibly as the proper name of the fourth part of a Peny was called a Farthing, ordinarily a Ferling; so in truth the proper name of a Peny in those times was called a Sterling, without any other reason of it than the use of the times and arbitrary imposition, as other names usually grow. For the old Act of 51 H. III., called
Compositio Mensurarum
, tells us that
Denarius Anglice Sterlingus dicitur
; and because this was the root of the measure, especially of Silver Coin, therefore all our Coin of the same allay was also called Sterling, as five Shillings Sterling, five Pounds Sterling.
"When this name of Sterling came first in is uncertain, only we are certain it was a denomination in use in the time of H. III. or Ed. I. and after ages. But it was not in use at the time of the compiling of Doomsday, for if it were we should have found it there where there is so great occasion of mention of Firmes, Rents, and Payments. Hovended in
Rich. I fol. 377. b.
Nummus
a
Numa,
que fuit le primer Roy que fesoit moneies en
Rome.
Issint Sterlings, alias Esterlings, queux primes fesoient le money de cest Standard en
Engleterre."—
Sheriffs' Accompts
, p. 5-9.
So much for the derivation of
Sterling
, which evidently applied originally to the metal rather than to a coin. May I be allowed to hazard a suggestion as to the origin of
peny
, its synonym? They were each equivalent to the Denarius.
"
Denarius Angliæ, qui nominatur Sterlingus, rotundus sine tonsura, ponderabit 32 grana in medio spicæ. Sterlingus et Denarius sont tout un. Le Shilling consistoit de 12 sterlings. Le substance de cest denier ou sterling peny al primes fuit vicessima pars unicæ.
"—
Indentures of the Mint
, Ed. I and VI.
May we not derive it from Denarius by means of either a typographical or clerical error in the initial letter. This would at once give a new name—the very thing they were in want of—and we may very easily understand its being shortened into Penny.
G.
Milford, April 15.
HANNO'S PERIPLUS
"Mr. Hampson" has served the cause of truth in defending Hanno and the Carthaginians from the charge of cruelty, brought against them by Mr. Attorney-General Bannister. A very slender investigation of the bearings of the narration would have prevented it. I know not how Dr. Falconer deals with it, not having his little volume at hand; but in so common a book as the
History of Maritime Discovery
, which forms part of Lardner's
Cabinet Cyclopædia
, it is stated that these
Gorillæ
were probably some species of
ourang-outang
. Purchas says they might be the
baboons
or
Pongos
of those parts.
The amusing, and always interesting, Italian, Hakluyt, in the middle of the sixteenth century, gives a very good version of the , with a preliminary discourse, which would also have undeceived Mr. Bannister, had he been acquainted with it, and prevented Mr. Hampson's pleasant exposure of his error.
Ramusio says, "Seeing that in the Voyage of Hanno there are many parts worthy of considerate attention, I have judged that it would be highly gratifying to the studious if I were here to write down a few extracts from certain memoranda which I formerly noted on hearing a respectable Portugese pilot, in frequent conversations with the Count Raimondo della Torre, at Venice, illustrate this Voyage of Hanno, when read to him, from his own experience." There are, of course, some erroneous notions in the information of the pilot, and in the deductions made from it by Ramusio; but the former had the sagacity to see the truth respecting this
Gorgon Island full of hairy men and women
. I will not spoil the
naïveté
of the narration by attempting a translation; merely premising that he judged the Island to be that of Fernando Po.
"E tutta la descrittione de questo Capitano era simile a quella per alcun Scrittore Greci, quale parlande dell' isola delle Gorgone, dicono quella esser un isola in mezzo d'una palude. E conciacosa che havea inteso che li poeti dicevan le Gorgone esser femine terribili, però scrisse che le erano pelose.... Ma a detto pilotto pareva più verisimile di pensare, che havendo Hannone inteso ne'i libri de' poeti come Perseo era stato per ære a questa isola, e di quivi reportata la testa di Medusa, essendo egli ambitioso di far creder al mondo che lui vi fasse audato per mare; e dar riputation a questo suo viaggio, di esser penetrato fuio dove era stato Perseo; volesse portar due pelli di Gorgone, e dedicarla nel tempio di Ginnone. Il che li fu facil cosa da fare, conciosia cosa che IN TUTTA QUELLA COSTA SI TRUOVINO INFINITE DI QUELLE SIMIE GRANDE, CHE FARENO PERSONE HUMANE, DELLE BABUINE, le pelle delle quali poteva far egli credere ad ogniuno che fussero state di femine."
Gopelin, also, in his
Recherches sur la Géographie des Anciens
, speaking of this part of Hanno's voyage, says:
"Hanno encountered a troop of
Ourang-outangs
, which he took for savages, because these animals walk erect, often having a staff in their hands to support themselves, as well as for attack or defence; and they throw stones when they are pursued. They are the Satyrs and the Argipani with which Pliny says Atlas was peopled. It would be useless to say more on this subject, as it is avowed
by all the modern commentators of the Periplus
."
The relation we have is evidently only an abridgment or summary made by some Greek, studious of Carthaginian affairs, long subsequent to the time of Hanno; and judging from a passage in Pliny (I. ii. c. 67.), it appears that the ancients were acquainted with other extracts from the original, yet, though its authenticity has been doubted by Strabo and others, there seems to be little reason to question that it is a correct
outline
of the voyage. That the Carthaginians were oppressors of the people they subjugated may be probable; yet we must not, on such slender grounds as this narration affords, presume that they would wantonly kill and flay
human beings
to possess themselves of their skins!
S.W. Singer
April 10. 1850.
FOLK LORE
Cook-eels.
—Forby derives this from
coquille
, in allusion to their being fashioned like an escallop, in which sense he is borne out by Cotgrave, who has "
Pain coquillé
, a fashion of an hard-crusted loafe, somewhat like our stillyard bunne." I have always taken the word to be "coquerells," from the vending of such buns at the barbarous sport of "throwing at the cock" on Shrove Tuesday. The cock is still commonly called a cockerell in E. Anglia. Perhaps Mr. Wodderspoon will say whether the buns of the present day are fashioned in any particular manner, or whether any "the oldest inhabitant" has any recollection of their being differently fashioned or at all impressed. What, too, are the "
stillyard buns
" of Cotgrave? Are they tea-cakes? The apartment in which tea was formerly made was called the
still
-room.
Buriensis.
Divination by the Bible and Key.
—This superstition is very prevalent amongst the peasantry of this and adjoining parishes. When any article is suspected to have been stolen, a Bible is procured, and opened at the 1st chap. of Ruth: the stock of a street-door key is then laid on the 16th verse of the above chapter, and the key is secured in this position by a string, bound tightly round the book. The person who works the charm then places his two middle fingers under the handle of the key, and this keeps the Bible suspended. He then repeats in succession the names of the parties suspected of the theft; repeating at each name a portion of the verse on which the key is placed, commencing, "Whither thou goest, I will go," &c. When the name of the guilty is pronounced, the key turns off the fingers, the Bible falls to the ground, and the guilt of the party is determined. The belief of some the more ignorant of the lower orders in this charm is unbounded. I have seen it practiced in other counties, the key being laid over the 5th verse of the 19th chap. of Proverbs, instead of the 1st chap. of Ruth.
David Stevens.
Godalming, April 11. 1850.
[In Brand's
Popular Antiquities
(ed. Ellis). vol. iii. 188-9, it is stated that the key is placed upon the 50th Psalm.]
Weather Proverb.
—Weather proverbs are among the most curious portions of popular literature. That foul or fair weather is betokened according as the rainbow is seen in the morning or evening, is recorded in the following German "saw," which is nearly identical with our well-known English Proverb:
Regenbogen am Morgen
Macht dem Schäfer sorgen;
Regenbogen am Abend
Ist dem Schäfer labend.
In Mr. Akerman's recently published volume called
Spring Tide
, a pleasant intermixture of fly-fishing and philology, we have a Wiltshire version of this proverb, curious for its