{62} _The Hippopotamus._--_The Scotch Kilt._--I was on the point of
addressing a Minor Query to you, when No. 33. arrived, and therein I saw a
Major Query from L. (p.36.), which prompts an immediate answer. He asks,
"Has there been a live hippopotamus in Europe since the reign of Commodus?"
To be sure there has, and Capitolinus would have set him right. A goodly
assemblage of animals of all sorts was collected by Gordianus Pius, but
used by the elder Philip, for the celebration of the secular games on the
1000th anniversary of the building of Rome, or A.D. 248. Among them were 32
elephants, 10 tigers, 10 elks, 60 lions, 30 leopards, 10 hyænas, 1
hippopotamus, 1 rhinoceros, 40 wild horses, 20 wild asses, and 10 giraffes,
with a vast quantity of deer, goats, antelopes, and other beasts. "And," it
is added in Captain Smyth's Roman Catalogue, "still further to increase the
public _hilarity_, 2000 gladiators were matched in mortal affray."
The portrait of the hippopotamus exhibited on that splendid occasion is
well represented upon the large brass medals of Otacilia Severa, Philip's
wife, and on those of their son, Philip Junior. That of Otacilia is
described at length in Captain Smyth's work.
Now for my Minor Query. Can you, Sir, or any of your intelligent
correspondents, oblige me by saying who introduced the kilt into Scotland
and when? However it may wound local prejudice, I fear our northern
brethren will find its use to be much more recent than they seem willing to
be aware of. At present I will not put a rider on the question, by asking,
whether an Englishman first gave it them: but perhaps you, Sir, will sift
it thoroughly, even although a whole corps of rabid MacNicolls should enter
the field against you.
[Sigma]
_Ashes to Ashes_ (Vol. ii., p. 22.).--The word is taken from Genesis,
xviii. 27.:
"I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD, which am but dust and
ashes."
It is plain that this has nothing to do with the treatment of the corpse;
but that whatever the exact meaning of the word in Hebrew may be, it is
synonymous with dust. As to dust, this is perfectly plain in Genesis, iii.
19.:
"Till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Here burial seems to be distinctly meant.
The Latin word _cinis_, which denotes ashes produced by burning, is derived
from the Greek, which denotes natural dust, I forget whether burnt ashes
also.