_Door-head Inscriptions_ (Vol. vi., p. 543.).--
"Sit mihi nec glis servus nec hospes hirudo."
"From servant lazy as dormouse,
Or leeching guest, God keep my house."
MR. WOODWARD tells us that he quotes this inscription "from memory:" it is
so very pertinent that it seems a pity even to hint a correction, but, as I
read it, it seemed partly familiar to me, and I find something so like the
latter part of it in two ancient authors, that I am tempted to inquire
whether he may not have omitted _one letter_, which alters the sense as
given above, and yet gives a sense as good.
Among the Symbols of Pythagoras, I read the following:
"[Greek: Omôrophious chelidônas mê echein]."
"Domesticas hiru_n_dines ne habeto."
To the same effect (but, strange to say, without any reference to
Pythagoras' dictum), we find it in the _proverbia_ of Polydore Virgil (A.D.
1498):
"Hiru_n_do suscipienda non est."
and the exposition is the same in both:
"Hirundo garrula semper, _i.e._ garruli et tumigeri homines recipiendi
non sunt."
I find no original for the former part of the inscription. Probably MR.
WOODWARD will agree with me, that it is difficult to decide whether a
greedy or a gossipping guest would be the worst household infliction; but
as a careful householder might well deprecate either, as matter of
curiosity perhaps he would refer to the original inscription again, and
decide whether he has or has not omitted an "n."