_Meaning of Carnaby_ (Vol. iii., p. 495.).--ARUN inquires as to the
meaning of Carnaby as the name of a street. Carnaby is a surname
probably deriving from the parish of Carnaby in Yorkshire. It has become
a Christian name in the family of ---- Haggerston, Bart., since the
marriage of an heiress of Carnaby's into that family.
Streets are often called after proper names.
[Dagger symbol]
_Scandinavian Mythology_ (Vol. ii, p. 141.).--Your correspondent T. J.
has called attention to the tradition-falsifying assertion of Mr. G.
Pigott, that the custom with which the Scandinavians were long
reproached, of drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, has no other
foundation than a blunder of Olaus Wormius in translating a passage in
the death-song of Regner Lodbrog.
The following extracts from the curious and learned work of Bartholinus,
_De Causis Contemptæ a Danis Adhuc Gentilibus Mortis_, will, I think,
show that the subject deserves further inquiry before we consent to
place this ancient historical tradition in the category of vulgar
errors. Speaking of the banquets of the beatified heroes in Valhalla,
Bartholinus says:
"Neque tamen ex communi animalium cornu elaborata pocula in
Valhalla viserentur; sacratiora desiderabantur ex cæsorum craniis
inimicorum confecta, quæ apud Danos vel ex Daniâ oriundos, alias
quoque gentes, in summo erant pretio."--Lib. ii. cap. xii. p. 555.
In proof of this assertion he quotes the following authors; Herodotus
(lib. iv. cap. 65.) and Plato (Euthydemus), who attribute this custom to
the Scythians. Aristotle is supposed to allude to it, _De Repub._ lib.
vii. cap. 2. In the _Historia Miscellanea_, lib. vi., it is mentioned as
a custom of the Scordisci; and similar customs are recorded of the
Panebi by Nicolaus Damascenus, of the Essedones by Solinus and Mela, of
the Boii by Livy (lib iii. cap. 24.), of the Celts by Silius Italicus
(lib. ii.), of the Langobards by Paulus Diaconus (lib. i. cap. 27.). The
last-mentioned author informs us that these skull cups were alled
"scalæ;" upon which Bartholinus remarks--
"Unde genus, undeque morem ejusmodi conficiendarum paterarum unde
etiam nomen _scalæ_ iis inditum, ex septentrione nempe traxerunt
Langobardi manifestum facient Vaulundar qvidu.
"Enn poer skalar
&c. &c.
h. e.
Crania autem illa
Quæ pericraniis suberant
Argento obduxit et
Nidado tradidit."