SCRIBBLING.

The registers belonging to the Church of Feltwell St. Mary contain entries of Baptism, Marriage and Burial from the 4th year of Queen Elizabeth I down to the present day. In looking through them one finds that, like other Church registers, they have been scribbled on here and there. Among the entries, for instance, made during the year 1697, someone has scribbled - "Baptised Janu Double Face," which makes little or no sense. Scribbling is by no means a modern habit, and might, be described as almost as old as the hills. So long as there has been something to scribble on, a wall, a door, a book, a piece of paper, or anything else, it has been scribbled on. In A.D. 79 the city of Pompeii was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, and when excavations were being made some three-quarters of a century ago, a vast amount of Scribblings - called Graffiti by the learned - was discovered on the city walls. Much of it was vile and showed the wickedness of that city, but here and there was found something of beauty such as - "I love her the number of whose honourable name is five hundred and forty-five." This of course was scribbled in Greek, and in Greek there are no figures, the letters of the Alphabet being used instead - A stands for 1, B for 2 and so on; and it was the regular habit for people to number up the letters of their names. Take for example the name Edith; in Greek E stands for 5; D for 4 I for 10; and TH which is one letter in Greek, stands for 9; so the number of that name would be 28. And should a young lady whose name was Edith happen to see scribbled on a wall – "I love her the number of whose honourable name is 28;" it is possible that she might find it rather interesting. Some of these ancient scribblings on walls are amusing, as for instance - "Brunettes for me, I always did like blackberries;" while some are just hasty words which, though written so many centuries ago, might have come from the mouth of a school-boy today, such as - "Samnius to Cornelius - Go and hang yourself." Several years ago, when alterations were being made to a street in Rome, an ancient wall was discovered with some scribblings on it, one being of special interest. It is a rough sketch of a boy worshipping a figure on a Cross. The figure has the body of a man but the head of a wild ass. There is no mistaking the meaning, for underneath is scribbled in badly spelt Greek - "Alexamenos worships God." This blasphemous sketch appears to be the work of a heathen boy holding up his schoolmate to ridicule. Nothing is known of Alexamenos except that he was a lad who professed Christ during those terrible times of persecution A.D. 64 to A.D. 313 when being a Christian so often meant torture and death.

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