embossed pattern.

The inscription is _Der infrid gehwart_, in raised (not engraved)
capital letters, 1 inch long, repeated three times in the circle. Mine
is a handsome dish of mixed metal; yielding, when struck, a fine sound
like that of a gong. It has devices of leaves, &c. engraved on the broad
margin, but no date.

I have seen another such dish, in the collection of the late William
Hooper, Esq., of Ross, part of which (and I think the whole of the under
side) had been enamelled, as part of the enamel still adhered to it. In
the centre was engraved the temptation in Eden; but it was without
legend or date.

P.H.F.


_Why the American Aborigines are called Indians_.--I have often
wondered how the aborigines of America came to be called Indians; and
for a considerable time I presumed it to be a popular appellation
arising from their dark colour. Lately, however, I fell in with a copy
of _Theatrum Orbis Terrarum_. Antwerp, 1583, by Abraham Ortelius,
geographer to the king; and, in the map entitled _Typus Orbis Terrarum_.
I find America called _America, sive India Nova_. How it came to get
{255} the name of _India Nova_ is of course another question, and one
which at present I cannot answer.

NORTHMAN.