Coincidence Department

See Singular Contents.

I just wanted the reference to "the ancient British barrow" but I copied the two opening paragraphs of "The Golden Pince-Nez" for their atmospherics. They include Holmes deciphering a palimpsest. At that stage, I did not pause to wonder what a "palimpsest" was. Often, when a single word is unfamiliar, the brain provides a vague, inferred, wrong meaning. However:

Then he returned to the Book of Witches.

It was a thick palimpsest, a little over quarto size. The binding, age-eaten leather with rusted iron straps, was perhaps a century newer than the volume itself. He opened it, heavy in his hands, and looked at the title page. Liber Veneficarum—
-copied from here, 8.

Singular: venefica.

The medieval authority on witchcraft was Malleus Maleficarum.

Singular: malefica.

When Clayton first brought it around, Kintyre had only skimmed through the black uncials in a hasty fashion. He knew there had been considerable Satanism in the Middle Ages, partly pagan survivals and partly social protest
-copied from (see above).

I am all for pagan survivals and social protest. It is unfortunate that they were stigmatized as Satanist. To believe in and worship the gods is not to believe in God and Satan and worship the latter.

Bruce's notes include pothooks.