Fistula Hieronimi_. The general outline is the same, but instead of
metal arms there is the same number of bent pipes with conical bore.
Virdung explains, following the apocryphal letter, that the stand
resembling the draughtsman's square represents the Holy Cross, the
rectangular object dangling therefrom signifies Christ on the Cross, and
the twelve pipes are the twelve apostles. Virdung's illustration, probably
copied from an older work in manuscript, conforms more closely to the text
of the letter than does the instrument in the Cotton MS. There is no
evidence whatever of the actual existence of such an instrument during the
middle ages, with the exception of this series of fanciful pictures drawn
to illustrate an instrument known from description only. The word
_bombulum_ was probably derived from the same root as the [Greek:
bombaulios] of Aristophanes (_Acharnians_, 866) ([Greek: bombos] and
[Greek: aulos]), a comic compound for a bag-pipe with a play on [Greek:
bombulios], an insect that hums or buzzes (see BAG-PIPE). The original
described in the letter, also from hearsay, was probably an early type of
organ.

(K. S.)

[1] _Ad Dardanum, de diversis generibus musicorum instrumentorum._

[2] _De Cantu et Musica Sacra_ (1774).

[3] For illustrations see _Annales archeologiques_, iii. p. 82 et seq.

[4] _Musica getutscht und aussgezogen_ (Basle, 1511).

BUN, a small cake, usually sweet and round. In Scotland the word is used
for a very rich spiced type of cake and in the north of Ireland for a round
loaf of ordinary bread. The derivation of the word has been much disputed.
It has been affiliated to the old provincial French _bugne_, "swelling," in
the sense of a "fritter," but the _New English Dictionary_ doubts the usage
of the word. It is quite as probable that it has a far older and more
interesting origin, as is suggested by an inquiry into the origin of hot
cross buns. These cakes, which are now solely associated with the Christian
Good Friday, are traceable to the remotest period of pagan history. Cakes
were offered by ancient Egyptians to their moon-goddess; and these had
imprinted on them a pair of horns, symbolic of the ox at the sacrifice of
which they were offered on the altar, or of the horned moon-goddess, the
equivalent of Ishtar of the Assyro-Babylonians. The Greeks offered such
sacred cakes to Astarte and other divinities. This cake they called _bous_
(ox), in allusion to the ox-symbol marked o