American Notes and Queries

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Queries on all matters of general literary and historical interest-folk-lore, the origin of prov. erbs, familiar sayings, popular customs, quotations, etc., the authorship of books, pamphlets, poems, essays, or stories, the meaning of recondite allusions, etc., etc.-are invited from all quarters, and will be answered by editors or contributors. Room is allowed for the discussion of moot questions, and the periodical is thus a valuable medium for intercommunication between literary men and specialists.

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EDITOR AMERICAN NOTES AND QUERIES.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-English Words in the French Language, 37-Curious Habits in Animals-Egyptological Notations, 38Brack-Somnific Devices, 39-Reprints, 40.

QUERIES:-Poet-Laureate of Australia-Snickersnee-Trivium and Quadrivium-Nainsook, 40.

REPLIES:-Name Wanted for City-Peter-Rise-AutumFush, 41.

REFERRED TO CORRESPONDENTS:-Vicarious Justice-Name Wanted for a City-Harmonious BlacksmithPopocatepetl, 41.

COMMUNICATIONS:-Superstitions of India, 42-Men as Things, 43-Nicker--Hard Words for Rhymsters-Discoveries by Accident-Anona, 44- Hackney-Barney — Creek, Brook, Branch-Horn Mad and Bedlamites-No-Billington Sea, 45-Ambrosia-Parallel Passages-Localisms in Speech, 46-Cummerbund-Blue-nose-Blue-nose Presbyterians-On the Score-Weeping Trees-Aspenquid-SlangBuckram-Kangaroo, 47-Peculiar Names-Ancient Laws Concerning Shoes-Brook vs. Branch-Rhymed History of England-Runcible-Xanadu, 48.

BOOKS AND PERIODICALS :—48.

NOTES.

ENGLISH WORDS IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE.

(CONTINUED.)

FASHION, n. m. (from the English fashion, which came from the Old French fachion). -"La fashion anglaise " (Pierre Larousse).

FASHIONABLE, adj.-"L'homme impoli est le lépreux fashionable" (Balzac).

"Pour être fashionable il faut jouir du repos sans avoir passé par le travail" (Balzac).

HIGH LIFE, n. m. (from the English high and life).—" Le high life parisien" (Pierre Larousse).

JOCKEY, n. m. (from the English jockey, which came from the French Jaquet, proper name, diminutive of Jacques).-"Sous des pesants jockeys nos chevaux haletèrent" (Delille).

JURY OR JURI, n. m. (from the English jury and Old French jurée).—" Si nous n'obtenons pas une composition du jury indépendante, nous n'aurons point un jury véritable" (B. Const.).

"Quelquefois repoussé par le jury comme un rapin à ses premiers essais, Delacroix s'est toujours présenté aux expositions (Th. Gautier).

PALE ALE, n. m. (from English pale ale). -"Ale blanche, espèce de bière (Pierre Larousse).

RAIL, n. m. (from English rail).—" Les rails ne durent pas plus de dix ou douze ans" (Proudhomme).

"Une fois la conversation dans ce rail, il faudrait être bien maladroit pour n'en pas profiter" (Balzac).

"L'instinct est une sorte de rail où la nature fatale entraîne la brute" (Victor Hugo).

REDINGOTE, n. f. (from the English riding coat).-"Les pans de sa redingote pendaient comme des drapeaux autour de ses jambes" (H. Taine).

"Si vous me faisiez une redingote" (Bonaparte).

SKIFF, n. m. (from the English skiff, which came from the French esquif).—“ Le skiff est pointu des deux bouts; il a des fonds arrondis et des façons très-fines" (E. Chapus).

SPEECH, n. m. (from the English speech). "Prononcer un speech, un long speech, un speech bien senti" (Pierre Larousse). [To be continued.]

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

C. F. H.

CURIOUS HABITS IN ANIMALS.

The Rev. Mr. Green, a celebrated mountain climber, and author of a recent book on the glaciers of the Selkirk range in British Columbia, observes that the animal called Sewellel, Showtl, or Mountain Beaver (Aplodontia leporina) has the remarkable habit of collecting nosegays of wild-flowers.

Male cranes and some other birds have the habit of dancing, apparently for the sake of winning the attention of the females, and the Bower-birds of Australia build and decorate elaborate bowers or playing-grounds. The

squirrel-tailed wood-rat of Colorado collects and stows away towels, soap, sponges, knives, combs and all portable objects not too large for it to handle. These it stores away in its huge nest or house of sticks and twigs. In this house, willy nilly, the woodrat often entertains a considerable company of guests, mostly of the mouse kind, who visit their cousin, the rat, evidently with an eye to his stores of good things. The rat commonly treats his visitors well. Latterly, the miners have learned that the flesh of the wood-rat is delicious meat; and this fact, together with his thieving propensities, may yet bring him to grief, and limit the range of the species. The common otter is fond of sliding down hill, either on the snow, ΟΙ down a steep bank.

CHICAGO, ILL.

E. B. E.

EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTATIONS.

Prehistoric archaeology may be divided into four epochs: Paleolithic, rude stone implements; Neolithic, polished stone. material; Bronze (a mixture of copper and tin) used; Iron, when iron was discovered and used. The first really civilized societies had their seats in the valleys of the great rivers-Nile, Tigris and Euphrates.

The Great Pyramid was the loftiest building in the world. If it were formed of hollow tin or sheet-iron, it could be placed over St. Peter's Church at Rome, and that structure would disappear "like a nutmeg under a juggler's cap.'

In theory, at least, the ancient Egyptian priesthood seems to have had a high conception of deity. They believed in one God, eternal and immutable." He that lives in spirit, sole generating force in heaven and on earth, that was not begotten (NukPu-Nuk-I am that I am).

This idea of God subsequently became debased and complicated, by the distinctions made in the divine attributes, which ultimately were converted into personal gods, as Ra, Ammon, Imhotep, Ptah and Osiris. The outward manifestation, however, of God, in the abstract, seems to have been the

sun.

An Egyptian Prayer: "We adore thee,

O God Ra! Atoum, Kheper, Horks of the two zones. Homage to thee, Sahon, divine child, who by thine own power, daily reneweth thy birth. Homage to thee who shinest from the waters of heaven

to give us life. Through his divine power he has created all that exists. Homage to thee, Ra! When he awakens his rays bring life to the pure in heart. Homage to thee, who hast created the heavens of the spheres. When he disappears his path is unknown. Homage to thee! When thou passest through the heavens the gods who approach thee thrill with joy."

The ancient Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul, notwithstanding their great anxiety to embalm and preserve the bodies of their dead seems to imply that they also had a strong faith in the resurrection of the material body. They, however, weighed the actions of the dead, and the proven or confessedly wicked were not embalmed. S. S. R.

LANCASTER, PA.

BRACK.

For the noun brack, in the sense which we are about to discuss, the "Oxford Dictionary" of Dr. Murray gives but one definition, namely, the system of assorting wares which prevails in the Baltic ports. It certainly has other meanings, a second meaning being "a grade, or sort," and a third being "a low grade.' There is a corresponding verb to brack, meaning to assort, to cull. Just as the verb to cull gives culls (low-grade goods), so to brack, gives brack, meaning a poor sort of goods. (Compare sorts, meaning inferior drugs, as manna, etc.) In Mr. James Paton's article on "Flax," in the 'Encyc. Britannica," the verb to brack occurs twice, and the noun brack (low grade) is spelled wrack. In Laslett's work on "Timber and Timber Trees," examples are found of the noun brack in the senses of a grade, and a low grade. Brack (adj.) for inferior is found in that work, p. 96. Brack (noun), in the sense of a grade, occurs on p. 92. In German the nouns brack and wrack signify refuse, trash. The words are evidently connected with break, in the sense of to divide, to assort.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

SOMNIFIC DEVICES.

In our boyhood these were resorted to with confidence in their efficacy, when people were afflicted with insomnia or sleeplessness, and it is, or was, remarkable how often they were alleged to be effectual. They were adapted to different cases, and when one failed, another was tried, until success followed. In a mild case the patient shut his eye and repeated the following:

"One, two, buckle my shoe,
Three, four, open the door,
Five, six, pick up sticks,
Seven, eight, lay them straight,
Nine, ten, a good fat hen,

Eleven, twelve, roast her well,

Thirteen, fourteen, go a courting,

Fifteen, sixteen, go a kissing,

Seventeen, eighteen, the bread is baking,
Nineteen, twenty, the oven's empty."

This had to be repeated once, twice, or three times, or oftener, especially when the patient knew no other formula, until he or she fell into a slumber.

If, however, it was a stubborn case, and the following was known, this was then resorted to:

"A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds,
When the weeds begin to grow
Like a garden full of snow,
When the snow begins to melt
Like a garden full of spelt,
When the spelt begins to peel
Like a garden full of steel,
When the steel begins to rust
Like a garden full of dust,
When the dust begins to fly
Like an eagle in the sky,
When the sky begins to roar
Like a lion at the door,
When the door begins to crack
Like a switch upon your back,
When your back begins to smart
Like a dagger in your heart,
When your heart begins to fail
Like a ship without a sail,
When the ship begins to sink
Like a bottle full of ink,
When the ink begins to spill
Like a rabbit on a hill,
When the rabbit begins to jump
Like a ram against a stump."

It is true, that many of these "likes" are amongst the most unlikely things that could possibly occur, but then like all systems of pow-wowery, it will not do to criticise them too closely. A juvenile wit once remarked, in effect, that the interposition of that

The following suggestions as to the origin of this word are here offered as mere hints. There is a mountain valley in the district of Hazara, British India, called Khaghan, or Nainsukh, which is separated, in part, from the independent valley of Swat by a mountain ridge. But it is not probable that this wild and remote mountain region gave commercial name to a fabric. Some have thought, not without probability, that Nainsook may have been named from the holy city of the Marhattas, Nasik, or Nassuck. In the Pushtu language, nasak means thin, or delicate, which are terms fairly descriptive of the muslin in question. Possibly the Nainsukh valley may have been so named for its thin, wedge-like shape, or from its narrowness. This explanation is a speculative one, and is offered for what it may be worth. It should be added that the name of

the city of Nasik, or Nassuck, is of Sanskrit origin, from Nasika, the nose, and has reference to an episode in that great epic, the "Ramayana.'

REPLIES.

Name Wanted for a City (Vol. v, p. 29). -If your correspondent will consult the fragments remaining of M. Varro's works, which I have not at hand, he may possibly find a name for the city referred to by Marvell.

Pliny states (Bk. viii, Chap. xliii) that, according to M. Varro, a town in Spain was undermined by rabbits, and one in Thessaly by mice; but he does not name the towns, nor give any more exact reference, and Varro is credited with seventy-four distinct works. E. G. KEEN.

WARWICK, PA.

Peter (Vol. v, p. 29).-This word, as an intransitive verb, is in very common use among miners, to indicate the disappearance of a vein of ore by gradual contraction in width. The ledge under such circumstances is said to "peter out. Until within a year or two I never heard the word used otherwise than in this sense, and imagined it might have been derived from néτpa, but from the promiscuous manner in which it is used in the Eastern States, I take it there is no authority for this derivation. It is here frequently used as a synonym for "tired." TROIS ETOILES.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

Rise (Vol. iv, pp. 306, etc.).-May I say a final word on the subject of the pronun ciation of this noun ?

I heartily applaud the opinion of the late Mr. George P. Marsh, that no dictionary or encyclopædia is to be received as a final authority on any subject, but only as a record, more or less trustworthy, of the facts which come within its province. The true criterion in matters of pronunciation is the best usage. I think it is a matter of experience with all of us, that nearly everybody, lettered or unlettered, pronounces this word rize. When the pronunciation

Vicarious Justice. Is there any foundation in history for the story told in Hudibras about the New Englanders who hanged a bed-ridden but innocent weaver in the place of a murderer who could exhort as well as mend shoes? The cobbler had killed an Indian because he was an unbeliever. It will be remembered that the Indian chief who demanded the execution of the guilty man was "the mighty Tottipottymoy.' Totapotamoy is the name of a river in Virginia. Is there any other similar story recorded of the early Puritan colonists ? P. R. E.

OHIO.