More Grammar.-Tennyson, in "The Miller's Daughter," speaks of "the mill-dam rushing down with noise." Does the milldamı rush down? Is it not the water that rushes down? Is not this a catachresis? or, is it a hypallage? Somehow the poets will not be tied and hobbled by the red tape of the grammarians. G.

NEW JERSEY.

Cat Island (Vol. v, p. 122).—Cat island, or San Salvador, is mainly famous for being the supposed first landing place of Columbus. The researches of Capt. Fox and Prof. Schotte, U. S. Coast Survey, demonstrate that neither Cat nor Watling's island could have been the place of his first landing. OROG.

NEW YORK CITY.

Gulf of the Lion (Vol. v, pp. 130, etc.). -I lately asked a gentleman from Paris, a graduate of the Collége Bonaparte, about this name. He says he strongly suspects that Golfe de Lyon was the original form; for the commerce of Lyon, or Lyons, used to go down the Rhone to the gulf, and found sea-shipment at various places along its coast. But, after all, this is only one man's guess.

There is a work by Charles Pierre Marie Lenthéric, entitled "Les Villes Mortes du Golfe de Lyon," 1875, with fifteen charts and plans. This work was crowned by the French Academy. It ought to contain historical data as to the name.

ERIE, PA.

RYLAND JONES.

Dropping Wells (Vol. v, p. 79).—A dropping well in Yorkshire is thus described by Drayton :

Men "Dropping Well" it call, Because out of a rock it still in drops doth fall: Near to the foot whereof it makes a little pond, Which in as little space converteth wood to stone." E. G. KEEN.

WARWICK, Pa.

Slobbery Ponds.-Not very far from Chicopee Falls, Mass., there are certain swampy or shallow ponds, called vulgarly the Slobbery ponds-a sufficiently expres

sive name. But some of the old folk thereaway will tell you that the true name is Slaw-berry ponds, and that they are named from the cranberries that grow there. But I never have heard or read of slaw-berries in any other connection. But compare sloe, a kind of wild plum. K. W. C.

CHELSEA, MASS.

Inland-Flowing Streams (Vol. v, pp. 108, etc.).—Suppose the case of an island lying athwart an ocean current, the rocks of the island being fissured and traversed by cavernous passages. We may conceive that there would be currents flowing directly through the mass of such an island; and the uncovered entrance of such a current would be just such an inland-flowing stream as those of Argostoli. This is my guess, and nothing more.

There is an interesting notice of one of the Argostoli streams in Baedeker's "Greece." It appears that at least one of these streams is in part artificial.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

G. H. G.

Evil Eye (Vol. v, pp. 132, etc.).-Perhaps the following may interest some of the readers of AMERICAN NOTES AND QUERIES, as showing the necessary times of birth of persons possessing "virtue" to dispell the baleful influence of the Evil Eye. In the "Novias y Novios," by Torcato Tarrago, a romance of Andalusia, as fascinating as an idyl of Moorish Spain, the author says, p. 72, on the indicated theme: "Persons born exactly at the stroke of 12 o'clock, midnight, of the 24-25th day, or rather night, of Christ's nativity, or precisely on the divide between the hours of 2 and 3 in the afternoon of Holy Friday (Viernes Santo), claim to cure Evil eye." These individuals, usually known as "El Zahori"-(double) seer-Tarrago states are usually recognized in the rural districts of Spain as endowed with infallible skill to detect hidden springs or subterraneous water courses. He asserts the "Zahori" in such researches has been uniformly successful, but does not mention their using the divining rod for this purpose. G. F. FORT.

CAMDEN, N. J.

Discoveries by Accident (Vol. v, pp. 44, etc.).-Steel Pens.-"Mr. Joseph Gillott was a Birmingham working jeweler in 1830. One day he accidentally split one of his fine steel tools, and being suddenly required to sign a receipt, not finding his quill pen at hand, he used the split tool as a ready substitute. This happy accident led to the idea of making pens of metal. It was carried out with secrecy and promptitude, and the pens of Gillott became famous. The manufacture of metal pens has been as important as any invention connected with business and education since that of printing. There are now numerous firms which produce as many pens every day as all the geese in England could have supplied in a year. There is still, however, a large demand for quills and quill-pens; but for common use, in these days of universal education, the importance of Gillott's first invention is incalculable.”

A Question in Grammar (Vol. v, p. 129). I wish to assure W. J. R. that the feeling of desperation which he ascribes to me is something of which I am not at all conscious. If he can find any one scholar of repute who will sustain his view, I shall be satisfied to leave poor Mary where he puts her-in the kettle, above the crackling sticks, singing a solo part.

The use of sing as a causative verb may be catachrestic; if so, it is the poet's fault, not mine. But the grammarians cannot draw hard and fast lines by which the poet must walk. C. W. G.

NEW JERSEY.

6

Brack (Vol. v, p. 39).—When I was a child, living in New England, the word "brack" was used to describe a small thin place in wearing apparel, especially in muslin or cotton goods. Many a time I have been told "there is a brack' which must be darned or mended immediately or it will become a hole." This use of the word agrees, I think, with the German, signifying to "divide or assort," as per three stars, * * * of Philadelphia, Pa. R. W. L.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Buddhist Priests in Mexico (Vol. iv, p. 34). In the Buddhist Ray for July, 1890 (a periodical published at Santa Cruz, Cal.), there is a cut of what is supposed to be a figure of Buddha, found at Palenque, in Central America. It appears to be, in reality, a somewhat Mexicanized figure of Gautama Buddha. The paper, accompanied by this cut, is full of interest, but many of its statements seem crude and unscientific. For an illustration of this fault, I would refer to the discovery (quoted) of Gautama's name in Guatemala and in Guatemozin. A really scientific (and not ex parte) discussion of the various seeming finds of Buddhistic material in Mexico is something much to be desired.

ERIE, PA.

RYLAND JONES.

Creeks (Vol. v, pp. 105, etc.).—A small map of New Hampshire shows, in Coos county, in the northern part of that State, the following: Nash's creek, Chickwolnepy creek, and Molnichwock creek, all apparently mountain streams. There is also a Pond creek in Grafton county. I wish to thank J. W. R. for calling the attention of us New Englanders to these creeks. We Yankees are in the habit of looking upon this use of the word creek as a Western vulpride in our New England exemption from garism; and I, for one, have taken some this faulty practice.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

M. R. B.

Captain of My Dreams (Vol. v, pp. 131, etc.).—I accept Q.'s amendment thankfully as to the use of the word still, which is not necessary and may mislead such as do not exactly apprehend my meaning, which is as follows: "Chaucer, the morning star of song," sets the poet adreaming; all through his dreams the morning star rules (just as we say the dogstar rules, when it is astrologically in the ascendant); and when he awakes he finds that the morning star is really in the ascendant, or ruling. The real captain of his dreams may possibly be Chaucer; in which case, by an extension of that figure which makes Chaucer a morning star, the morning star itself is said to be the captain of the

poet's dreams. But this would be a concetto, rather than a legitimate figure of poetry. NEW JERSEY. G.

Floating Islands (Vol. v, p. 132, etc.). -September 13, 1834, when Darwin was traversing Central Chili, he made a visit to the gold mines of Yaquil, which are situated near the top of a lofty hill. He says: "On the way we had a glimpse of Lake Tagua-tagua, celebrated for its floating islands, which have been described by M. Gay (see "Annales des Sciences Naturelles," March, 1833). They are composed of the stalks of various dead plants intertwined together and on the surface of which living ones take root. Their form is generally circular and their thickness from four to six feet, of which the greater part is immersed in the water. As the wind blows, they pass from one side to the other, and often carry horses and cattle as passengers" ("Voyage of the Beagle," p. 265). HARTFORD, CONN.

F. T. C.

"Man: This being of mine is too wonderful to be destroyed."

"Voice: Perhaps it would not be destroyed even if you were to die. I saw a larval dragon-fly burst its shell, and it came forth a creature of far higher rank than it was before.'

"Man : 'But that would not be the case with me, if my body were to perish, for nature has given man the highest place in the scale of creation. There is no higher rank known to which I could aspire.'

"Voice: Your pride blinds you. Is it likely that there are no beings of statelier rank than yours in all the hundred million spheres that surround this earth ?'

"Moreover' (the voice went on), ' if you should perish utterly there would be plenty of men left as good as you,'

etc.

This interpretation is, I venture to think,

as consistent and as logical as any; it also avoids one weak point in the other paraphrase, that in which the Voice is made to say: "A dragon-fly is more wonderful than you." This particular poem of Tennyson's is one of that interesting class of which much or little can be made, according to the receptivity of the reader. It is like wheat that is crushed and injured by overthreshing; or like grapes, which, if pressed too hard, will run lees instead of wine. The mind struggling with itself does not follow out logical lines of thought; suggestion follows tumultuously upon suggestion; a cloud of despair is for a moment lighted up by a gleam of hope and light. The poet is true to nature throughout; but he does not reason according to scholastic rules. NEW JERSEY.

G.

BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.

Book News, for July, contains a carefully compiled Suggestive List of Books to Read Before Going to Europe," prepared by Sarah W. Cattell, which is a summer-time feature of this number. The important books of the month have reviews, some with illustrations, and the descriptive price list of new books contains nearly two hundred titles. "With the New Books;" the sketch of Jules Verne (with the author's portrait); "A New Anglo-Indian Writer," Rudyard Kipling; the announcements, notes, and other miscellany are most attractive reading, and maintain, in this number, the Book News' reputation as a necessary guide book in the world of letters.

The Cosmopolitan Magazine, for August, will contain perhaps the most extraordinary article ever published upon "Hypnotism." It was secured from one of the two most celebrated professors of the weird art, the Frenchman Donato, and the illustrations were secured by having a number of the subjects taken to the photograph gallery of Mr. Kurtz, in New York, and there hypnotized under the camera by Donato himself. The illustrations show very fairly the frightful powers which the hypnotizer exerts; and the whole article makes plain a subject which is exciting much attention all over the world at this time. One who has not seen the facile movements of the hypnotizer and the change which takes place in the victim under his apparently simple action, cannot for a moment comprehend the wonderful powers exercised. One moment the subject looks you in the eyes, talks to you as any other person, is in his right mind in every particular; the next, under a motion of the professor, his mind is as completely lost to his body as if his head had been cut off, and in this condition, subject to suggestions of the operator, suggestions which may be carried to the most farcical or the most terrible results, he remains until recalled to life by the hypnotizer. Never before has a number of subjects been placed under the camera and operated upon in this way, and the article will doubtless be received with general interest throughout the country.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-Coenties' Slip, New York, 145-Maroon-Traveling Plant, 146-Cruel Plant-Moha-Greek Island Names, QUERIES:-American Cardinals-Countries without Snakes -Robbing Peter to Pay Paul-Breeching Scholar, 147Tomohrit-Line Islands-Oriana, 148.

REPLIES:-Cup of Agathocles-Jansonus-Flagellants in Mexico, 148-Stone Rivers, 149.

REFERRED TO CORRESPONDENTS: - The Dreary Gleams in Locksley Hall-Gamut-The Long S-PatienceSunken Islands-St. Michael-Mai Poena, etc., 150-Marimba-Area of Cities, 151.

COMMUNICATIONS:-The Captain of my Dreams, 151Earliest Christian Hymn-Plaquemine-Discoveries by Accident-Musical Sands, 152-Buddhism in Lapland-Ávalon, 153-Sub Rosa-Pets of Distinguished People-The Dragonfly in The Two Voices"-Clarenceux, 154-Flying Spiders -Chebacco-boat-Orthography of Alaskan Names-Landfall of Columbus-Adam de St. Victor, 155-Ff in Proper Names-Translation Wanted-Anagrams in Science-Cacoethes Scribendi, 156. BOOKS AND PERIODICALS:—156.

COENTIES' SLIP, NEW YORK.

To the modern New Yorker this is a singular-looking word. The only two would-be explanations of it that I have yet found are equally peculiar.

One is, that Coenties is a compound (!) of Coen and Antey, Coen standing for Coenrad, the land-owner, and Antey, for his wife. Nothing short of an affidavit signed by all the Schouts and Schepens of New Amsterdam could make this combination be accepted by any serious student of etymology, of course.

The second is, that Coenties is a corruption of Countess, the slip having been so named in honor of the Earl of Bellomont's wife.

That the locality was thus officially named at the time, and for the reason just

mentioned, cannot be denied; that Coenties was afterwards derived from Countess is quite another thing.

One might perhaps get over the wonderful etymological transformation of Countess into Coenties (and its variants Coenjes, Coenjies); after all, it could not " hold a candle" to the distorting of Verlettenberg into Flatten Barrack, Tuyn Paatje into Tin Pot, Kolk into Collect, Krom Messje into Gramercy, Burgher Jorisen into Boyer Jori's, etc., etc. But there is a more serious difficulty in the way, for this suggested derivation would imply an anachronism worthy of the golden days of Topsyturvydom!

Now what does history say on this point? 1. That the land did belong to a worthy tanner, Coenrad ten Eyck, who died long before Governor Bellomont came to this city, and that the slip was known as Coenrad's as well as Coentjes, etc.

uncommon

2. That the practice, not among us, of curtailing personal names in familiar language was carried out by the Dutch to an extraordinary extent.

Thus, among them, a noted skipper, Bartholomeus van Hoogeboom, was called indifferently Bat or Mees, and left after him a relic of the head and of the tail of his name in Batten Kill and Meesen Kill. Rut did duty for Rutgert; hence Rutten Kill, the property of Rutgert Bleecker, etc., etc. And to these abbreviations they were fond of adding a friendly little suffix, je, tje, just like our own ie or y in Kate, Katie; Bob, Bobby, etc. Hence we find Nicolas, Claas (dear old San Claus!), Claasje; Sara, Saartje; Jacobus, Koos, Koosje, etc.*

In the face of these two facts, is it necessary to write out the equation of Mr. Coenrad ten Eyck's shorter name, Coen + suffix tjes of the possessive case = Coenties? A. ESTOCLET.

NEW YORK CITY.

MAROON.

According to most of the dictionaries, this word, in the sense of an escaped negro slave, or a mountaineer-negro, comes from the Spanish cimarron, wild; but Brockhaus'

A column could be filled with abbreviations of this kind in daily use in modern Dutch.

"Conversations-Lexikon" derives it from the river Maroni, in Guiana. It would seem to be easier to name the river from the maroons than the maroons from the river. There is an interesting paper on the maroons (runaway negroes) of Jamaica and Nova Scotia in the Proceedings of the Canadian Institute for April, 1890. These people submitted in 1798, not to the terrors of British arms, but to their fear of Cuban bloodhounds, which had been taken in considerable numbers to Jamaica to aid in the struggle. After two years of unthrift in Nova Scotia, the maroons were sent, in 1800, to Sierra Leone, where it appears that some of their descendants now occupy honorable positions. This exportation of the maroons should not be confused with the deportation of the colored Nova Scotia loyalists, whose departure for Sierra Leone occurred in 1792, eight years before that of the maroons. Quite a number of years later, Paul Cuffee, a half-negro, half-Indian shipmaster of Massachusetts, began a series of voyages to Sierra Leone, to which country he deported many negroes, chiefly from New England.

OHIO.

A TRAVELING PLANT.

P. R. E:

This is the "Adam and Eve," or "Puttyroot," of the common people; but the Aplectrum hymeäle of botanists; and is said to have the singular habit of shifting its locality to a degree, amounting to an inch annually; so that if a corm or tuber were planted in front of a person's house, in one hundred years thereafter, other things being equal, he would find that it had moved one hundred inches, in a westward direction. After the first year it gets a new corm annually, and one becomes dissipated annually. As the new corm makes its appearance, attached to a thick fibre, and about one inch from the old, that is about the meed of its annual progress—not very conspicuous, it is true, but still sufficient to demonstrate the fact. Nor must this fact be criticised too closely, because sometimes the old corm continues for more than a year. The locale of this plant is from Canada to Florida, but it is rare everywhere; in a life-time of eight-and-seventy years, I