The Purest English in the World. In his Forum article on Tennyson, Sir Edwin Arnold says that in the old poet's native county of Lincoln, "the purest English in the world is spoken, with one exception," and that exception is "Boston, New England." And Sir Edwin thinks it is a neat coincidence that "the capital of Massachusetts, peopled from the fens of England," and bearing the name of the Lincolnshire seaport, too, should "also preserve the purest traditions of English speech." This tribute will increase Boston's regard for Sir Edwin, but she won't think any better of herself for it-she couldn't. (Springfield Republican.) A Lexicographer in a New Light.— THE LANGUAGE OF THE SEA. Where'er, beneath the scudding clouds, That, roaring through the quivering shrouds Where Stars and Stripes and Union Jack, Career along the ocean's track, Our English holds its own. Our English tongue to every shore Flies onward, safe and free; It creeps not on from door to door, Its highway is the sea! Oh, glorious days of old renown When England's ensign flew, Nailed to the mast, till mast fell down When Rodney, Howe, and Nelson's name Till every English heart became Invincible as fate! God rest the souls of them that gave Our ships a passage free, Till English, borne by wind and wave, Was known in every sea! Our ships of oak are iron now, But still our hearts are warm; Our Viking courage ne'er shall bow In battle or in storm. Let England's love of Freedom teach The tongue that freemen know, Till every land shall learn the speech That sets our hearts aglow Long may our Shakespeare's noble strain Float widely, safe and free; And long may England's speech remain (Walter W. Skeat, in The Academy.) Moon Superstitions (cont. from Vol. viii, p.) 116.-To be born in the light of the moon, the sign in the head, with ascending node, insured a large brain, exalted intelligence, and a progressive spirit. If the sign was in the heart the individual would be of a generous, jovial, kindly disposition; if in the stomach a great eater, with a tendency to grow fat and pussy; if in the legs he would be very active and a great traveler or gadabout; if in the feet a good dancer and hard kicker. The same lunar conditions that caused cooking meat to shrivel up brought thinness and lankness to the individual; while those that induced shingles to curl up, weather boards to warp, and chimneys to lean gave to individuals gnarly dispositions, distorted features, and warped morals. It is quite natural that the moon should have more or less influence in love affairs. There is that well-known and oft-repeated couplet : Happy is the bride that the sun shines on, It is the moon, however, that the maiden looks to for a charm to bring her lover. If she wishes to see him she must wait for the new moon and at first sight of it over her right shoulder kneel at her bedroom window and repeat these lines: New moon, true moon, come tell unto me, Who my true love will be. If his clothing I do wear, And his children I do bear. Blithe and merry may I see him, If his clothing I don't wear, Then she must crawl into bed quietly, compose her mind, and wait for him to appear to her in a dream. (Pittsburg Commercial Gazette. Tristful.-Besides idleful and direful (from idle and dire respectively), (see Vol, vii, p. An Angry Tree. "The angry tree," a 262), I find the adjectives trist and tristful, woody plant, which grows from ten to the derivative form being almost exactly twenty-five feet high, and was formerly supequivalent to its original in meaning. Trist posed to exist only in Nevada, has recently and tristful are marked obsolete in some dic-been found both in eastern California and in tionaries, but they are not obsolete. Direful and tristful might be defended on the ground that the adjectives dire and trist may be used as names of abstract qualities. MARY OSBORN. Arizona. If disturbed, this peculiar tree shows every sign of vexation, even to ruffling up its leaves like the hair on an angry cat, and giving forth an unpleasant, sickening odor. (Saturday Evg Post.) Notes on Trees (Vol. viii, p. 108; Vol. vii, p. 17; Vol. vi, pp. 245, 233, 211, 201, 183, 195, etc.)-"The bread tree has a solid fruit, a little larger than a cocoanut, which, when cut in slices and cooked, can scarcely be distinguished from excellent bread. The weeping tree* of the Canary Islands is wet, even in drought constantly distilling water from its leaves, and the wine tree of Mauritius Island, furnishes good wine instead of water. A kind of ash, in Sicily, has a sap which hardens into crude sugar, and is used as such by the natives, without any refining. The product of the wax tree of the Andes resembles bee's wax very closely. Then there is the butter tree of Africa, which produces as much as a hundred pounds at once, only to be renewed in a few months. This secretion, when hardened and salted is difficult to distinguish from fresh, sweet butter. Closely rivaling this is the milk tree of South America, the sap of which resembles rich cow's milk, and is used as such by the natives. China can boast of a soap tree, the seeds of which, when used as soap, produces a strong suds, and remove dirt and grease readily. "In direct opposition to these useful trees is the man eating plant of the tropics, which resembles Venus' Fly trap in its nature. It has a short, thick trunk, armed with narrow, flexible barbed spines." (Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine.) A Lightning-Conductor Tree.-M. Oovaroff, a Moscow scientist, has discovered that when lightning strikes in a forest, the white poplar (populus alba) is the first to attract it. He came to the conclusion that this tree can be used as a natural lightning rod, and he submitted a memorial to the Minister of the Interior advocating that the planting of a white poplar before every house in a village be made obligatory upon the peasants to prevent fire by lightning. (New York Sun.) On the Score (after their fashion) (Vol. viii, p. 45).—“The Yourouks have not the remotest idea of letters, and carry on their transactions with the outer world by means of wooden tallies-four-sided bits of wood, sometimes gayly carved, sometimes plain." -Blackwood's Magazine. *See Am. N. and Q., Vol. VII, p. 17; Vol. V, p. 68, 47, 31, 16. Born on the Soil of His Future Realm.— Your article "Resting on his native soil," (Vol. viii, p. 81), recalls what took place at the birth of Dom Pedro's own grandson. When the time came for his first appearance on this planet, his mother happened to be traveling in Europe. Now, Princess Isabella's physicians would not hear of her undertaking the return journey to Brazil, and, on the other hand, if the baby should be born on foreign territory, the fact might invalidate his rights to the crown. "After much deliberation and discussion," says the Recorder, this city, "the following ingenious solution of the difficulty was determined upon: A couple of sackfuls of earth were brought from Rio de Janeiro and strewn across the threshold of the Brazilian legation at Paris, and a few hours before the birth of the child the princess was conveyed thither and to an apartment on the floor of which a portion of the transatlantic soil had been placed. The young prince, therefore, was declared to have been born on Brazilian soil, since not only was there Brazilian earth on the ground, but moreover, the legation, by virtue of its extra-territorial diplomatic privileges, was regarded as part and parcel, not of Paris or France, but of the Brazilian empire." New York City. H. C. ROWLAND. Serpent Superstitions (Vol. viii, p. 52) and SNAKE STONE (Vol. vi, p. 174, etc.) "But tell me yet, From the grot of charms and spells, (Mason's Caractacus, 1759.) TO CORRESPONDENTS. R. S. T. A. D., ST. LOUIS.-We should think not, not at any time during the colonial regime. Shall we ventilate the question in our columns? American Notes and Queries: A MEDIUM OF INTERCOMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, GENERAL READERS, ETC. Copyrighted, 1891, by the Westminster Publishing Co. Entered at the Post-Office, Philadelphia, as Second-class Matter. Communications for the literary department should be addressed: Editor AMERICAN NOTES AND QUERIES. All checks and money orders to be made payable to the order of The Westminster Publishing Company. CONTENTS. NOTES:-Quaint Jottings From Nashe, 133-Muita Calma? $3.00 per year. $1,75, 6 months. NOTES. QUAINT JOTTINGS FROM NASHE. (1558-1600). "The hogge dyeth presently if he loseth an eye." "Goats take breath not at the mouth or nose only, but at ye eares also." "Ever at the [German] Emperours coronation there is a oxe roasted with a stagge in the belly, and that stag in his belly hath a kidde, and that kidde is stufte full of birdes." Solid ale. Iceland is one of the cheafe kingdomes of the night.. Marry with one commoditie they are blest; they have ale that they carry in their pockets like glue, and ever when they would drinke, they set it on the fire and melt it." "By no Bugges " (see Vol. vii, p. 271).Page of Our History-Authorship Wanted-Roses on "Gabriel looks big upon it, and protests by Peach Trees-Witch of Berkeley, 135. no bugges, he owes him not a dandiprat." "Over the left." "Wolfe would not choose but bee a huge gainer, a hundred marks at least, over the shoulder.' "Dissouljoin." To dissouljoin occurs in "The Unfortunate Traveller," 1593, meanment, 138. Curious Book-titles-The Devices of the Thir- ing to kill. It is not, however, a fair samteen Original States, 139. Composition During Sleep-ple of the words used by this versatile wriDuration of Life Among Birds-Poetry for the Postmaster ter. Excepting in some of his extravagan-Christmas Proverbs-The Devil and the Census Man, zas, most of his words are well chosen, 140. Curiosities of Animal Punishment-Boston, "Lost though often far-fetched, as suited the euphuTown;" Beverley, "Beggarly"-Old Time! Justice-How Poets Rhyme-Isle of Dogs, 141. Literary Parallel-istic taste of the times. Newspaper-Wedding Customs in Foreign Parts-"My Jottings-Origin of British Columbia Indians-Typesetting Delia (see Vol. vii, p. 101), and Pickany. "The one dwelt at Abidos in Asia, which Mistris or Delia, at Sestos in Europe, and was Leander, the other, which was Hero, his she was a pretty pickany, and Venus priest." G. MUITA CALMA? HEIM? The International Bureau of Weights and Measures, founded many years ago, now The interesting note (ante, p. 98) draws attention to the remarkable fact that the Por-embraces all the ablest men in these lines of tuguese substantive calma still retains its inquiry in their respective countries, such as original meaning, although its adjective Foerster, of Berlin, Director of the Obsercalmo, the verb calmar and its derivative cal- vatory, and now Rector of the University; maria have, long since, been softened down, Hirsch, of Switzerland; Wild, of Russia; like our own calm, calmness, etc., to the no- M. Star, of Belgium; Bertrand, of France; tion of tranquillity. Thalen, of Sweden, and Gould, of America. Of the three methods of determining a prototype of length, the measuring a quadrant of the earth's circumference, the oscillation of a pendulum under given conditions, and the length of light waves at a given line in the spectrum, the last is the most accurate and has the advantage of being a cosmic rather than a terrestrial standard. That this method should have been discovered and worked by an American investigator is a matter of great National pride. (Abbrev. from N. Y. Tribune.) Both our own words and their Portuguese first cousins come, of course, through the mediæval Latin cauma, from the Greek Kauma, burning heat, a noun-form of the verb kaiein, to burn-it being but an easy step from the idea of excessive heat to that of stillness and quiet. As to the intrusive 7, it appeared for the first time during the Middle-English period and was probably introduced by the learned reformers of the day, who assumed that the word had been corrupted by the unlearned from the Latin stem cal- in calere, to be hot, and who thereby missed a glorious opportunity of... sawing wood. A NEW STANDARD OF MEASURE. Professor Albert A. Michelson, of Clark University, has been invited by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures to spend the coming summer at the Bureau's laboratory at Breteuil, near Paris, for the purpose of establishing a metric standard in terms of wave lengths of light. He is asked to make the basis of the unit of weight natural instead of arbitrary. After the French had measured a quarter circumference of the globe, and had adopted one ten-millionth part thereof as their meter and as the basis of the metric system, the prototype meter, a bar of metal, was sealed up in an artificial cavern at Breteuil, to be opened at long intervals for comparison and rectification of the few standard copies. One of these copies is at Washington in the Coast Survey Department, and Professor Tittman there has made many microscopic and other determinations of a metric bar of metal which is increased in length even by the heat of an approaching human body. For nearly thirty years Professor Charles S. Pierce has been employed by this depart ment of the Government in pendulum work, which involves all these refinements of method. In 1889, Mr. W. Flinders Petrie began excavations in the vicinity of Kahun, a settlement of the XIIth Egyptian Dynasty in the Fayûm, a region once styled the Garden of Egypt. As a result of Mr. Petrie's labors at this point, there is now uncovered an Egyptian Pompeii some 3,000 years older than that which overlooks the Mediterranean. Among the numerous relics of all sorts found in the exhumed city, are wooden tip-cats. The discovery of these humble instruments of sport shows that our nineteenth century street-boy's game was known to the youth of Egypt about 2,500 years before the Christian era; as also to the "Greekish" lads, intimate relations between Greece and Egypt being traceable in many of the remains brought to light. Brand credits the game of "Cat" with an antiquity of hardly two centuries. The "tip-cat" is a piece of wood, six inches long by one inch in diameter, with sharp pointed ends, The game is carefully described in Stewart Culin's paper, "Street-games of Boys in Brooklyn, N. Ÿ”. Journal American FolkLore. July-September, 1891. ΜΕΝΟΝΑ. Dante and Ariosto.-Italian papers, so our own papers relate, tell of a Neapolitan nobleman who fought fourteen duels during his lifetime, in defence of his assertion that As Dante was a greater poet than Ariosto. he lay on his death-bed, a short time ago, he took pleasure in acknowledging that he had never read the works of either writer. Can you tell me who this nobleman was and whether there is any truth in the story. CHE SARA SARA. That Dark Page of Our History.-What troops were the first to reach Washington, in April, 1861 ? [See page 138.] STUDENT. REPLIES. Bisk (Vol. viii, p. 100).-It is referred to in Webster, under headings referring to cookery and tennis. In the seventeenth century the word was used relative to tennis, in a stroke allowed to the weaker party to equalize the players. In Shadwell's Widow, 1679, is the following: "Car. I am for you at tennis Prigg. I'll give you a bisk at Longs for ten pounds." Johnson in his dictionary, 1781, gives Bisk only as to cookery, thus: Bisk, a soup, broth made by boiling several sorts of flesh. "A prince who in a forest rides astray, And weary, to some cottage finds the way. Chambers, 1786, defines it as follows: "Bisk or bisque, in cookery, a rich sort of broth or soup made of pigeons, chickens, force meat, mutton-gravy and other ingredients. The word is French, formed as some think from biscocta, because the bisque consisting of a diversity of ingredients, needs several repeated coctions to bring it to perfection." West Chester, Pa. THOS. LOUIS OGIER. Bailey's Dictionary, 1770, gives bisk or bisque : "Odds at the game of tennis." Also bisk "A stroke given to the weaker." or bisque: "A rich kind of pottage made of quails, capons, fat pullets, and more especially of pigeons roasted." DOLLAR. Roses on Peach Trees.-A writer in The Santa Clara Valley gives an account of roses budded on peach trees. He says "I have seen a three and four year old peach tree bloom as nature would have it on some branches, early in April; then from May to August, hang thick with branches of white,│A. pink and yellow roses, a perfect wonder to the passers-by. These trees are stated to have been first seen in the garden of Judge Amos R. Johnson, of Mississippi." I get this, at second hand, in "Vick's Magazine." Is the thing possible? AMICUS CURIÆ. Witch of Berkeley. What is the legend of the Witch of Berkeley? (Scott, Abbot, I. 184). J. CHURCH. Before and After Christ (Vol. viii, p. 123) The number given to each year in any era is that which will be complete at the end of the year. Hence from the Epoch of the Christian Era to the middle of the year 10 D., there are nine and a half years. Similarly, the number given to a year before the era is that which, reckoning backward, would be complete at the beginning of that year. But a person born in the middle of that year lacks half a year of the full amount. One born in the middle of the year 10, B. C., was nine and a half years old at the commencement of the Christian era; if then he died in the middle of the year 10, A. D., he had added nine and a half years more, and was nineteen years old at death. NUMBER ONE. |