eyes in their heads they could imagine that hawks on the ground struck backwards with their hind claw, but how else can we explain the fact that the second French equivalent given by Palsgrave for his word talant (=talon) is argot (now ergot),* which is our spur, and has from the earliest times (see Littré) been used of the sharp weapon of offence and defence situated on the hinder part of the leg of cocks and some other birds, on a higher plane than their claws, and with which they always strike backwards? And even PROF. SKEAT himself seems to have had some notion that birds of prey strike backwards with their hind claw, for he says, "Thus the talon was particularly used of the bird's spur or heel." Sydenham Hill. F. CHANCE. I thank the gentlemen who have answered my query, and I have no doubt that they are perfectly right in considering that the word talon was applied at first only to the hinder claw, the true talon or heel, as appears by the quotation from Palsgrave, and that it came afterwards to include the other claws. Since I asked the question I have been informed by a friend, who seems well acquainted with the habits of the Falconidæ, that in swooping down on their prey they always strike with the hind claw, sometimes ripping up the skin the whole length of the back, and that the fore claws are only used to secure their quarry. No doubt those Normans who pursued the sport of hawking were fully aware of this, and the offensive weapon being situated on the part of the bird's foot correspond ing to the heel, it received the name of talon, afterwards extended to the other claws, which do not differ much in appearance; but I would ask, Do any of the early French writers apply talon to the claws generally? The saying "Il a encore les talons jaunes" would seem to imply that the word was so used. It is a curious instance of how a word may survive in a proverb when it has disappeared in a particular sense from the spoken dialect. Guernsey. E. McC Another example, it may be thought, of the change of e into a before r, of which we have heard so much lately in "N. & Q." (see 6th S. iii. 4, 353, 393, 457; v. 150, 194); but Littré tells us that argot is the form which has prevailed from the earliest times, and, as the origin is unknown, it is impossible to know whether the vowel was originally a ore; I suspect, however, that it was e. however, one for discussion, for it has been decided for us by Barons Park, Platt, and Martin in the case of Steele v. Williams. In the report in the Jurist, vol. xvii. p. 464, your readers who have access to law reports will find that Mr. Steele's clerk searched and took extracts from the old parochial registers of baptisms and burials between the years 1827 and 1830, i. e., the books kept before the passing of the Registration Act. A question arose as to whether the fee charged for extracts was a customary one; but the Court held that the case turned on the Act 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 86; and Baron Platt said, "With regard to making extracts no fee is mentioned, and the incumbent has no right to tax any one for so doing." In this the other two judges concurred. Burn, in his work on parish registers, says: "It was for some time considered that this enactment applied only to births and deaths, and not to the baptisms and burials, &c. All doubts have now been removed by the case of Steele v. Williams, where, at the opening of the argument, the Court of Exchequer decided that the fees in question are regulated by the Act of 1836." I entirely endorse his view, and if at any future time any rector, vicar, or curate who has the charge of any register book should charge me more than the statutory fee, or should refuse to allow me to make extracts on payment only of the search fees, I shall forth with take him into court, on the strength of Steele v. Williams. I hope the question of the safe keeping and accessibility of parish registers will not be allowed to sleep, and that those who are in favour of the Bill brought in by Messrs. Borlase and Bryce will not rest till they get it passed. Under their present custodians, as Burn tells us, they have been destroyed by fire, their leaves have been cut out, they have been sold as waste paper, made into book covers, used for singeing a goose, stolen by the clerk, sold by auction, forged entries have been made. Nothing of this kind could happen to them in Fetter Lane. They would be where all national records ought to be, and they would be most conveniently accessible to the greatest number of those persons who wanted to use them. If the village community should wish to have a copy to keep, they might be allowed to make one. Lincoln's Inn. JOHN H. CHAPMAN, F.S.A. I use bydrosulphuret of ammonia to restore faded writing. I have restored so as to be able to read distinctly entries on a page of a register which was to all appearance blank, even when examined through a magnifying glass. The hydrosulphures should be used carefully, painting over each letter of the word, taking care not to allow it to soak into the vellum or paper. The objection to it is its horrible smell, which can, to a certain extent, be made bearable by sitting with doors and windows open, and smoking, and keeping the bottle close stopped. It may be used pure or diluted, according to the necessity of the case. R. P. H. FOREIGN PLACE-NAMES (6th S. v. 305, 472; vi. 58).-C. W. S. is mistaken if he supposes that the x is mute in Aix-les-Bains, although Parisians often make it mute from ignorance, or confusion with Aix-la-Chapelle. D. Is not "Rheims," which C. W. S. reckons only among the names mispronounced by us, a fourth instance of a French one that we think it necessary to mis-spell? I never saw an h in any foreign or mediæval spelling, either of the city or of Rémy or Remigius, the patron. The h seems as purely an English blunder as the s that we added to Lyon or Marseille, under the notion that, because most of the French cities bore a tribal name in the plural, these had done so. Such names as Paris and Calais we can hardly be said to mispronounce, when we merely retain the full sound for a century or two after the French have chosen to curtail it. E. L. G. "Aix, subst. fem. (èce): son nom est formé du Latin aquæ, eaux. Aix-la-Chapelle, subst. fem. (ècelachapèle), du Latin aquæ, eaux et capella, chapelle" (Napoléon Landais, Grand. Dict., thirteenth edit., Paris, 1857). See also Dr. Carl Sachs's Encyklopädisches Französisch-deutsches Wörterbuch nebst genauer und durchgängiger Angabe der französischen Aussprache nach dem phonetischen System der Methode Toussaint-Langenscheidt. A. T. CROCODILE'S TEARS (6th S. v. 447).-An early reference for the reason of the tears of the crocodile becoming a proverb is to Polydore Vergil (Adagiorum Lib., ccxxv. p. 101, Basil., 1541). After noticing the account of the crocodile in the eighth book of Pliny, he says: 66 Conspecto homine lachrymat, mox appropinquantem devorat. Unde est proverbium, Lacrymæ crocodili,' de iis qui specie misericordiæ et pietatis homines fallunt." His contemporary Erasmus has it among his Proverbs, both in the Greek form, kрokodeiλov Sákpva, and the Latin, and states the same, and also another reason for it, as an alternative. Erasmus seems to accept the latter reason in his Colloquies, for in that on friendship he represents one of the interlocutors as saying: "Jam nullum est animal inimicius homini quam crocodilus, qui sæpenumero totos homines devorat, et arte malitiam adjuvat, hausta aqua lubricans semitas, quibus descendunt ad Nilum aquam hausturi, quo collapsos devoret."-Coll., p. 480, Roter. 1693. This statement is from the account in Ælian (Hist. An., xii. 15), who speaks of the craftiness of the crocodile in filling his mouth with water and ejecting it in order to make the path slippery for men and animals that they may become an easier prey. Erasmus elsewhere subjoins, what Elian omits, that when he has caught his prey the crocodile macerates the skull with his tears that he may soften it, which he then eats last (Adagia, typ. Wechel., fol. 1629, p. 659). Shakespere has the first reason in 2 Hen. VI. III. i. 225: "And Gloucester's show Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile With sorrow snares relenting passengers." De Lincy also (Prov. Franç., t. i. p. 175, Paris, 1859) explains them in the same way: "Verser les larmes de crocodile.' Verser les larmes trompeuses. On prétend que le crocodile feint de pleurer pour attirer vers lui les passants." ED. MARSHALL. I do not know whether the origin of this expression has ever been discussed in the pages of "N. & Q.," but your correspondent's query reminds me that I have never found the phrase earlier than the sixteenth century, and then it was in Latin. I shall be very glad if any of your correspondents can trace the expression to its source, or give early illustrative quotations for the use of it. Webster thus remarks upon the term: "Derived from the fiction of old travelers, that crocodiles shed tears over their prey." Who are the "old travelers"? Shakespeare alludes to the crocodile's reputed habit in 2 King Henry VI. III. i. 225-7, and again, in Othello, IV. i. 256-8: The following passage is from an account of Sir John Hawkins's Second Voyage to the West Indies, by a Gentleman in the Voyage ( 1565, Hakluyt, Voyages, 1589), Arber, Eng. Garner, v. p. 116 (1882): "His (the crocodile's) nature is ever, when he would have his prey, to cry and sob like a Christian body; to provoke them to come to him: and then he snatcheth at them! And, there upon, came this proverb, that is applied unto women, when they weep, Lachryma Crocodili: the meaning whereof is, that as the crocodile when he crieth, goeth them about most to deceive; 80 doth a woman, most commonly, when she weepeth." In the Adagia (Typis Wechelianis, 1629) I find, "Kpoкodeílov Sáκpva, id est, Crocodili lachrymæ," but no authority is given for the use of the expression. It is therein remarked: - mox "Sunt qui scribunt, Crocodilum conspecto procul homine, lachrymas emittere, atque eundem deuorare.......Alii narrant hanc esse crocodili naturam, vt cum fame stimulatur, et insidias machinatur, 08 aut alia quapiam animantia, aut homines aquatum hausta impleat aqua, quam effundit in semita, qua nouit venturos: quo lapsos ob lubricum descensum, neque valentes aufugere, corripiat, correptosque deuoret. Deinde reliquo deuorato corpore, caput lachrymis effusis macerat, itaque deuorat hoc quoque." This latter device of the crocodile is recorded by Ælian, xii. 15, but he makes no mention of the tears. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. Cardiff. It may be worth noting that Sir J. Mandeville mentions the tears, but not in such a way as to show any purpose in shedding them. After telling us that Fro Ethiop men gon to Ynde," and from India to "another Yle, that is clept Silla," he says: "In that Lond is full mochelle waste, for it is full of wylde Bestes, of Serpents, and of Cokadrilles. Theise Cokadrilles ben a manner of long Serpente, Zalowe and rayed aboven, and han 4 Feet and schorte Thyes, and grete Nayles as Clees or Talouns: and there ben sume that han 5 Fadme in length; and sume of six and a halfendal. And in the nyght thei dwellen in the Watir, and on the day, upon the Lond. Theise Serpentes slen men, and thei eten hem wepynge; and when thei_ eten thei moven the over Jowe, and noughte the nether Jowe; and thei have no Tonge." I do not remember any earlier literary allusion. GILBERT VENABLES. magus came to mean "DUROMAGUS" (6th S v. 447). This name signifies not "water field," but " town on the water." The Gaelic word magh, from which magus has been Latinized, signifies "a field, plain, a level country; also a field of battle." But in later times a town in a field or plain," and finally "a town." The word magus is found in several ancient names, as Sito- Simo- Sinomagus (Thetford); Noviomagus, the ancient name either of Guildford or Woodcote; Neumagen am Mosel; Nijmegen; Lisieux; Spires; Medoc (?); and Sostomagus, now Castelnaudary, France, dep. Aude. R. S. CHARNOCK. "GRESSOME" (6th S. v. 447). Your correspondent will find instances of the custom about which he inquires in Lancashire Folk-lore, by Messrs. Harland and Wilkinson, pp. 282-3. Speaking of Nevil Hall they say: "The admittance fine is two years' rent, over and above the accustomed yearly rent. The heriot, on the change of lord, is half a year's rent. The running gressom, or town-term, is half a year's rent every seventh year." F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. "The CANNON OR CANON (OF A BELL)? (6th S. v. 448).-Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary contains the following definition of canon: part of a bell by which it is suspended, otherwise called the ear." Canon-bit: "The barrel of a bit; the portion in the mouth of a horse." In Dr. Tolhausen's Technological Dictionary of the English, German, and French Languages, second edit. 1878, the term cannon, handle, ear (bell), may be found, and also the term cannon-bit under four different headings. G. S. Patent Office. this word is entered under the spelling canon, with the definition, "that part of a bell by which it is suspended; also called the ear." XIT. "SANGRE AZUL" (6th S. v. 449).—The original meaning of Arab. asil is “ root, rooted, radical, lineage. The word for "noble blood" is sharif (see Catafago). The Sp. word azúl, blue, also lapis lazuli, is from Persian lajward, perhaps through Low Lat. azurum, lazurum, whence lazuli (lapis). R. S. CHARNOCK. "UMBRAGEOUS" (6th S. v. 449).—Warburton made use of this word in the sense that JAYDEE refers to in the preface to the edition of The Divine Legation of Moses, 1758. The passage runs as follows: more effectual to quicken his jealousy and resentment, "So that, under this disposition, nothing could be than the charge of clandestine assemblies; of which, doubtless, the Romans were very jealous, as contrary to their fundamental laws, though not so extravagantly umbragious as our Critic's hypothesis obliges him to suppose."-Warburton's Works (1811), vol. iv. p. 48. G. F. R. B. A BLUNDERING EPITAPH (6th S. v. 465).-Is it not possible that MR. LYNN may have read the last word of the Latin wrong? No doubt it should have been sequentur; and perhaps the word was so cut, but in the course of three centuries the letter n may have become chipped or otherwise obscured. E. WALFORD, M.A. Hampstead, N.W. CATCHWORDS IN PRINTING (6th S. v. 466).These were not in use by the celebrated French printer Johan Petit so late as February, 1520. I have a book, Cathena Auria super Psalmos, most beautifully executed in red and black by him; the colophon states: ......impendio ac ere honestissimi bibliopole, Johannis Parvi, Anno ab orbe redempto, M.D.XX. quarto Idus Martii," which has signatures, but neither numerals nor catchwords. The Rev. W. P. Greswell observes, almost in MR. PLATT's words (vide Annals of Parisian Typography, 8vo. 1818, p. 6):— "The printers of Paris did not adopt them [catchwords] till a period so late as 1520: though they are found in the Tacitus, printed at Venice by Spira, circa 1468, and in a work entitled Lilium Medicina, fol. Ferγατα, 1486." ALFRED Wallis. ADA DE BALIOL (6th S. v. 467).—According to pedigree of the De Baliol family in my possession, Ada de Baliol, who married John fitz Robert, was daughter of Hugh de Baliol, lord of Barnard Castle, and sister of John de Baliol, Regent of Scotland. A. T. WALTER J. WESTON. In Knight's Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, and also in Messrs. Cassell's Encyclopaedic Dict., STATURE OF FRENCHMEN (6th S. v. 468).—The question of the effects of the excitements and disturbances to which France has been exposed for the last hundred years upon the physiological condition of the children born during that period is an interesting one, if not too technical for the pages of "N. & Q." M. Michelet maintains that the early enthusiasm of the Revolution produced a race of mental and physical prodigies. But another writer-whose name has escaped mestates that the same troublous time caused the birth of a large number of lunatic and idiotic children. And it is well known that the Revolution of 1848 is chargeable with being the cause of an unusual per-centage of premature births. E. H. M. To "WRING "9 (6th S. v. 468).-Wring is a plain English word. The words, "Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung," in the Play Scene, precisely caps and explains the poor Kentish woman's erroneous theory regarding the cause of bed-sores. Whenever I come across a controversy about a crabbed English word, such as feud, kex, lap, or cymar, I take down my Walker and rarely fail to find it there. A Kentish man, educated at Merchant Taylors', who was a very active pedestrian, used to complain that new boots wrung his feet. He thus preferred the Elizabethan word to gall, or blister, or fret; and he and Walker were agreed in thinking that among the meanings of the word to wring are to "squeeze, to press, to pinch." CALCUTTENSIS. I have frequently heard this word applied to clothes, "My clothes wring me," to denote that they occasion suffering from pressure, or from being twisted, or too tight. It is applicable to other cases of suffering. I quote a few instances from Shakespeare of the use of the word to express suffering :-" He wrings at some distress." It is a hint that wrings mine eyes to 't." "Let me wring your heart," &c. The poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.' 17 MARY P. MERRIFIELD. Stapleford, near Cambridge. The use of this verb with the meaning of "to writhe with anguish" is to be found in Shakespeare: Baronetage, to the effect that Richard, second son New University Club, S.W. "WIMBLEDON " (6th S. vi. 47).-The quotation from the A.-S. Chronicle containing the words æt Wibbandune serves to explain the name at once, if it be rightly interpreted. The supposition that the last syllable "is the A.-S. dúne" is incorrect. There is no such word in A.-S. in the nominative case, which takes the form dún; but in the dative it becomes dún-e, with final -e, being governed by the preposition at. The other supposition, that if the former part of the word were a proper name "it would have the letter s," is also incorrect. A large number of proper names, including all masculines in -a, make the genitive in -an. The true dative of Wibbandun, meaning "Wibba's down." interpretation is as follows: Wibbandune is the Next, dún is not a true A.-S. word, but borrowed from Celtic, as explained in my Dictionary, the equivalent English word being tún, mod. E. town. A down meant both a hill and a hill-fort. Thirdly, Wibba, like all masculines in -a, is of the form which may be called agential, as it denotes an agent. The word literally means one who wriggles about," or (to use a word from an allied root) wabbles about, and the secondary sense is "beetle " or grub," not a very complimentary name; but this is far from being unusual. I discuss this very FLEETWOOD: SHELLEY (6th S. v. 448).-There which is, in fact, merely the diminutive of wibba. form in my Dictionary, s. v. Weevil," are discrepancies between the various published The very form wibba occurs in one of our old accounts of the Shelleys of Michelgrove, which may, or may not, be known to MRS. RUSSELL, and which glossaries, which gives, "Scarabeus, scarn-wibba," render a reply to her query a matter of some diffi-.e., sharn-grub or dung-beetle. WALTER W. SKEAT. culty. In Berry's Sussex Genealogies, s. v. "Shelley," no intermarriage with Fleetwood appears at all. In Betham's Baronetage, on the other hand, there is to be found a statement substantially identical with that in the current edition of Burke's Peerage and "No, no; 'tis all men's office speak patience 66 16 A GAME OF TWENTY QUESTIONS (6th S. v. 468). I played at this game many years ago, and it used to be called the "Canning game," having been, it was said, invented by the great statesman. Allow me to quote the following amusing passage concerning it from Robert Bell's Life of Canning: "There was a great deal of sprightly small talk, and after sitting a long time at table, Canning proposed that they should play at Twenty Questions.' They had never heard of this game, which consisted in putting twenty questions to find out the object of your thoughts, something to be selected within certain prescribed limits. It was arranged that Mr. Canning, assisted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was to ask the questions, and Mr. Rush, assisted by Lord Grenville, was to give the answers, the representatives of, probably, nearly all the monarchs of Europe, and the principal ministers of England, watching the result in absolute suspense. The secret was hunted through a variety of dexterous shifts and evasions, until Canning had at last exhausted his twenty questions. He sat silent for a minute or two,' says Mr. Rush; then rolling his rich eye about, and with his countenance a little anxious, and in an accent by no means over-confident, he exclaimed, "I think it must be the wand of the lord high steward!"'' And it was even so. A burst of approbation followed his success, and the diplomatic people pleasantly observed that they must not let him ask them too many questions at the Foreign Office, lest he might find out every secret they had!"-Pp. 255-6. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. I remember when I was a child, between twenty and thirty years ago, my eldest brother, who was an undergraduate at Cambridge, introduced this game at home. They played it with twenty-one questions. One of the party thought of some incident, either historical or Scriptural, and such questions as the following were generally asked first: If historical, before or after the Conquest? If after, divide the different periods. Is it animal, vegetable, or mineral? and so on. Three guesses were allowed, but each guess counted as three questions. It was a most popular game with my brother and his Cambridge friends, as it also was with my other brothers and sisters. E. B. Bournemouth. I was present, six months since, when some friends were engaged in a game that resembled this in its leading particulars. The process was as follows:-One of the party, who had been selected as the questioner, left the room while the name of a food or other article was chosen ; on re-entering he was entitled to ask of each person in rotation, "How do you like it?" with a view to obtain a clue to the nature of the thing decided upon. Three guesses were allowed, but he was not bound to exhaust these until he had gone the round for the second and third time with the questions, "When do you like it?" and "Where do you like it?" JOHN G. E. ASTLE. be found in Yorkshire about Christ This may mastide. J. T. M. 15, Dean's Yard, S.W. "GLEEK" (6th S. v. 474).-In Cotton's Complete Gamester, and Seymour's Complete Gamester, In Mr. Swinburne's new poem, Tristram of Lyonesse, p. 122, these lines occur :"What wall so massive, or what tower so high, Shall be thy surety that thou shouldst not die, If that which comes against thee be but I?" J. R. THORNE. JOHN DONE, 1631 (6th S. vi. 47).-The bookling mentioned by MR. WILSON is not the only work produced by John Done. The Auncient History of the Septuagint, which appeared in 1633, is frequently to be met with, and seems to have had a somewhat wide circulation. It is one of the "curiosities of literature" that this latter volume should have been attributed to the Dean of St. Paul's by every editor of Walton's Lives till the mistake was pointed out by me in 1855. It is a trumpery production, and could never be set down to the great dean by any one at all familiar with his writings. I tried to find out something about the man Done twenty-five years ago, but I cannot lay my hand on my notes; my impression is that he was a needy schoolmaster, who was employed by the booksellers. AUGUSTUS JESSOPP. PRINCESS AMELIA'S ALLEGED MARRIAGE (6th S. vi. 47).-A reference to Princess Amelia's secret marriage to Captain, afterwards General, Fitzroy, may be found in Fitzgerald's Life of George IV. SEBASTIAN. JOHN FORBES SARAH ROBERTSON (6th S. vi. 46).-MR. CARMICHAEL is probably correct in his conjecture that John Forbes, named in the tombstone inscription at Kilmodan or Glendaruel, was descended from Captain James Forbes, the youngest son and ninth child of John Forbes of Craigievar, and Margaret Udward, daughter of the Lord Pro |