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about a worthy German merchant who had business connexions in England, and one day came over to make their personal acquaintance. His name was Abel, which when pronounced in the Fatherland rimes very nearly with marble; but in England he found everybody called him Mr. Able, until at last he also "fell into the habit of pronouncing his own name as Able, and had fresh visiting cards printed with his new name spelt Teutonice "Mr. Ebel." To cut a long story short, in trying to spell his name as his English friends pronounced it, the poor German changed the spelling next to Mr. Ibel, Eibel, Eubel, Jubel, and finally wound up with Mr. Dschubel, after which he gave up all further attempts in despair.

To return to our Tartars. As the pronunciation of the first presented to them no greater difficulty than the second, why did they perpetuate the wrong and "un-Tartar" form Tatar, and not revert to the original, the "unmutilated" form Tartar?

History, as we see and as Dr. Koelle himself confesses, is against him; but let us look into his etymological proof. The root tar means to draw (in German ziehen), to pull, to move on, to roam about, and the Tartar words derived from it are so numerous and of such miscellaneous meanings that they outnumber those of the corresponding German Zug, for enumerating all of which our worthy editor cannot spare the space, and the reader is therefore referred to-Mark Twain's Tramp Abroad.' Hence tar-tar is in Dr. Koelle's opinion a characteristic name for a people who constantly move from place to place, and it means move-on-move-on. Now tat-ar is also a genuine Tartar word; but it means taster, and consequently it is not to the doctor's taste, because it is not characteristic, and also because, when the Tartars pronounce their own name, "they do not say Tat-ar [nor Tar-tar]. but Ta-tar [or Tat-tar]." We may now add Tatar is correct. Q.E.D. So much for the etymological proof.

With regard to the use of the form Tartar, as already stated, it is used by the Armenians, by medieval Greek writers like Georgios Akropolita (A.D. 1203-61, but the modern Greeks have gone over to the heterodox party), by medieval Latin writers, and by the Western nations of Europe, except some scholars like A. Schiefner, Vámbéry, and D......, the old author of Histoire des Tatars,' who know something about the Tartars. The advocates of the form Tatar maintain that the superfluous was introduced by St. Louis (the king, not the bishop) to enable him to make a pun. When writing to his

mother Blanche, in 1241, he perpetrated the historic jeu de mot: "We shall either thrust back those whom we call Tartars into their own seats in Tartarus, whence they proceeded, or else they will transmit us all up to heaven." Dr. Koelle ridicules this explanation, and he may be right. I am absolutely neutral on this point, and will merely give a few more facts.

The Dominican monk Julian, who brought the first tidings of their approach to Hungary in 1237, calls them Tartari.

According to Matthew Paris, "Dicuntur autem Tartari a quodam flumine per montes eorum, quos jam penetraverant, decurrente, quot dicitur Tartar" (Chronica Major,' Luard's edition in the Master of the Rolls Series, iv. 78).

There is a very suspicious letter, dated 10 April, 1242, "cujusdem episcopi Ungariensis [sic] ad Episcopum Pari[si]ensem,” in which the name is Tartareus, and they are said to use Hebrew, not Chinese, characters (literas habent Judæorum); ibidem, vi. 75.

Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia, also in 1242, writes, "dicti homines Tartari vocati."

The "Abbas Sanctæ Mariæ totusque conventus ejusdem loci, ordinis Sancti Benedicti in Hungaria commorantes," writes from Vienna on 4 Jan., 1242, "Tartari qui vocantur Ysmaelitæ." The convent has not yet been identified, and Ismaelite merchants were trading in Hungary in 1092, and whole Ismaelite villages were extant in that country in the reign of Coloman (1095-1116),

Jordan, provincial vicar of the Franciscans in Poland, in his letter of 10 April, 1242, also perpetrates the pun, 'a gente Tartariorum, a Tartaro oriunda."

The Warden of the Franciscans at Cologne writes about them with some familiarity as the people "quos vulgariter Tartaros appelamus.

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All these passages are to be found in vol. vi. of Matthew Paris's Chronicle' already referred to.

In conclusion, after having considered Dr. Koelle's paper we see that we cannot do better than imitate the Tartars' own pronunciation and call them Tatars henceforth.

L. L. K.

"THE ABBEY OF KILKHAMPTON' (9th S. xii. 381, 411, 488).-I have "The Third Edition, with Considerable Additions," of 'The Abbey of Kilkhampton; or, Monumental Records for the Year 1980,' &c., London, 1780. It contains 110 epitaphs.

I have also" The Abbey of Kilkhampton. An Improved Edition. London, Printed for

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Bennett Building, New York.

"MOLUBDINOUS SLOWBELLY" (9th S. xii.

487).—Might one observe that the first portion of this elegant phrase is an erroneously anglicized form of "molybdenous," now a chemical term? According to current usage, therefore, Mo should replace Pb in the slowbelly formula. J. DORMER.

EUCHRE (9th S. xii. 484).—Mr. R. F. Foster thinks this game is derived from spoil-five. Mr. C. H. Meehan says it was introduced by German settlers into Pennsylvania. Both are agreed that it is not derived from écarté. Mr. Foster points out that some features of the game resemble "triomphe," from which écarté is also derived. The earliest mention of euchre that I have found is in An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling,' by J. H. Green (Philadelphia, 1843). The word is there spelt eucre. (See also 7th S. vii. 307, 358.) F. JESSEL.

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THE WYKEHAMICAL WORD "TOYS" (9th S. xii. 345, 437, 492).-As I am asked for my opinion on this matter, I give it for what it is worth.

It is clear that the derivation from toise, a fathom, is a mere bad shot.

It is also obvious that Mr. H. C. Adams does not know Grimm's law, or he would not equate the "Dutch tuychen" (i.e, the Mid. Du. tuychen, Mod. Du. tuig) with the Gk. Teúxea, which is, of course, from a totally different

root.

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The entry "Teye, of a cofyr," does not mean that theca or teye has the sense of coffer. It means that teye has the sense of the Lat. theca, "an envelope, cover, case, sheath," and refers to the cover of a coffer, not the coffer itself. Else why the word "of"? That this is the right sense of theca is clear from the fact that the modern E. form is tick, a case for a feather-bed or a pillow. And tick is not remarkably like the Winchester word either in form or sense. This Lat. theca became teie in Norman, and teye in Mid. English, and is (perhaps) obsolete, unless a trace of it appears in the unpublished part of the 'Eng. Dial. Dict.' The foreign form was toye or toie; for examples see taie in Littré; but toye was altered to taie in the eighteenth century, as in modern French. I can find no proof of the introduction of this F. toye into England at any date, and I greatly doubt the derivation from this source. To say that toie comes "regularly" from Lat. theca is to ignore the most marked distinction between the French of England and that of France.

may not be a peculiar use of the common I cannot at all understand why the word E. toy, which is at least as old as 1530 (see Palsgrave). And this corresponds to Du. tuig, which becomes Zeug in German, and is a word of very wide application.

The peculiar principle on which Godefroy's 'Old French Dictionary' is written deserves reprobation. I look out toyette, and am there is no such word there. All that I find referred to taiete in the Supplement; but there is taie, for which I am referred to teie. But of course teie is not there either.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

ISLAND OF PROVIDENCE (9th S. xii. 428).— There are two Providence Islands, about which there has been much confusion. One (now called Old Providence Island) lies east of the Mosquito Coast between 13° and 14° N. latitude and 81o and 82o W. longitude. This is the island referred to by LOBUC. It was granted 4 December, 1630, to the Earl of Warwick, Sir Edmund Mountford, John Pym, and others (of whom the Earl of Arundel was not one); and John Pym was the treasurer of the company. Proposals to sell the island to the Dutch were entertained between 1637 and 1639; in 1641 it was taken by the Spanish, in 1666 it was retaken by the English, it again fell into the hands of the Spanish, and in 1671 was once more recaptured by the English. Much information in regard to this island will be found in the 'Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660.'

The other (now called New Providence

Bath.

PATRICK MAXWELL.

Island) is one of the Bahamas, and was in fact her step-grandson, and was by her granted 1 November, 1670, to the Duke of constituted her co-heir, along with certain Albemarle, Lord Ashley, and others. other members of his family. When the late W. N. Sainsbury edited (in 1860) the above-mentioned volume of State Papers, he confused the two islands, and spoke of "the Bahamas, or the plantation of Providence, as the principal island was called" (p. xxv), when in reality the Providence Island off the Mosquito Coast was meant. Later, at the request of General Lefroy, Governor of the Bermudas, Mr. Sainsbury examined into the matter closely, detected his mistake, and in the Athenæum of 27 May, 1876, pp. 729-30, the two islands are carefully

differentiated. Boston, U.S.

ALFRED MATTHEWS.

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haven.

Lord Colville of Culross, Master of Colville.
Lord Elibank, Master of Elibank.
Lord Kinnaird, Master of Kinnaird.
Lord Napier, Master of Napier.
Lord Polwarth, Master of Polwarth.
Lord Rollo, Master of Rollo.
Lord Ruthven, Master of Ruthven.
Lord Saltoun, Master of Saltoun.
Lord Sempill, Master of Sempill.
Lord Sinclair, Master of Sinclair.
Lord Torphichen, Master of Torphichen.
Baroness Kinloss, Master of Kinloss.
There is Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, Bart.,
known as the "Knight of Kerry.'

"

THORNE GEORGE.

MADAME DU DEFFAND'S LETTERS (9th S. xii. 366, 438).—I was glad to read the letters concerning the Begum of Bhopal. I remem: ber seeing her Highness-as far as she could be seen-perched in a howdah on top of an elephant at Delhi in 1862, when two regiments had the honour of marching past the Begum - whether the present princess or her successor I cannot say; but I never imagined for a moment that this noble woman had anything to do with the Begum Sumroo, adoptive mother of Mr. Dyce Sombre.

St. Andrews, N.B.

GEORGE ANGUS.

To my reply on this subject it may be as well to add a postscript to the effect that in strict accuracy Mr. Dyce Sombre was not the adopted son of the Begum Sumroo, but was

who have been good enough to correct my I am obliged to the two correspondents mistake as to the Begum of Bhopal, and apologize for having made it. The mistake is, after all, a trifling one, and I cannot agree that in confounding the Begum of Bhopal with the Begum of Sardhana I have been guilty of profanity, nor can I agree in the depreciatory estimate of the character of the latter indulged in by one correspondent.

Zeibool-nissa, Begum of Sardhana, whatever her origin, was a very remarkable woman, who commanded an army after the death of her husband, the Belgian soldier of fortune Reinhardt, and governed her extensive territory for many years with moderation and ability. Sir William Bentinck, the Governor-General of India, on resigning his post in 1835, addressed to the Begum the following letter, which attests the esteem in which she was held by the British Government:

MY ESTEEMED FRIEND, I cannot leave India without expressing the sincere esteem I entertain for your Highness's character. The benevolence of disposition and extensive charity which have endeared you to thousands have excited in my mind sentiments of the warmest admiration; and I trust you may yet be preserved for many years, the solace of the orphan and widow, and the sure resource of your numerous dependants. To-morrow morning I embark for England, and my prayers and best wishes attend you, and all others who, like you, exert themselves for the benefit of the people of India. I remain, with much consideration, Your sincere friend,

Calcutta, March 17, 1835,

M. W. BENTINCK.

The person to whom this letter was addressed must have been no ordinary woman. I may add that the Begum Sombre was a Catholic, and that on the second anniversary of her death a solemn requiem was performed at Rome, and Mr. (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman preached a sermon in which he extolled the deceased Begum for her charities and toleration. JOHN HEBB.

The history of Begum Sumroo and Dyce Sombre may be read at some length in 8th S. vii. 269, 309, 375, 479; x. 83. I may add references to the Illustrated London News, 6 Nov., 1847, p. 291; 12 July, 1851, p. 42; and 'Dict. Nat. Biog.,' xvi. 281. W. C. B.

GEORGE ELIOT AND BLANK VERSE (9th S. xii. 441).-Monotony in decasyllabic lines may be avoided, not only by "variety in

the incidence of the accent," but by variety
in the place of the cæsura. Thus:-
:-

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,
Or by the lazy Scheldt or wandering Po,
Or onward where the rude Carinthian boor
Against the houseless stranger | shuts the door,
Or where Campania's plain forsaken lies,
A weary waste | expanding to the skies.

The normal division of the syllables may be said to be five-five, and the permissible variations to be four-six, six-four, threeseven, and seven-three.

The skilful reader, by judicious pauses and suitable accelerations and retardations, makes the two divisions of each line occupy the same time; and the skilful versifier so arranges his words that the pauses, &c., may seem to arise out of the meaning to be expressed, and not to have been merely dictated by the exigencies of the metre. C. J. I.

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PRACTICE OF PIETY' (9th S. xii. 485).This was perhaps the most popular devotional book of the seventeenth century. It was translated into several languages, and was carried almost by everybody everywhere. It was written by Lewis Bayly; see 'D.N.B.,' iii. 449; 'N. & Q,' 6th S. xii. 321.

W. C. B. [MR. W. B. GERISH sends the same information.] JACOBIN JACOBITE (9th S. xii. 469, 508). There is a work, doubtfully attributed to Defoe, entitled Hannibal at the Gates; or, the Progress of Jacobinism,' and published in 1712. But Defoe does not, so far as I am aware, use this spelling. J. DORMER.

FLAYING ALIVE (9th S. xii. 429, 489).--If there is any truth in the following story, told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, flaying alive was not peculiarly Oriental :

"In his days [King Morvid's] did a certain king of the Moranians land with a great force on the shore of Northumberland......Morvid thereupon, collecting together all the youth of his dominions, marched forth against them, and did give him battle......and when he had won the victory not a soul was left on live that he did not slay. For he commanded them to be brought unto him one after the other that he might glut his blood-thirst by putting them to death, and when he ceased for a time out of sheer weariness, he ordered them to be skinned alive, and burned after they were skinned.” E. MARSTON.

St. Dunstan's House.

FABLE AS TO CHILD-MURDER BY JEWS (9th S. xii. 446, 497).—AS MR. HUTCHINSON gives no reference to John Aubrey (whom he calls John Audley), it may be worth while to record that the story to which he alludes is to be found in the 'Letters,' vol. ii. pp. 492-4. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND NEW HALL, ESSEX (9th S. xii. 208, 410, 477, 496).-MR. HOOPER says, "Elizabeth gave New Hall to the Earl of Sussex." I assume that this New Hall is not "Newhall Josselyne, co. Essex." D.

FOLK-LORE OF CHILDBIRTH (9th S. xii. 288, 413, 455, 496).-Swift alludes to the parsley in the following (Letters,' vol. ii. p. 241, London, 1768) Receipt for stewing Veal':

Take a knuckle of veal:

You may buy it or steal it.

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Then what's joined to a place, With other herbs muckle; That which killed King Will, And what never stands still. Some sprigs of that bed Where children are bred, &c. IBAGUÉ. DR. PARKINS (9th S. xii. 349).-The 'D.N.B.' knows him not, but it has coigns for less remarkable men. The only way in which I can help your correspondent is by quoting a communication of Mr. J. Beale (at one time a contributor to these columns) to the Grantham Journal of 24 August, 1878:

"The following titular paradigm of a pamphlet now before me may form a suitable note for remarks:-Ecce Homo! Critical remarks on the infamous publications of John Parkins, of Little Gonerby, near Grantham; better known as Doctor Parkins; who impiously and blasphemously styles ticularly in his Cabinet of Wealth, Celestial Warhimself The Grand Ambassador of Heaven! parrior, and Book of Miracles; in which he pretends to Command the Angels of Heaven, to Avert the Evils of Human Life, to Work Miracles, to Cast out Devils, to Destroy Witches, to Foretell Future Events, &c, &c., being an attempt to expose the falsehood of his pretensions, and to prove that the only design of his writings is to beguile the weak and ignorant, and to promote the sale of (what he calls) his Holy Consecrated Lamens, founded on the absurd principles of Astrology. Interspersed with anecdotes. [Then a Greek quotation from Acts xiii. 10; next a quotation from Shakspear; and then a quotation from Dr. Adam Clarke.] Grantham: printed for, and published by the author, and may be had of all booksellers. Storr, printer, Grantham.' I understand that the book was printed at the premises now occupied by Mr. Bushby in Vine Street; and that the name of the author was Weaver, in some way connected with the printing office. The selling price was 1s. 6d. Its title

Address To the Great Ambassador of Heaven!' dated-near Grantham, 4th August, 1819,' and preface take up pages i-vii, contents ix, x, and 'Ecce Homo' with addendum' pages 1-72. The 'Doctor' is stated to have been the author of The Cabinet of Wealth,' Key to the Wise Man's Crown,

Young Man's Best Companion,' 'Complete Herbal several other valuable and useful publications, and Family Physician,''Book of Miracles,' and besides The Celestial Warrior' (p. 45).

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His

character, however, is thus summarized by Weaver in his conclusion' (p. 69)-'The first step Perkins made towards his present height of blasphemy and imposture, was to dignify himself with the title of Doctor, and to commence watercaster, astrologer, and fortune-teller, but he was then consulted only by silly servant girls who wanted sweethearts and brainsick lovers pining after maids. A temporary suspension being given to his practice in 1810 at the Grantham Sessions, he invented the system of Lamenism, or spiritual astrology, in the hope of evading further interruption from the law; and by one bold stroke after another, arrived at his present pitch of worthless popularity.' Mr. Healey, hairdresser, &c., Market-place, kindly lent me the pamphlet for perusal, &c., and it is now in his possession should any one wish to see it.-J. BEALE." ST. SWITHIN.

'MY OLD OAK TABLE' (9th S. xii. 448, 514).— The Oak Table,' or 'My Oak Table,' was sung erroneously to the tune of "My lodging is on the cold ground." The true tune is Charles Dibdin's, belonging to the year 1799, sung in his entertainment named Tom Wilkins,' at Leicester Place, one of the "Sans Souci." The song for which it was composed was 'The Last Shilling,' the words beginning thus:As pensive one night in my garret I sat,

66

My last shilling produced on the table, "That advent'rer," cried I, "might a history relate, If to think and to speak it were able." Whether fancy or magic 'twas play'd me the freak, The face seem'd with life to be filling, And cried, instantly speaking, or seeming to speak, Pay attention to me, thy Last Shilling." Three stanzas follow, worth giving, should the Editor of 'N. & Q.' permit, varying the theme, but adopting the manner of Charles Dibdin's Last Shilling,' and keeping to the same tune (see the music of it in vol. ii. pp. 238-40 of G. H. Davidson's 'Songs of Charles Dibdin, with music arranged by George Hogarth,' London, 1848 edition). Genial Tom Hudson, author of 'Jack Robinson' and many other popular ditties, wrote and sung The Oak Table' in 1822. He printed it in the Fourth Collection of his Songs,' p. 23. Here are the words :

THE OLD OAK TABLE.

:

(Tune of Charles Dibdin's 'The Last Shilling.')
I had knock'd out the dust from my pipe t'other
night,

Old Time towards midnight was creeping;
The last smoke from its ashes had taken to flight,
I felt neither waking nor sleeping;

When a voice loud and hollow, and seemingly

near,

You'll say 'twas a dream or a fable, Directed towards me, said, audibly clear, "List, list, list to me, thy oak table!"

"I was once of the forest the monarch so bold,
Nor tempest nor storm made me tremble;
And oft, very oft, the famed Druids of old
Would under my branches assemble:

Their mysterious rites they'd perform before me,-
Those rites to unfold I am able;
But be that now forgot, --I was then an oak tree,
And now I am but an oak table.

When the axe brought me down, and soon lopped
was each bough,

And to form a ship I was converted,
Manned by true hearts of oak the wide ocean to
plough,

And by Victory never deserted. (Bis.)
But worn out by Time, and reduced to a wreck,
A carpenter bought me, and with part of my deck
Bereft of my anchor and cable,
Made me what you see now-an oak table.
Now thrust in a corner, put out of the way,-
But I fear I your patience am tiring,-

I expect nothing less than, some forthcoming day,
To be chopped up, and used for your firing."
"No, never!" cried I, as I started awake,
And each friend that my humble cheer will partake
"I'll protect thee, so long as I'm able :
Shall be welcome around My Oak Table !

Written by Tom Hudson, 1821.
They sang good songs in those days eighty
years ago.
J. WOODFALL EBS WORTH.
The Priory, Ashford, Kent.

DR. DEE'S MAGIC MIRROR (9th S. xii. 467).— The following quotation from the 'D.N.B.' article on the astrologer may perhaps be useful in illustration of MR. PAGE's interesting note:

"The magic mirror, a disc of highly polished cannel coal, was preserved in a leathern case, and was successively in the hands of the Mordaunts, John, Duke of Argyll, Lord Frederick Campbell, Earls of Peterborough, Lady Elizabeth Germaine, and Mr. Strong of Bristol, who purchased it at the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842, though another account states that it was then acquired by Mr. Smythe Pigott, at the sale of whose library in 1853 it passed of British Archæological Assoc., v. 52; N. & Q.,' into the possession of Lord Londesborough (Journal 3rd S. iv. 155). Dee's shew stone, or holy stone, which he asserted was given to him by an angel, is in the British Museum. It is a beautiful globe of polished crystal, of the variety known as smoky quartz (Archeological Journal, xiii. 372; N. & Q., 7th S. iv. 306)."

I may add that one day at the end of October last I was shown by a lady (born Napier), who lives at the extreme southwestern corner of Cambridgeshire, a crystal globe (pierced through the middle) which once belonged to Dr. Dee. It had been, I and was purchased at the Strawberry Hill understand, one of four similar holy stones,

sale.

66

A. R. BAYLEY.

On 22 November, 1592, Mr. Secretary Walsingham and Sir Thomas Gorges were appointed by Queen Elizabeth commissioners to hear the grievances of Dr. Dee, the German conjurer, and repaired to his house at Mortlake, Surrey, for that purpose, to understand the matter, and the cause for

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