310 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[i""* S. X. Oct. 20. '60. 



have the same import as the one which Strachey, 

 at p. 68 of his Bija, has transcribed from Burrow, 

 whose copy is thus, to a certain extent, again au- 

 thenticated ; and on comparing pp. 72 to 79 of 

 Strachey's Bija (see the footnotes at those pages) 

 with pp. 235 to 252 of Colebrooke's Algebra we 

 see the general conformity of Burrow's with other 

 versions. The " mutilated" rule of Burrow (Stra- 

 chey, p. 79) may be the introductory portion of 

 one of Colebrooke's (p. 251). Burrow's first frag- 

 ment of literal translation (Strachey, p. 74) seems 

 more clear in its meaning than the corresponding 

 portion of Colebrooke's text (Alg., p. 239). 



There is an Index (Calcutta, 1835) to the first 

 18 volumes of the "Asiatic Researches," at the 

 commencement of which the correspondences of 

 every 50th page of the 4to edition with the Svo 

 are given : i. e. for the volumes which are sup- 

 posed to riequire them, viz. vols, iv, vii, viii, and xii. 

 Vol. iii of the London Svo Edition of 1799 re- 

 quires them much more ; but it does not purport 

 (see preliminary advt.) to be a complete repre- 

 sentative of the Calcutta 4to of 1792 ; and, though 

 (at pp. 404-5) it omits a letter of Burrow which 

 appears at p. 1 40 of the 4to, it contains (pp. 436 — 

 449) Sir W. Jones's " Preface to the Institutes of 

 Hindu Law" which is not contained in the 4to. 

 The name of Hunter does not occur in the above 

 named Index, which may be, to some extent, im- 

 perfect. I cannot find in vol. iii, Svo, Sir W. 

 Jones's "note" at p. 208 of the 4to. It is strange 

 that the words " Printed verbatim from the Cal- 

 cutta Edition, in Quarto " should appear on the 

 title-page of vol. iii, Svo. 



James Cockle, M.A., &c. 

 4. Pump Court, Temple, London. 



BUFF. 



(2"'J S. ix. 5. ; X. 218.) 



In the Comedy of Errors, Act IV. Sc. 2 , the 

 following passage occurs : — 



" Adr. Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well? 



" Dro. S. No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell : 

 A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, 

 One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel, 

 A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough ; 

 A wolf, nay worse, a fellow all in buff." 



Where Monck Mason has this note : — 



" The Serjeants, in those days, were clad in buff, as 

 Dromio tells us the man was who arrested Antipholus. 

 Buff is also a cant expression for a man's skin, which 

 lasts him as his life. Dromio, therefore, calls buff an 

 everlasting garment ; and in pursuance of the quibble on 

 the word buff he calls the Serjeant, in the next scene, the 

 ' picture of old Adam,' that is, of Adam before the fall, 

 whilst he remained unclad." 



Buff appears to be here used in its proper sense 

 of a leather jacket. In the following scene, the 

 "calf's skin," or leather jacket of the jail officer is 



likewise alluded to, and it is compared with the 

 bare skin of Adam in paradise. In Sc. 2., " a suit 

 of buflf " occurs in its ordinary acceptation. In 

 the First Part of Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 2., Prince 

 Henry says : — 



" Is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? " 



To which FalstafT answers : — 



" How now, how now, mad wag ? What, in thj' quips 

 and thv quiddities? What a plague have 1 to do with a 

 buff jerkin?" 



Here Dr. Johnson, confirmed by Steevens, ex- 

 plains the reference to be to sheriff''s officers clad 

 in buff. 



Buff has long been used as a cant expression to 

 denote the bare skin of the upper part of the 

 body, of that part which would be covered by a 

 buff jerkin. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Ar- 

 chaic and Provincial Words, states that &w^ signi- 

 fies the bare skin in various dialects. In the 

 Glossary of the Craven Dialect, buff is explained 

 to mean "the skin," with the example: "They 

 stripped into buff and began a worslin." To 

 worsle is to Avrestle. Jamieson, in his Scottish 

 Dictionary, explains huff to mean skin, with the 

 example, "stripped to the buff," for stripped 

 naked. 



Jamieson has huffil, adj. " ane bufBl coit," " buf- 

 fil belts," with the remark, " This shews that the 

 leather we now call buff was originally called 

 buffil, or buffalo." 



Johnson cites an instance of the word buffalo 

 from Dryden. An earlier example occurs in 

 Hudihras, Part III. Cant. i. v. 93. : — 



" So Spanish heroes with their lances 

 At once wound bulls, and ladies' fancies : 

 And he acquires the noblest spouse 

 That widows greatest herds of cows. 

 Then what may I expect to do 

 Who've quelled so vast a buflfalo ? " 



The word iz<^ formerly signified a blow, whence 

 came buffet and buffer; the latter denoting a 

 breakwater, or contrivance for receiving a blow. 

 It was derived from the old French buffe, which 

 seems to be connected with the French bouffcr 

 and bonffir, and the English puff. See Diez, 

 Horn. Worterb., p. 75. 



From "buff" in the sense of blow, has been 

 formed " rebuff," which Johnson explains to mean 

 " repercussion, quick and sudden resistance," cit- 

 ing the following passage of Milton : — 



" To this hour 



Down had been falling, had not by ill chance 

 The strong reJ?/^of some tumultuous cloud, 

 Instinct with fiie and nitre, hurried him 

 As many miles aloft." — Par. Lost, ii. 934. 



The word rebuff is now generally used, in a 

 metaphorical sense, to signify the harsh and dis- 

 courteous refusal of an application for a favour. 



h. 



