2°J S.VIII. Aug. 13. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



133 



mouthed calumniator, in his Presbyterian Eloquence Dis- 

 played, has published to tlie world, 'That he murdered 

 the bodies as well as souls of two or three persons with 

 one sermon, because,' says he, preaching in the town of 

 Jedburgh, he said, ' There are tioo thousand of you here, 

 hut I am sure eighty of you will not he saved,' upon which 

 three of his ignorant hearers despatched themselves soon 

 Bfiter." 



I think therefore, in reply to the Query of J. 

 G. Morten, that the legend may be considered as 

 of very old date, and in its origin refers to some 

 event the history of which is now lost — that it 

 was widely popularly known in the country, and, 

 as in the foregoing instances, adapted by the par- 

 ties using it from their juvenile reminiscences, as 

 applicable to the circumstances in which they 

 happened to be placed. G. N. 



LE CONTRAT MOHATRA. 



(2"* S. viii. 69.) 



The contrat mohatra, which consisted, as shown 

 by your correspondent, in selling goods dear on 

 credit, and buying them back cheap for ready 

 money, was an evasion of the laws against usury. 

 " Permutationem fingebant, ut hoc nomine usurse 

 darentur." 



Covarrubias tells us in his Tesoro, 1611, that 

 " El Brocense " thinks mohatra is properly moJia- 

 fra, from mofa, a jest or mockery. This is not 

 very satisfoctory ; but the difficulty which the 

 learned find in determining the true origin of 

 mohatra seems owing to their not having duly 

 perpended an etjmology suggested, though per- 

 haps without sufficient explanation, by Covarru- 

 bias himself. Covarrubias simply proposes to 

 derive mohatra from the Heb. "inn, hathar, to dig, 

 adding that the m of mohatra is formative. This 

 does not seem to promise much. But when we 

 consider that the Heb. verb means not only to 

 dig in the ordinary sense of the word, but to dig 

 or break through as a rohher, and that in this 

 meaning it corresponds to the Swpva-a-w of the N. 

 T. (Matth. vi. 19., "where thieves break through 

 and steal "), we may perhaps feel less difficulty in 

 viewing hathar as a very likely origin of a word 

 which designates an usurious transaction, that in 

 fact is little better than a rohhei'y. It is also to 

 be observed that the " formative m " appears, not 

 only in mohatra, but in the rabbinical mahtarta, 

 which is indubitably derived from hathar. 



On the word barala and its congeners, barato, 

 baratum, baratto, barrator, barrateria, barratar (to 

 barter), baratillo, baratador, &c., one might write 

 a volume. But your correspondent's inquiry re- 

 lates to barata as a synonym of mohatra. (" Mo- 

 hatra .... Idem barata interdum dicitur." Du 

 Cange.) 



Some would derive the Spanish and Portuguese 

 adj. barato, which signifies cheap, from the Latin 



paratus ; but this does not accord with the old 

 forms which we find in Romance, &c., such as 

 baran, baraz. The oldest instances of the word 

 barata itself, as a substantive, which I find with a 

 fixed date, a.d. 1270, 1226, are in the sense of a 

 debt (Raynouard). This, out of many, appears to 

 be the meaning of barata which best accords with 

 mohatra; as the same party who sold back the 

 goods for a small price dow?i became, by the very 

 nature of the transaction, a debtor for the larger 

 price at which he bought. 



Is not stoco, as synonymous with barata and 

 mohatra, a comparatively modern term ? Perhaps 

 your correspondent will have the kindness to state 

 where it may be found. I have never met with 

 or heard it except among workmen, as a verna- 

 cular pronunciation of stucco. Stoco, probably 

 any worthless lot of goods; "rubbish" used in 

 those sham transactions of fictitious trade, which 

 we are now considering. Cf. in Ger. stocken, to 

 grow fusty, and in Ital. stucco, surfeited, crop- 

 sick. 



The exact nature of the contrat mohatra may be 

 thus explained. The Duque de Blasas sends for 

 Seiior Ysaaco, and requests an immediate loan of 

 1000 crowns, for which he will be happy to pay 

 2000 a year after. 



"That cannot be," exclaims Ysaaco ; " for, should 

 the Holy Office once smell out such a transaction, 

 I might be summoned away some night, to answer 

 as a suspected heretic. Therefore all the Saints 

 forbid it ! " 



" Nevertheless," says the Duke, " I must have 

 the money." 



" Yery good," answers the cunning Ysaaco. 

 " Then let us see whether we cannot make it a 

 matter of business, and settle the affair that way. 

 I have at home a lot of stoco. Buy it of me." 



" I don't see how that settles the affaic any way," 

 says the Duke. 



" Nothing more simple," replies Ysaaco. " Your 

 Excellency purchases the goods on credit, for 

 2000 crowns, giving your bond to pay me a twelve- 

 month hence. I buy them back now, on the spot, 

 for 1000 crowns cash. — All in the regular way of 

 trade." 



The Duke executes the bond ; Seiior Ysaaco 

 disburses the 1000 crowns ; and the contrat mo- 

 hatra is completed. 



Perhaps, also, we may venture to conjecture 

 lohy the particular word mohatra comes to be 

 used in this connexion. There is another and 

 somewhat similar word, rnoharka, which really sig- 

 nifies a contract (Buxtorf, Lex. Chal. Tal. Rabb.') 

 Contrat mohatra, then, is a play upon a word, such 

 as is by no means unknown in Jewish literature. 

 A virtuous and learned Rabbi, hearing of such a 

 transaction as we have just described, indignantly 

 exclaims, "This is no rnoharka, but a mohatra" 

 (no bargain, but a burglary). Hence the expres- 



