Oct. 6. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



275 



''Old Nick" (Vol. xu., p. 228.). — Mr. Mat- 

 thews thinks me, as Joseph Scaliger called Mon- 

 taigne, " un hardi ignorant." In return, I may 

 regard hirn (to use tlie words of good Thomas 

 Fuller) as "like those antiquaries who are so 

 snarling, one had as good dissent a mile as an 

 hair's breadth from them." I presume a Query 

 may be hazarded in a publication which opens a 

 wide mouth for the reception of doubts of all 

 kinds, when at least tliere is some show of reason 

 for them. Is it not reasonable, prima facie, to 

 refer an existing name to an existing idea of the 

 being named ? — a ludicrous name to a ludicrous 

 idea? May not another derivation be fairly 

 called by comparison far-fetched, which is bor- 

 rowed from a dead mythology, a foreign nation, 

 and an almost forgotten hero ? Such a derivation 

 may nevertheless be the true one, but does not 

 the onus probandi lie on those who propose it? I 

 am far from wishing to disparage the dignity and 

 antiquity of any title of his Satanic majesty, for I 

 am of the mind of Sir Topas, and (mark, Mr. 

 Matthews) " would use the devil himself with 

 courtesy." 



As to the last-mentioned name, although I am 

 kindly "reminded" that it is a modification of 

 Dot, fastus, superbia, I must prefer the authority 

 of Junius and Skinner, who both derive the word 

 from the Greek Atct/8oAos. F. 



''Place not to be mentioned to ears polite" 

 (Vol. xii., p. 183.). — Some nuns at Paris, in 

 reading the little chapter, " Fratres, sobrii estote 

 et vigilate, quia adversarius vester," omitted the 

 next word " Diabolus," as unfit to be pronounced, 

 and substituted a sacred name, says Prudhomme, 

 Miroir de Paris, iii. p. 24. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Closing 0/ Rooms on account 0/ Death (Vol. iii., 

 p. 142.). — I have a note that, at Ham House, 

 near Richmond, the residence of members of the 

 Djsart family, there is a room which is kept 

 closed on this account, and has been so for years. 

 There is, I believe, some story current with re- 

 ference to and accounting for the circumstance ; 

 perhaps some of your correspondents may be able 

 to furnish a correct version of it. 



R. W. Hackwood. 



Mail in "Black-Mail" (Vol. xii., p. 224.). — 

 Your correspondent B. H. C. hazards a conjecture 

 respecting the origin of the word mail, in the 

 compound black-mail, and pronounces it " a cor- 

 ruption of made or muscle, which was used to 

 denote the meshes of a net; probably from 

 macula r 



I may observe, that the technical term " black- 

 mail " is of very ancient date, as indeed any one 

 would conjecture who considered the usages to 

 which it refers ; but Skinner does not appear able 



No. 310.] 



to trace it beyond the old Scottish border feuds ; 

 it is not found in'Minsheu, Junius, or Johnson. 

 Blak-mal is an old German term, signifying tri- 

 butum de non agendo rapinas, and I imagine that 

 the termination 7nal has nothing whatever to do 

 with pieces of " money " or " small metal plates," 

 or any thing connected with " armorer," or 

 " macles or mascles," or even with " macute." It 

 is no other, in my opinidn, than the old German 

 " mal, solennitas," as Schiller renders it. 



The following are some examples of its use: 

 maheldag, dies desponsationis ; gemal, conjux ; 

 gemahela, sponsa ; mahal, curia ; mal, census, i. e. 

 signum jurisdictionis ; to which may be added 

 blak-mal, meaning literally the black due. 



There are other words of the same form in the 

 old German, more or less distinct from the above, 

 viz. mal, signum, nota ; mal, conventus judicialis ; 

 mal, a die for money ; mal, meila, macula ; mal, 

 mahala, a wallet or bag. 



Likewise in the Anglo-Saxon we have mal, 

 mod, a portion, part, whence our word meal ; 

 m,al, maal, mcel, a spot ; mal, a speech, discourse, 

 assembly, place of assembling ; whence perhaps 

 Mall in Pall Mall ; also mal, formal, tribute, toll, 

 due. H. C. K. 



Trees, their Age (Vol. xii., p. 213.). — I have 

 the following Note. I am not aware whether the 

 substance of it has already appeared in " N. & 

 Q." with reference to this subject : 



" The oldest tree on record is the cypress of Somma in 

 Lombardy, supposed to have been planted in the j'ear of 

 the birth of Christ, and on that account looked on with 

 reverence by the inhabitants ; but an ancient chronicle at 

 Milan is said to prove that it was a tree in the time of 

 Julius Caesar, B.C. 42 ; it is 123 feet high, and 20 feet in 

 circumference at one foot from the ground." 



In the Penny Magazine there is a cut and de- 

 scription of the celebrated chesnut tree which 

 stood, or still stands perhaps, on Etna, and which 

 is 196 feet round near the ground. 



Sir R. Philipps, in 1832, mentions that "A 

 sitting room, 12 feet in diameter, was lately shown 

 in London, hollowed from an American walnut 

 tree, 80 feet in the trunk, and 150 feet in the 

 branches." R. W. Hackwood. 



The largest, and perhaps, therefore, the oldest 

 tree in the world of which I am conversant, is an 

 eucalyptus, or gum tree, standing near the foot of 

 Mount Wellington, near Hobart Town, in Tas- 

 mania. Its diameter is full 30 feet, but its height 

 cannot be distinctly ascertained, as its entire head 

 and branches are above the rest of the forest, and 

 the government will not allow the surrounding 

 trees to be felled, for fear of any injurious conse- 

 quences to the vegetable monster. I think, how- 

 ever, that I am well within the mark when I 

 allow 250 feet for its height. 



A Circumnavigatob. 



