480 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



|;2nd s. No 102., Dec. 12. '57. 



Le Festin de Pierre of Moliere : the hero of each 

 piece being a lihcrlin effrem ; and perhaps I may 

 more delicately explain the characters of both by 

 quoting the monologue of the valet of Moliere's 

 hero {Sganarelle), upon the denouement; or I 

 might say, la catastrophe, did not Moliere call it a 

 comedy : — 



" Voilil par sa mort, ua cliacun satjsfait. Ciel offens^ 

 lois violees, filles s^duites, families deshonor&s, parens 

 outrages, femmes mises h mal, maris pousses h bout, — 

 tout le moude est content." 



Sigma. 



CcRiosus will find the following line in Rowe's 

 tragedy of The Fair Penitent, Act V. Sc. 1. : — 

 " Is this that haughty gallant, gay Lothario? " 



J. K. R. W. 



Argot (2"'^ S. iv. 128.)— M. Francisque-Michel, 

 in his E'tudes de Philologie Comparee sur T Argot 

 (Paris, 1856), at p. iv. et seq. of the Introduction, 

 gives several different etymologies of the word 

 argot, as suggested by various authors. At the 

 same time this very able philologist states that he 

 has no idea of undertaking " une entreprise aussi 

 perillcuse que la recherclje de I'etymologie du 

 mot argot." Without wishing to derogate from 

 an authority so unexceptionable, and in accord- 

 ance with the suggestion of Me. Knowles, I 

 turned to Macleod and Dewar's Gaelic Dic- 

 tionaj-y. There I find " Argnach, a robber," &c. 

 "Argthoir, a plunderer;" and "Arguin, I lay 

 waste ; argue, dispute, contest." I think it will 

 be generally admitted that this double resem- 

 blance of sound and sense is not altogether for- 

 tuitous ; and that therefore the origin of the word 

 is to be found in the Celtic, rather than in either 

 the classical Greek or the obscure and degraded 

 2incali. Kobebt Townsend. 



Albany, N. Y. 



" Travels in Andamothia " (2"'^ S, iv. 330.) : — 



" Aiojrep Kat avToi vno iceoSo|ias aTToAiTreii' Tt (TTTOvSacrag rots 

 IJLtO' 17/ias, ti'a firi (itoi'O? afiotpos c5 rijs ec t(3 fjLvBoXoyelv i\ev9e- 

 ptas, €7r«l ix-qSev dA>)9es l<rTopelv elxov (ovSey yap eTretrovSeiv df to- 

 Koyov) CTTt TO ip€vSo^ cTpaTTOjuiTji', ttoXAJj tojv akKoii/ Gvyi^iafxoveo'Te- 

 pov' Kai'lei' ydp StjItoCto a.KeOevi>>v Xeyw, OTi,',il/evSoiJ.ai, ovtco S'av p,oi 

 SoKto Kol TTiv napa. twv aWiav KarrfyopCav eKcfmyctj', auToy 6p.o- 

 Xoya)!/ jurjSef dArjfles Keyeiv. ypd.<j>u> Toiwu Trepl S)V u.rJT' elSov, 

 l>.r)r' eiraOov, p-'iJTe nap' a\Ko>v iirv66fi.r)v' Irt Si jnr)Te oAws ofToov, 

 finSe TTiv apxijv y€ve(T0ai, 6vvan.ivti>v." — VeTCB ffistoricB,]i\}, 1. 4.» 



ea. Bipont, iv. 221. 



As Lucian is the writer, I trust that the praise 

 will not be thought " exorbitant." H, B. C. 



U, U. Cli^b. 



Stone Shot (2°'» S. iv. 37.) — There are four 

 stone shot of English manufacture at St. Michael's 

 Mount, Normandy. The English besieged the 

 Mount in 1424, and fired these shot into the 

 place ; but the French made a sally, drove off 

 their besiegers, and captured the great guns that 

 had thrown them in. Two wrought-iron guns, 

 made of bars and rings welded together, may be 



seen, one on each side of the inner gateway. They 

 are now very rusty. The bore of the largest is 

 eighteen inches. In the sketch I made of the 

 gateway, the guns, and tlie shot (June 10, 1852), 

 I see I have coloured the latter gray ; and, to 

 the best of my recollection, they are made of 

 granite. P. H. 



Sidmouth. 



John Eliofs Indian Bible (2°" S. iv. 224.) — 

 W. W. speaks of Eliot's Bible. Eliot was minis- 

 ter of Koxbury, near Boston, Massachusetts. 

 When I was touring over there some years ago, 

 I picked up a few memoranda about his pious 

 labours. In the early times of the colony, when 

 the Indians formed a considerable portion of the 

 population, Eliot studied their language, for the 

 purpose of placing the truths of Revelation before 

 them. He complained of the difficulties he had to 

 contend with, and of the extraordinary length of 

 some of the Indian words. He adduced the fol- 

 lowing as specimens : — Nummatchekodtantamo- 

 onganunnonash (thirty-two letters), signifies "our 

 lusts;" Noowomantammoonkanunonnaso (twenty- 

 six letters), means "our loves;" andKuramoglco- 

 donattoottummooetiteaongannunnonash (forty- 

 three letters), " our question." These things are 

 spoken of in the Magnolia, b. iii. p. 193., an Ame- 

 rican publication. Before returning to England, 

 I procured a copy of the Book of Common Prayer 

 in the language of the " Six Nations " of Indians. 

 It had been so rendered for their instruction and 

 use. It contains some long words. In one of the 

 opening sentences from Dan. ix. 9. 10., we have 

 Tsinihoianerenseratokentitseroten (thirty-three 

 letters), but I know not what it means. If I 

 owed your compositor a spite, I would quote a 

 few more. P. Hdtchinson. 



West Country Cob (2"'^ S. iv. G5.)— The deri- 

 vations of the word " cob " hitherto offered, rather 

 excite a smile of mistrust than a feeling of satis- 

 fiiction. Where Mr. Boys goes to Spain for a 

 derivation, he travels lamentably wide of the 

 mark. The process he describes has been intro- 

 duced sparingly into the West of England. 

 When I was a boy, I recollect witnessing the erec- 

 tion of two or three houses in my own neighbour- 

 hood in this way ; but it was looked upon as a 

 novelty. It was done by ramming earth in be- 

 tween two planks, or series of planks, with ram- 

 mers. This was not cob ; it was called pise. In 

 this case the earth was dry ; that is, having only 

 the ordinary dampness of the ground, and without 

 straw. Cob Is mud mixed with straw, and some- 

 times a little lime to make it harden. Pise and 

 cob must not be confounded. They are different 

 things. In raising a wall of cob, a large three- 

 proi^ fork is commonly used; a course about 

 three' feet high is raised, and allowed to dry. 

 Then another, and another, until the wall is of 



