Dec. 30. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



533 



on October the 12th, 1428. The sieo;e lasted 

 about seven months, being raised on April the 

 29th, 1429. See Haydn's Dictionary of Dates ; 

 see also The Chronicles of Enguerraud De Mon- 

 strelet, wlio also says that Lord Salisbury came 

 before Orleans in the month of October, 1428, and 

 that the siege lasted about seven months. A. B. 



''Rather" ''Other" (Vol. x., pp. 252. 455.).— 

 The adverb rather is undoubtedly a comparative 

 of the Saxon rceth (quick or soon) ; but your cor- 

 respondent Erica is mistaken in supposing that 

 the comparative is of modern formation, the in- 

 flexion being Anglo-Saxon no less than the word 

 itself (rathor comp. of rceth). The word rather, 

 like pill tosto in Italian, plutot in French, originally 

 signified prior in time, as the word sooner some- 

 times expresses preference. All uses of rather 

 not comprising in some way the idea of preference 

 — the meanings " quick " and " early " being now 

 quite obsolete — I should take to be modern per- 

 versions. Johnson and Webster are both silent 

 upon such uses, probably considering them as 

 vulgarisms. Your correspondent Erica's idea, 

 that " I am rather tired " is an ellipse for " 1 am 

 rather tired than not," or " than otherwise," may 

 suggest how some of these perversions have 

 arisen. 



I am not so sure that other is, or ever was, a 

 comparative ; nor does the occasional use of than 

 after it convince me. The French say " un autre 

 que lui" (another than he), although there is 

 nothing in autre that would sound like a compara- 

 tive to the French ear. Autre is undoubtedly 

 derived from alter, Lat., which again is said to be 

 from oAAos and erepos. In all this there is nothing 

 like comparison. Webster suggests, with a query, 

 ^n'' (" residue," pronounced, as the rabbis point 

 it, ether), which is certainly not a comparative. 

 He also gives cetuthar, Goth., about which I am 

 unable to say anything, though I think it will be 

 seen from the derivatives and supposed derivatives 

 mentioned above that the final r in other is a 

 radical. W. M. T. 



The Sultan of the Crimea (Vol. x., p. 453.). — 

 Your correspondent M. D. will find that the last 

 Khan of the Crimea was Shahin Girai, who with- 

 drew to Constantinople in 1784, soon after his 

 territory was ceded by the Turks to the Empress 

 of Russia by Potemkin's treaty in 1783. He is 

 said to have been strangled by order of the Grand 

 Signer a year or two afterwards. (Lanjjles, Voy. 

 de G. Forster, iii. 479.) Bahadur Girai, one 

 of his brothers, his kalgha or viceroy, attempted 

 to dispossess him, and being unsuccessful, probably 

 saved himself by flight. As kalgha is pronounced 

 much as kaVd, he may therefore have been the 

 " Sultan Kele Ghery," well remembered by M. D. 

 The interval of forty years, however, between 

 1784 and 1824, is long, and throws some sus- 



picion on the sultan's account of himself (" N. 

 & Q.," Vol. x., p. 326.). If he went out as a 

 missionary to Tartary (Astrakhan?), the Edin- 

 burgh Missionary Society probably have some 

 record of him. Anat. 



" De bene esse " (Vol. x., p. 403.). — This phrase 

 is used by lawyers to express that a thing or act 

 is taken or accepted as well being or well done, 

 until upon examination its merits or admissibility 

 shall be determined. Thus a witness is sometimes 

 permitted to be examined de bene esse, the ques- 

 tion whether his evidence is or is not legally ad- 

 missible being deferred for subsequent adjudica- 

 tion. H.E.N. 



Lincoln's Inn. 



" Niagara," or " Niagara" (Vol. ix., p. 573., 

 &c.). — Mr. W. Eraser, in opening the discus- 

 sion of this qucestio vexata, asserted (in Vol. vi., 

 p. 555.) that " the Huron pronunciation, and un- 

 questionably the more musical, was Niagdra ;" 

 and asked, " Have the Yankees thrown back the 

 accent to the antepenult ? " As his Query has 

 received no reply, permit me to assure him that 

 the Yankees are in no wise responsible for a 

 change of accent. What " the Huron pronunci- 

 ation" might have been, is uncertain, as the word 

 had no place in the Huron vocabulary. It is a 

 contracted form of the Iroquois name Oniagarah ; 

 or, as it was sometimes written in old authors, 

 Oghniaga and Oneagorah. Ak, in the Iroquois, 

 denotes "an upright rock;" ara, a "path at a 

 gorge." The former word, and perhaps the latter, 

 helped to make up the original botryoidal name ; 

 though the syllable ar (as Schoolcraft suggests), 

 may denote " rocks," like the tar in " Ontario," 

 and dar in " Cadaracqui " (Schoolcraft's Hist, of 

 the Indian Tribes, Sfc., Philadelphia, 1854, Part iv., 

 pp. 381. 384.) The collation of various forms of 

 the name which occur in old manuscripts, Indian 

 deeds, &c., aflfords conclusive evidence that the 

 principal accent did not fall on the vowel of the 

 penult. T. Dongan (English Governor of New 

 York), in a letter to M. de Denonville, Governor 

 of Canada in 1686, writes Ohniagero (Doc. Hist 

 of New York, vol. H. p. 206.). In his Report to 

 the Committee of Trade, 1687, he twice mentions 

 Oneigra {Ibid., p. 155.). The same year, he uses 

 the form Onyegra. The recorded examination of 

 an Indian prisoner, "Aug. 1687, gives Oneageragh 

 {Ibid., pp. 251. 258.) The deed of the Sachems 

 of the Five Nations to George I., Sept. 13, 1726, 

 mentions "the falls oWniagara, or Canaguaraghe" 

 {Id., vol. i. p. 774.). In 1751, I find Niagra and 

 Nigra, in the letters of Lieut. Lindesay to Col. 

 (Sir) Wm. Johnson {Id., vol. ii. pp. 623, 624.). 

 And, finally, in a letter from Rob. Livingston, 

 Jun., to Gov. De Lancey, written in 1755, On- 

 jagera {Id., vol. i. p. 811.) 



