326 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 179. 



Bobinson; and when JacJ-in-the-green ushered 

 in May-day? While a halo of charmed recol- 

 lections encircles the memory of JacA-pudding, 

 dear to the Englishman as Jack Pottage and Jack 

 Sausage (Jean Potage and Hans Wurst) are to 

 Frenchman and German. 



Our childhood past, Jack still haunts us at 

 every turn and phase of our existence. The 

 smoke-^acA and bottle-^'acA, those revolutionary 

 instruments that threw the turnspit out of em- 

 ployment (and have well-nigh banished him from 

 the face of the earth), cook the Jack hare, which 

 we bring in in the pocket of our shooting-jacket. 

 We wearjacA-boots, and draw them off with boot- 

 jack*; prop up our houses withjacA-screws ; wipe 

 our hands onjacA-towels ; drink out of black -jacAs, 

 and wear them on our backs too, at least our an- 

 cestors did ; while flap-yacA«* gave a relish to their 

 Lenten diet, yacA-of-the-clock f told them the 

 hour ; Jack priests held rule over them ; and 

 gentle exercise at the jack, at bowls, helped them 

 to digest their dinners. We ride uponjacA-asses ; 

 jacks flourish in our fish-ponds ; yacA-a-lanterns 

 andjacA-snipes flit over our bogs, the one scarcely 

 less difficult to capture than the other ; jacA-daws 

 multiply in our steeples, and jacA-herons still 

 linger about our baronial halls. 



The four jacA knaves, _yacA-a-lents,_/acA-a-dandies, 

 jacA-a-nasties, and jacAs-in-office (jacA-an-apeses 

 every man ^acA of them), with that name fraught 

 with mysterious terror. Jack Ketch, are the scape- 

 graces of this numerous family ; and, at every 

 Jack who would be the gentleman, at a saucy 

 Jack who attempts to play the jack with us, our 

 indignation rises, like that of Juliet's nurse. But, 

 on the whole. Jack is an honest fellow, who does 

 his work in this life, though he has been reproached 

 with Tom's helping him to do nothing ; but let 

 the house that Jack built vindicate him from this 

 calumny. Jack, we repeat, is an honest fellow, 

 and is so more especially, when as JacA-tar 

 (Heaven protect him from Jack-shaxks both on 

 sea and shore !) he has old Ocean beneath, and the 

 union-jacA above him. Of black and yellow jacA, 

 who are foreigners, we make no mention ; neither 

 of JacA- Spaniards, nor of Jacko the monkey, whom 

 we detest ; but, go where we will. Jack meets us, 

 and is master of all trades, for that we hold to be 

 the right, though, we are aware, not the usual 

 version of the saying. In short, with Merry An- 

 drews, Jerry Sneaks, Tom Noddies, and Silly 

 Simons, we may all have a casual acquaintance ; 

 but Jack, sweet Jack, kind Jack, honest Jack, Jack 

 still is our familiar. John Jackson. 



* The old name for pancakes. Slap-jacks is their 

 present name in America. 



f The figure which struck the hour, as on the old 

 clocks of St. Dunstan's, and of Carfax in Oxford. 



MTTHE VERSUS MTTH. 



When I first began to write on Mythology, I 

 followed the Germans in using mythus for the 

 Greek ixvQos. I afterwards thought it would be 

 better to Anglicise it, and, strange to say, I ac- 

 tually found^ that there was a rule in the English 

 language without an exception. It was this : 

 Words formed from Greek dissyllables in os, whe- 

 ther the penultimate vowel be long or short, are 

 monosyllables made long by e final. Thus, not 

 only does fiwXos make bole, but ir6\os pole, vSpos 

 pore, ffKoiros scope, tSvos tone, &c. ; so also yvpos, 



fyre ; Bifios, thyme ; (ttv\os, style ; KiSos, cube, &c. : 

 therefore, without hesitation, made an English 

 word mpthe. Mr. Grote, in his History of Greece, 

 has done the very same thing, and probably on 

 the same principles, quite independently of me ; 

 for, as I am informed, he has never condescended 

 to read my Mythology of Greece and Italy, perhaps 

 because it was not written in German. We have 

 had no followers, as far as I am aware, but Miss 

 Lynn, in her classical novels, and Mr. J. E. Tay- 

 lor, in his translation of the Pentamerone, &c. 



Meantime the English language had got an- 

 other form of (ivdos, namely, myth, which I believe 

 made its first appearance in Mr. Cooley's Maritime 

 and Inland Discovery, and so has the claim of pri- 

 ority, if not of correctness. This form has been so 

 generally adopted, that it seems likely ere long to 

 become a mere slang term. It is used for every 

 kind of fiction whatever ; indeed, I have seen it 

 employed where the proper word would be hoax. 

 Nay, to make matters worse, it is actually used 

 of persons. Mrs. Harris, for instance, has been 

 termed a myth, as also was Robin Hood, not long 

 since, even in " N. & Q." ! I wonder how Apol- 

 lodorus would have looked, if he had heard Orion 

 or Polyphemus called a iwdos ! 



Do I then expect the people of England to sur- 

 render their glorious privilege of going wrong 

 without let or hindrance, in matters of grammar 

 and etymology ? Far from me be such folly and 

 presumption. All I venture to expect is, that 

 men of learning and good sense will, when they 

 are speaking or writing about those venerable fic- 

 tions which once commanded the assent of polished 

 nations, use the more dignified term mythe, and 

 the adjective mythic, instead of the hybrid mythical, 

 leaving the poor unhappy little myth to be bandied 

 about at the popular will and pleasure. 



Thos. Keightlet. 



WITCHCEATT IN 1638. 



I inclose you an extract from an old document 

 in my possession, which appears to be the examin- 

 ation of two witnesses against one Mary Shepherd 

 for witchcraft. The nature of the offence is not 



