490 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 239. 



says Rafinesque, means " beyond the sea " (Ame- 

 rican Nations, &c, No. 2. p. 41.). 



Madagascar. Curious the similarity between 

 this name of an island and the American names 

 Madagaska and Madawaska. By the way, I for- 

 got to notice of this last, that Captain Levinge, in 

 his Echoes from the Back Woods, &c, vol. i. p. 150., 

 derives it from Madawas (Micmac), a "porcupine;" 

 whilst The Angler in Canada (Lanman), p. 229., 

 says that it means " never frozen," because part of 

 the river never freezes. Which is right ? 



Tcherkask. Every one knows that the] capital 

 of the Don Cossacks is eminently a water city. 

 According to Pallas, the Circassians (Tcherkesses) 

 once were located in the Crimea. They may have 

 extended their influence to the Don, and the name 

 in question may be a synthetic form of Tcher- 

 kesse-aska. 



Damasca (Latinised Damascus) is famed all 

 over the East for its waters. The name of the 

 ancient city was Damas, " Le Demechk, ou 

 Chamel-Dimichk, des Orientaux " (Malte-Brun, 

 viii. 215.). 



The modern city is said to be called Damas, or 

 Domeschk, though it seems more generally known 

 as El Sham. Bryant says it was called by the 

 natives Damasec and Damakir, the latter meaning 

 the city (Caer?) of Dama, or of Adama (Mytho- 

 logy, &c, vol. 3. p. 69.). Can it have once been 

 Adama, or Dama-asca? 



In Great Britain we have rivers and lakes called 

 severally Esk, Exe or Isca, Axe, and Usk. 



Axe seems to have been written Asca at one 

 time ; for Lambarde gives Ascanmynster as the 

 Saxon name of Axminster. Hence, also, we may 

 infer that Axholme Island was once Ascanholme. 

 The Exe was probably Esk, i. e. water, or river : 

 it certainly was Uske. Iska is the British Isk 

 Latinised by Ptolemy ; for Camden says Exeter 

 was called by the Welsh Caerish, &c. Usk or 

 Uske was written Osca by Gyraldo Cainb. (See 

 Lambarde.) 



Kyleska, or Glendha, ferry in Sutherlandshire. 

 Kyle-aska ? Kyles (Ir.), a frith or strait. 



Ask occurs frequently as the first syllable of 

 names in England, and such places will be almost 

 invariably found connected with water. Camden 

 mentions a family of distinguished men in Rich- 

 mondshire named Aske, from whom perhaps some 

 places derive their names, as p. ex. the Askhams, 

 Askemoore, &c. Askrigg, however, being in the 

 neighbourhood of some remarkable waterfalls 

 (Camden), may have reference to them. 



Now, from places let us turn to things, first 

 noticing that usk, in modern Welsh, means river. 

 In Irish, uisce or uiske is water. In Hebrew and 

 Chaldee, his'ca is to wash or to drink. (See In- 

 troduction to Valancey's Irish Dictionary.) In 

 the same we find ascu (ancient Irish), a water- 

 serpent or dog ; iasc, fish ; ease (Irish), water, 



same as esk. Chalmers, in " Caledonia," &c, has 

 ease or esc (Gael.), water ; ease Ian (Gael.), the 

 full water. 



Askalabos (Greek), a newt or water reptile ; and 

 asker, askard, askel, ask, and esk, in provincial 

 English, a water-newt. (See Archaic Dictionary.) 



Masca, the female sea-otter ; so called by the 

 Russians. 



Askalopas (Greek), a woodcock or snipe, i. e. a 

 swamp-bird. 



As I said before, there are few words in any of 

 the Indian languages of North America in which 

 the sound ask occurs ; at least as far as my limited 

 acquaintance with them goes. The only two I 

 can quote just now are both in the Chippeway. 

 One only has direct reference to water ; perhaps 

 the other may indirectly.' They are, woyzask, 

 rushes, water-plants ; mejask, herb, or grass. The 

 only grass the forest Indians are likely to be ac- 

 quainted with is that growing in the natural mea- 

 dows along the river banks, which are occasionally 

 met with, and these in general are pretty swampy. 



We may wind up with our cask and flask. I 

 could have added much more, but fear already to 

 have exceeded what might hope for admittance in 

 your pages ; therefore I will only say that, in offer- 

 ing these remarks, I insist on nothing, and stand 

 ready to submit to any correction. A. C. M. 



Exeter. 



LEGENDS OF THE COUNTY CLARE. 



About two miles from the village of Corofin, 

 in the west of Clare, are the ruins of the 

 Castle of Ballyportree, consisting of a massive 

 square tower surrounded by a wall, at the 

 corners of which are smaller round towers : the 

 outer wall was also surrounded by a ditch. The 

 castle is still so far perfect that the lower part is 

 inhabited by a farmer's family ; and in some of the 

 upper rooms are still remaining massive chimney- 

 pieces of grey limestone, of a very modern form, 

 the horizontal portions of which are ornamented 

 with a quatrefoil ornament engraved within a circle, 

 but there are no dates or armorial bearings : from 

 the windows of the castle four others are visible, 

 none of them more than two miles from each other ; 

 and a very large cromlech is within a few yards 

 of the castle ditch. The following legend is related 

 of the castle: — When the Danes were building 

 the castle (the Danes were the great builders, as 

 Oliver Cromwell was the great destroyer of all the 

 old castles, abbeys, &c. in Ireland), — when the 

 Danes were building the Castle of Ballyportree, 

 they collected workmen from all quarters, and 

 forced them to labour night and day without stop- 

 ping for rest or food ; and according as any of them 

 fell down from exhaustion, his body was thrown 

 upon the wall, which was built up over him ! When 



