218 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



" change-house." From this custom in course of years our 

 wonderfully intricate " postal service " has been evolved. 



Like the Kirghiz of the present day, old-time peoples 

 made great use of hides and skins, not only as personal 

 clothing (note the sheep-skin clothing of the Eussian peasant), 

 but as a covering for their moveable shelter, used as houses 

 or tents, and no doubt at inclement seasons the horse lived 

 under the same shelter as his owner. 



We would naturally assume that a currycomb would trace 

 back to words referring to skin or hide, but Skeat says, " A 

 hybrid word, made by prefixing con (Latin, con, cum) to 

 old French roi, order," and that "the old saying 'to curry 

 favour' is a corruption of mid-English 'to curry favel ' (to 

 rub down a horse). Favel was a common old name for a 

 horse. 



The philological results occasioned by the use of the horse 

 as an agent to carry man from place to place with speed, and 

 as a help in war, is well shown in the accompanying words in 

 the German language, all derived from the word ritt, a ride, 

 riding (from reiten, to ride) : ritt-lings, astride, astraddle ; 

 ritt-meister, a captain of horse; ritter, a knight, a cavalier 

 (also as a prefix, in composition, means " knight's," 

 "knightly," of chivalry); ritter -akademie, an academy for 

 young noblemen; ritter -bur tig , of knightly descent; rittcr- 

 yut, a manor, a residence for a nobleman; ritter-lich (literally, 

 rider-like), knightly, chivalrous ; ritter -spiel, a tournament ; 

 ritter -kuss, gallantry ; rittern, to knight, to contend (the 

 allied word st-reiten, to combat, to fight, from reiten, to ride, 

 may be here mentioned) ; ritter-saal, a hall where knights 

 assemble; ritter- schaft, knighthood, chivalry, body of knights; 

 ritter-spom, the garden plant larkspur ; and ritter-zug, adven- 

 tures of a knight errant, a crusade. This list of words will 

 amply support the contention that the horse has been a main 

 agent in elevating the standard of humanity, the more espe- 

 cially owing to his being used to forward the religious mania of 

 the Crusaders to recover Palestine from the Panim Saracens. 

 German, kreuz-zug, the crusade, from kreuz, the cross, literally 

 means " the expedition or march of the cross." 



The present Duke of Portland, as Master of the Horse, 

 which, I believe, is a designation distinct from "equerry," 

 is thus spoken of in the Worksop Guardian just previously 

 to the ceremony of the coronation of King Edward VII. : 

 " The Duke of Portland has, of course, to hurry back to 

 town from Welbeck, his official duties on Saturday next 

 demanding his presence there. The Duke has for some 

 months past personally watched and supervised the arrange- 

 ments which devolve upon his department, and the work 

 is no sinecure. At the Eoyal Mews the Duke is very 



