142 Tr ansae tions . — Miscellaneous . 



instruments, we have a hunting-/ior« or huntsman's horn, 

 which he blew in the chase ; a horn of beer could be ob- 

 tained (or asked for) when I was a small boy; the larger 

 portion of a horn with a wooden bottom let in was the 

 drinking-cup of our ancestors. The word bull is not found 

 in Anglo-Saxon, but its derivative or diminutive is bull- 

 uca, a bull-och. I am unable to trace the suffix uca or its 

 later form och, which has certainly no connection with 

 German ochs, an ox. Possibly the same terminal diminutive 

 is shown in Latin bu-cula, a heifer, from bos, an ox, bull, or 

 cow. A kindred word to bucula seemingly by inference is 

 found in the Latin buccina, a trumpet or crooked horn : note 

 German bugle, curve, anything bent, bilgle-riemen stirrup- 

 leather ; tuba being the name of the straight trumpet. This 

 word is also written bu-cma, which would seem the correct form 

 though seldom used. The confusion is owing to close simi- 

 larity to buccula, the diminutive of bucca, a cheek or mouth, 

 and bucco, one who has the cheeks distended. Here may 

 even be a connection, for a person occupied in blowing a horn 

 has the cheeks puffed out. In Italian buccina is a trumpet ; 

 buccm-are is to proclaim with sound of the trumpet ; and 

 buciacchio is a bullock. In French bou-villon is a bullock. 

 The proof of the argument is in Latin bucerus, having horns 

 like an ox; Greek, bou-keros, having bulls' horns (from bous, 

 a bull, and hems, a horn). 



But to return to the consideration of Latin bestia, a beast, 

 or wild beast. Through the French besti-aux, cattle, we pro- 

 bably have adopted the use of the term beast and beasts in 

 reference to our domestic oxen — that is, to our horned cattle; 

 for in our form of speech we make no provision in the generic 

 term for the polled races of oxen, such as the Angus and Gal- 

 loway breeds, originating in Scotland. 



As an illustration I will give a clipping from a newspaper 

 report of the annual fair at Ipswich in May, 1891, curiously 

 called "St. George's Fair": "Fat beasts not quite so nu- 

 merous, but buyers attending in strong force : a decided 

 improvement in values was noticed. Fat sheep and lambs 

 in request, and recent prices maintained. Numbers at 

 market : Beasts, 1,359 ; sheep, 2,815 ; swine, 759. Messrs. 

 Day and Sons, of Crewe, advertise ' zomo-sal,' a saline blood 

 tonic for horses and beasts." And also the following from 

 the " Live Stock Journal" of the 28th June, 1901, under the 

 heading " Scraps " : "Plough cattle were not expensive in 

 1310. At Cardiff two beasts bought for a cart cost only 18s. ; 

 twenty-three plough-oxen cost 13s. 4d. per head ; while a bull 

 and fourteen cows bought to stock a manor cost 10s. per 

 head." And this from an English newspaper: "Spalding, 

 Tuesday. — A small show of fat beasts and a slow trade, 7s. 



