1821.] 



Mr. Jackson on the Etymology of Saraien. 



isas 



poleon, wh<wc e»gle glance penc^trated 

 into every corner; — who saw every 

 thing witn his own eyes, heard every 

 thing with his own ears, and whose 

 energy of mind made itself be felt in 

 the remotest corner of his empire. But 

 the eyes of his successors are certainly 

 not those of eagles ; and their energy, 

 alack a day! scarcely reaches beyond 

 the kitchen of the Tuilleries! 



The Reviewer closes his essay by 

 mentioning tlie law of succession in 

 France ; by which a father may dispose 

 of one half of his property by will, if 

 he leaves only one child : of one third., 

 if he leaves two ; and of one fourth if 

 he leaves more than two : the remain- 

 der being always divided equally among 

 •the children. This is certainly more 

 equitable than our system of primo- 

 geniture, by which the heritable 

 pi-operty of a family must, in most 

 cases, descend to the eldest son, leaving 

 to the younger children a very small 

 pittance, frequently not equal in whole, 

 to more tlian two or three years rent of 

 the family estate ; sometimes not equal 

 to one. The reviewer doubts whether 

 the French law will ultimately tend to 

 the prosperity of the nation ? This is a 

 question which time alone can resolve. 



Certain it is, that since the enact- 

 ment of the law, now upwards of thirty 

 years ago, France has prospered greatly, 

 and it is at this moment the most pros- 

 perous country of Eurojie ; and if once 

 freed of the curse of tiie wretched 

 ultra faction and its f'oltigeurs, who 

 are doing all they can to clog the wheels 

 of her prosperity, she would soon be 

 able to resume that commanding sta- 

 tion to which her geographical position, 

 her extent, her wealth and the activity 

 of her population imdoubtedly entitle 

 her. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



I ALWAYS find satisfaction in read- 

 ing whatever contributes to eluci- 

 date the etymology of (<riental names, 

 and being persuaded that any thing 

 which may contribute farther to such 

 elucidation will not be unacceptable 

 to you, I send you the following ani- 

 madversions on the etymology of Sara- 

 cen, in your Number for April, p. 247. 

 In the title to that article, you spell 

 the word signifying occidental, Mau- 

 grebius. In the body of the discussion 

 you spell it Maghrebyn. These words 

 are both plural ; the first is Europcan- 

 ized, If I may be allowed the expres- 



sion ; the second has the Arabic plural 

 termination : the first is the English 

 orthography, the other is the French. 

 But the proper and correct word ia 



L^t/*^ which, put into English letters, 



should be thus written, Mii^rarby. 

 Giving a final n to tiiis worn, thu^, 

 Mugrarbyn, makes it plural. The 

 same observation applies to the word 



[^j^ i. e. Slierky, a man of the East. 



Sherkyn, orientals ; this word, by trans- 

 mutating the /c to c or s, and omitting 

 the A, becomes Saracen. 



But since it has been proved, Mr," 

 Editor, that the Latins have had a 

 strong propensity to the letters c and s, 



and have turned the Arabic word _1, 



(wah) into oasis, and wah's intooasis's. 

 I doubt if they have not also transmu- 

 tated Sarawen, or more properly Saba- 

 i-awan, into Saracen, (substituting the 

 letter c for the w), that is to say, the 

 people of the desert or wilderness. It 

 is well known that the country of the 

 Scythians and Saracens abounded in 

 deserts and wildernesses ; and although 

 I do not pretend to boast of antiquarian 

 or etymological lore sufficient to decide 

 this point, yet, I think, if we consult 

 plain sense and probability, there is as 

 much reason to subscribe to this ety- 

 mology as to that of your correspond- 

 ent M. Langles, whose elucidation Is 

 ingenious. 



If the intelligent readers of your 

 Magazine should agree with me in this 

 etymology, it will throw another ray of 

 light on the darkness of Africa, a con- 

 tinent which now appears to be opening 

 gradually, but slowly, to our view. By 

 the bye, Mr. Editor, who would have 

 thought twenty years ago that hot -cross 

 buns* had their origin in Africa 

 (Egypt) ? J. G. Jackson. 



loth April., 1821, 1^ 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



I AM induced to convey through 

 your Miscellany some useful infor- 

 mation, from which T have experienced 

 a practical benefit, relative to the ma- 

 nagement of apple and pear trees. But 

 before I enter upon the information, it 

 is necessary to lay before you the very 

 bad state of a dozen apple trees in my 

 orchard. The stock of them will mea- 



See Monthly Magazine ftw April, p. 247 



sure 



