one day in a place which, from this circumstance, 

 received the name of Cwm Meddygon, and deli- 

 vered to each of them a b;ig. containing such mys- 

 terious revelations in the science of medicine, that 

 they became greater in tlje art than were ever any 

 before them. 



Though so curiously connected with this fable, 

 the "surgeons of Myddvai" are supposed to be 

 liistorical personages, who, according to a writer 

 in the Camhro -Briton, fl<jurished in the thirteenth 

 century, and left behind them a MS. treatise on 

 their practice, of which several fragments and im- 

 perfect copies are still preserved. 



No. 4. Tnvyn Pwcca. — ]\fany years ago, there 

 existed in a certain part of Monmouthshire a 

 Pwcca, or fairy, which, like a faithful English 

 Brownie, performed innumerable services for the 

 farmers and householders in its neighbourhood, 

 more especially that of feeding the cattle, and 

 cleaning their sheds in wet weather ; until at 

 length some officious person, considering such 

 practices as uiicliristian proceedings, laid the 

 kindly spirit for three generations, banishing him 

 to that common receptacle for such beings — the 

 Ked Sea. The spot in which he disappeared 

 obtained the name of Tnvyn Pwcca (Fairy's nose) ; 

 and as the three generations have nearly passed 

 away, the approaching return of the Pwcca is 

 anxiously looked forward to in its vicinity, as an 

 earnest of the " good time cominsJ' 



The form which tradition assigns to this Pwcca, 

 is that of a handful of loose 'dried grass rolling 

 before the wind (such as is constantly seen on 

 moors) ; a circumstance which recalls to mind the 

 Pyrenean legend of the spirit of the Lord of 

 Orthez, mentioned by Miss Costello, which ap- 

 peared as two straws moving on the floor. Query, 

 lias the name of" Will o' the Wisp" any connexion 

 with the supposed habit of appearing in this form ? 



Seleucus. 



CONNEXION OF WORDS ■ 



•THE WORD "FREIGHT. 



The word employed to denote freight, or rather 

 the price of freight, at this day in the principal 

 ports of the Mediterranean, is nolis, nolo, &c. In 

 the Araltiaii and Indian ports, tlie word universally 

 employed to denote the same meaning is nol. Are 

 these words identical, and can their connexion be 

 traced? AVhen we consider the extensive coin- 

 mei-ce of the Phoenicians, both in the Meiiiterranean 

 and Indian sea.s, that they were the great mer- 



i chants and carriers of antitjuity, and that, in the 

 words of Ilieron, " tlieir numerous fleets were 



I icattcred over the Indian and Atlantic oceans; and 

 the Tyriaii jicnnaiit waved at tlic same time on the 



; coasts of liritaiii and on the .shores of Ceylon" — it 

 i.s natural to look to that country as the; birth- 



I place of the word, whence it may have been iin- 



1 ported, westward to Europe, and eastward to India, 



I 



by the same people. And we find that it is a pure 

 Arabic word, J-j Tiawil and J J nawlun, or nol 

 and no/an, both signifying freight (price of car- 

 riage), from the root i»i noh, pretium dedit, donum. 



I am not aware that the word freight (not used in 

 the sense of cargo or merchandise, but as the price 

 of carriage of the merchandise, merces pro vectura) 

 is to be found in the Old Testament, otherwise 

 some light might be thrown on the matter by a 

 reference to the cognate Hebrew word. 



But here an interesting question presents itself. 

 The word freight in Greek is uavXos or vavXov, 

 and in Latin naidum. Have these any connexion 

 with the Arabic word, or are they to be traced to 

 an independent source, and the coincidence in 

 sense and sound with the Arabic merely accidental? 

 If distinct, are the words now in use in the Medi- 

 terranean ports derived from the Greek or the 

 Arabic ? If the words be not identical^ may not 

 the Greek be derived from the Sanscrit, thu3 



«T j nau, or in the pure form ^TTj naivah, or 



resolved, naus, a ship or boat;. eT^^ jt"'ii*1> 



nauydyin quasi nouydyil, or abbreviated naul, that 

 which goes into a ship or boat, i. e. freight, fare, or, 

 by metonyme, the price of freight, or passage- 

 money. It is to be noted that rwlis, though in 

 general use in the Mediterranean ports (Marseilles, 

 for example) to denote the price of freight, or of 

 carriage, is not so in the northern ports of France. 

 At Havre the word \&fret, the same as our freight, 

 the German fracht, viz. that which is carried of 

 ferried, and, by metonyme, as before, X}\q price of 

 carriage. J. Sh. 



Bombay. 



Alitor §.aiti. 



Smitlis Obituary. — One of the publications of 

 the Camden Society for the year 1849 is the 

 Obituary of Richard Smyth (extending from 

 1627 to 1674), edited by Sir Henry Ellis. It is 

 printed from a copy of the Sloane MS. in the Brit. 

 Mus., No. 886., which is itself but a transcript, 

 later than Smyth's time. The editor states that 

 " where the original manuscript of the obituary is 

 deposited is not at present known." 



I am glad at being able to supply the informa- 

 tion here wanted. The original manuscript is in 

 the University Library at Cambridge, marked Mm. 

 4. 36. It consists of twenty-nine leaves, foolscap, 

 folio ; and, except that the edges and corners of 

 the leaves are occasionally worn by frequent pe- 

 rusal, is otherwise in excellent condition. It is 

 well and clearly written, but the latter part of it 

 marks the alteration of the hand by the advancing 

 years of the writer. There are many variations ii» 



