278 
they had landed, tooke handes on the lande and daunced 
this reill or short daunce, singing all with one voice, 
«« Commer goe ye before, commer goe ye ; 
Gif ye will not goe before, commer let me.’ 
“ At which time, shee confessed that this Geilles 
Duncan (a servant girl) did goe before them, playing 
this reill or daunce uppon a small trumpe called a Jews- 
trumpe, untill they entred into the Kirk of North Bar- 
rick. These confessions made the King ina wonderfull 
admiration, and sent for the said Geilles Duncan, who 
upon the like ¢rwmpe did play the saide daunce before 
the Kinge’s Majestie ; who in respect of the strangenes 
of these matters tooke great delight to be present at 
their examinations,” 
It may be as well to mention that in the Belgic 
or Low Dutch, from whence come many of our 
toys, a ¢tromp is a rattle for children. Another 
etymon for Jews-harp is Jaws-harp, because the 
place where it is played upon is between the jaws. 
To those who wish to learn more upon the subject, 
I beg to refer them to Pegge’s Anonymiana ; 
Dauney’s Ancient Scottish Melodies; and to my 
edition of Chettle’s Kind-Harts Dream printed by 
the Percy Society. Epwarp F. Rimpauvttr. 
[ We are indebted also to Trezor, E. W. D., J. F. M., 
and F, P. for replies to this Query. They will per- 
ceive that Dr. Rimbault had anticipated the substance 
of their several communications. ] 
JELFRIC’S COLLOQUY. 
I must trouble you and some of your readers 
with a few words, in reply to the doubt of 
“C. W.G,” (No. 16. p. 248.) respecting the word 
sprate. Ido not think the point, and the Capital 
letter to saliu in the Latin text, conclusive, as 
nothing of the kind occurs in the A.-S. version, 
where the reading is clearly, “ swa hwylce swa, on 
watere swymmath sprote.” Ihave seen the Cot- 
tonian MS, which, as Mr. Hampson observes, is 
very distinctly written, both in the Saxon and 
Latin portions; so much so in the latter, as to 
make it a matter of surprise that the doubtful 
word saliu should ever have been taken for salu, 
or casidilia for calidilia. The omission of the 
words sprote and saliu, in the St. John’s MS., 
would only be evidence of a more cautious scribe, 
who would not copy what.he did not understand. 
Your eorrespondent’s notion, “‘ that the name 
of some fish, having been first interlined. was 
afterwards inserted at random in the text, and 
mis-spelt by a transcriber who did know its mean- 
ing,” appears to me very improbable; and the 
very form of the words (sprote, saliu, supposing 
them substantives), which have not plural termi- 
nations, would, in my mind, render his supposition 
untenable. For, be it recollected, that through- 
out the answers of the Fiscere, the fish are always 
named in the plural; and it is not to be supposed 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 18. 
that there would be an exception in favour of 
sprote, whether intended for sprat or salmon. 
Indeed, had the former been a river fish, Hulvet 
and Palsgrave would have countenanced the 
supposition ; but then we must have had it in the 
plural form, sprottas. As for the suggestion of 
sprod and salar, I cannot think it a happy one ; 
salmon (leaxas) had been already mentioned ; and 
sprods will be found to be a very confined local 
name for what, in other places, are called scurfes 
or scurves, and which we, in our ignorance, desig- 
nate as salmon trout. In the very scanty A.-S. 
ichthyologic nomenclature we possess, there is 
nothing to lead us to imagine that our Anglo- 
Saxon ancestors had any corresponding word for 
a salmon trout. I must be excused, therefore, for 
still clinging to my own explanation of sprote, 
until something more specious and ingenious shall 
be advanced, but in full confidence, at the same 
time, that some future discovery will elucidate its 
truth. S. W. SrncEr. 
Feb. 19, 1850. 
REHETING AND REHETOURS. 
As Dr. Todd’s query (No. 10. p. 155.) respect- 
ing the meaning of the words “ Reheting” and 
“ Rehetour,” used by our early English writers, 
has not hitherto been answered, J beg to send him 
a conjectural explanation, which, if not conclu- 
sive, is certainly probable. 
In the royal household of France, there was 
formerly an officer whose duty it was to superin- 
tend the roasting of the King’s meat. he was 
called the Hdteur, apparently in the sense of his 
“hastening” or “expediting” that :all-important 
operation. The Fr. Hater, “‘to hasten or urge 
forward,” would preduce the moun-substantive 
Hateur; and alse the -similar word Hatier, the 
French name for ‘the roast-jack. If we con- 
sider Rehdteur to be the reduplicate of Hateur, 
we have only.to make an allowable permutation of 
vowels, and the result will be the expressive old 
English word “ Rehetour,’ an appropriate name 
for the royal turnspit. Wycliffe uses it, J think, 
in the sense of a superfluous servant, one whose 
duties, like the Hateur’s, were very light indeed. 
He compares the founding of new Orders in 
an overburthened Church-establishment to the 
making of new offices in a household already 
crowded with useless (and consequently idle and 
vicious) servants. The multitude of fat friars and 
burly monks charged upon the community were 
“the newe rehetours that ete mennes mete,” &c. 
The term, thus implying an useless “do-no- 
thing,” would soon become one of the myriad of 
choice epithets in the vulgar vocabulary, as in the 
instances from Dunbar and Kennedy. 
In a better sense, a verb would be derived 
easily ; “to rehate,” or “rehete,” 7. e. “to provide, — 
