280 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'i S. VI. 144., Oct. 2. '58. 



Names, and Explanations of the difficult and disputed 

 Points in tlie Historical Geography of Scotland ; together 

 ivith a compendious Chronology of the Battles to the 

 year 1603 ; collected from the best Authorities, Historical 

 and Geographical, bv David Macpherson, Editor of 

 Wyntown's Cronykil of Scotland, 4to., with an Historical 

 Map of Scotland, coloured." 



T. G. S. 



Casa Bianca (2°i S. iii. 248. 414. 456.) — Ali- 

 son, as already shown in " N. & Q.," gives a 

 circumstantial account of the death of this young 

 French sailor, whose conduct in the battle of the 

 Nile, when the L'Orient was in flames, was as 

 valiant as filial. Alison's History may be better 

 to rely on than the Percy Anecdotes ; but a dis- 

 patch, written on the instant, by one cognizant 

 of the grave incidents it narrates, is more to be 

 depended on than either. Garnished with the 

 elegance of rhetoric, wearing more the appearance 

 of romance than fact, history may, without dis- 

 paragement, give place to the unvarnished sim- 

 plicity of an authoritative document aiming only 

 at severe truthfulness. The following brief trans- 

 lated extract from Hear- Admiral Blanquet's ac- 

 count of the battle, contains all that was officially 

 reported at the time of the conduct of the heroic 

 boy in that memorable sea-fight : — 



" Commodore C.isabianca and his son, only ten years 

 old, who during tlie action gave proofs of liravery and 

 intelligence far above his age, were not so fortunate. 

 They were in the water, upon the wreck of L'Orient's 

 mast (not being able to swim) seeking each otlier, until 

 three-quarters past 10, when the ship blew up, and put 

 an end to their hopes and fears." 



Your correspondent T. F. B. may find the ex- 

 tract of service to him; but, if he be indisposed 

 to accept it at second-sight, he will see Blanquet's 

 account of Ihe battle, in extenso, in the Nelson 

 Dispatches, by Sir Harris Nicolas, vol. iii. pp. 

 67--71. M. S. R. 



BromptoD, 



Hoax and Hocus pocus (2"^^ S. vl. 69. 117. 179.) 

 — The term hoax does not, I believe, date farther 

 back than the first quarter of the present century. 

 Hocns^ from which it conies, is certainly from 

 hocus pociis, a name formerly used for a conjuror. 

 Hence the title of an old pamphlet : The Anatomie 

 of Legei^demain^ by Hocus Pocus Jvnioi^ London, 

 1634, 4to. Has hocus pocu^ any real meaning? 

 or is it a corruption of *' hoc est corpus'' f which, 

 when gabbled by the illiterate Romish priests, 

 sounds very much like it ? 



The following quaint and far-fetched explana- 

 tion of the term is given in A New English Die- 

 tionari}^ shoivwg the Etymological Derivation of 

 the English Tongue: London, printed for Timothy 

 Childe, 1691 : — 



"Hocus Pocus, a conjurer, or jujrler; perhaps from 

 the Fr. G. Hocher, to shake, and Focher, to poke, or 

 thrust forward with the finger: for all the art in Legcrde 

 main lies ia this, viz. in shaking their little balls in 



boxes, or the like; and so quickly, with dexterity of 

 hand, snatching away what was thereunder before, and 

 leaving oftentimes somewhat else in its room, with which 

 they beguile the spectators.*' 



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