310 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2" d S. IX. ArRiL21. 'GO. 



so when lie proves that ?13J is derived from the 

 same root as the Arabic word he quotes. It may 

 come from the same combination of letters, but 

 every one who is at all accustomed to study this 

 subject must be aware that very often words alike 

 in form are not alike in origin. This is extremely 

 common in English, as may be shown by the trite 

 examples of box, hoot, &c. 



I therefore regard Mr. Buckton's derivations 

 as all mistaken. There is some doubt about the 



Egyptian origin of ?V3J, the third letter of which 

 was not to be found in the language, at least so 

 we may infer. There is doubt also in reference 

 to the derivation proposed by Gesenius from JP2J, 

 a cup or bowl, because it was not customary for 

 the Hebrew to receive •> as an addition at the end 

 of words. As it stands, 7JJ33 is either a quadri- 

 literal, or a derivative from some two other words. 

 If I may hazard a conjecture, I should venture to 

 suggest that the word is purely Hebrew (although 

 it occurs in the Chaldee of the Targums), and is 



from the forms 33 and ^y or rhv- Now let us 

 see what this suggests. 23 properly denotes any- 

 thing round, curved, or high, usually the back. 

 7J? signifies what is high, and the verb H?y means 

 tog-o up, to groiv up, &c. Connect the two ideas 



and the word PJHJ will convey the meaning of 

 grown high, probably not only in the stalk, but 

 well nigh in flower. Written more fully a n would 

 attach to each of the component parts of the word. 

 This derivation brings the word within the com- 

 mon circle of the Shemitic languages, all of which 

 have its constituents : if they have it not in this 

 form, it suggests a reasonable meaning, and one 

 which agrees with some of the ancient versions 

 and contradicts none of them. 



For example : The LXX. have " producing 

 seed," or going to seed ; the Lat. Vulg. " produc- 

 ing seed vessels;" the Targum of Onkelos is ex- 

 plained to signify the same (the word "p^yaj is 

 used) ; the Samaritan the same ; the Arabic the 

 same ; the Syriac the same, although obscure. 

 These ancient versions, to which the Ethiopic, &c. 

 might be added, all convey the idea of a plant 

 running to seed, and therefore grown up and in 

 the stalk. The word h]}2} is explained by Kimchi 

 to mean the stalk of flax. By many it is under- 

 stood of the seed-vessels, or the state in which 

 they are produced ; and by others, as Gesenius, 

 of the flower. The true meaning appears to be 

 that of grown up. 



And now with respect to the word boiled. Its 

 form is allied to ball, bowl, bullace ; bulla, bolus ,• 

 bolle; bol, in English, Latin, German, Dutch, and 

 similar words in various other languages. But it 

 is not certain that this is its derivation ; Johnson 

 gays, " Boll, to rise in a stalk," and in the Swe- 



dish, bol occurs in Isa. vi. 13. for the stem of a 

 tree. The question then is, are we to understand 

 boiled as " in seed" or "in the stalk ?" I am in- 

 clined to the latter, and believe that the trans- 

 lators used a word which agreed exactly with the 



derivation above suggested for the Hebrew ?V3i, 

 which, like this, only occurs once in the entire 

 Bible. 



Excuse the length of this Note, but the subject 

 is both curious and suggestive, and its discussion 

 will perhaps throw light on a remarkable passage 

 of Scripture. B. II. C. 



Wreck of the Dunbar (2 nd S. viii. 414. 459. ; 

 ix. 71.) — To the articles on this sad event, allow 

 me to furnish one or two facts, and to correct 

 some errors. The Dunbar was wrecked, not " at 

 the rocks entering Melbourne Harbour," but near 

 the Gap to the southward of the Heads of Port 

 Jackson, and took place in the night of Aug. 20, 

 1857. The only person saved out of 122 was a 

 seaman, named James Johnson, by birth a Scotch- 

 man. He was cast upon the shelf of a projecting 

 rock, and before the return of a strong wave had 

 crept a little higher into a small cleft of compara- 

 tive safety. There he slept for some hours. A 

 steamer ^passing up the coast observed something 

 moving, and on arriving within the Heads reported 

 it. The cliffs are 200 feet deep, and nothing 

 could be seen from the top, but a young man 

 named Antonio Wollier, an Icelander, about nine- 

 teen years of age, and brought up to the sea, 

 offered to go down. He was let down by ropes. 

 First was hauled up Johnson, and afterwards the 

 brave lad Wollier. Johnson was immediately, and 

 still is, employed in the government harbour's 

 boat. To mai-k the sense of the public, 1 00?. was 

 subscribed for Wollier, and placed in my hands, 

 so that he might receive it from time to time as he 

 needed it. But he drew all the money in a few 

 months, went up to the Southern gold fields, has be- 

 come a prosperous and respectable man, and a few 

 weeks ago was married in Sydney, calling himself 

 " Antonio Wollier, Esq." John Fairfax. 



" Herald " Office, Sydney, 

 Feb. 14. 1860. 



"Comparisons are odorous " (2 nd S. ix. 244.) 

 — Shakspeare has put these words into the mouth 

 of Dogberry ; whose "mistaking words," however 

 ridiculed by Ben Jonson (see Induction to Bar- 

 tholomew Fair), will for ever remain " most toler- 

 able" to the lover of true wit, though "not to be 

 endured" by the grammatical purist. See Much 

 Ado about Nothing, Act III. Sc. 5. : — 



" Verg. Yes, I thank God, I am as honest as any man 

 living, that is an old man, and no honester than I. 



" Dogb. Comparisons are odorous : jjalabras, neighbour 

 Verges." 



Ache. 



