VIII. THE STEM. 165 



is like a handle to all its branches ; ' stock ' is 

 another form in which it has come down to us : 

 with some notion of its being the mother of 

 branches : thus, when Athena's olive was burnt by 

 the Persians, two days after, a shoot a cubit long 

 had sprung from the ' stelechos ' of it. 



27. Secondly. Few words are more interesting 

 to the modern scholarly and professorial mind than 

 ' stipend.' (I have twice a year at present to consider 

 whether I am worth mine, sent with compliments 

 from the Curators of the University chest.) Now, 

 this word comes from ' stips,' small pay, which itself 

 comes from ' stipo,' to press together, with the idea of 

 small coin heaped up in little towers or piles. But 

 with the idea of lateral pressing together, instead of 

 downward, we get ' stipes,' a solid log ; in Greek, 

 with the same sense, oTU7ros, (stupos,) whence, 

 gradually, with help from another word meaning to 

 beat, (and a side-glance at beating of hemp,) we 

 get our ' stupid,' the German stumph, the Scottish 

 sumph, and the plain English ' stump.' 



Refining on the more delicate sound of stipes, the 

 Latins got ' stipula,' the thin stem of straw : which 

 rustles and ripples daintily in verse, associated with 

 spica and spiculum, used of the sharp pointed ear 

 of corn, and its fine processes of fairy shafts. 



28. There are yet two more names of stalk to 



