38 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[December 1, 1886. 



the corresponding part of the map's circumference below 

 the centre O, and to consider only those groups which he 

 finds lying between O and that part of the circumference. 



Thus, towards the south he sees Faro the Peacock ; low 

 down, and upside down, half of the Altar, Ara, being 

 visible slightly to the east of south, and in a similarly 

 inverted position. Above the altar, and eastwards of it, 

 lies I'riaiiguhtm the Triangle (the northern constellation 

 similarly named shows two triangles, and may be con- 

 veniently called the Triangles or Trinnqtih, ns in both my 

 iJbrarj' and School Star Atlases.) 



In the soutli-east is a singularly intei'esting region of the 

 heavens. Low down is Centaurus, the Centaur, the bi'ight 

 star Alpha in which is celebrated as the nearest star (so far 

 as is known) in the heavens. It lies at a distance of only 

 about twenty millions of millions of miles from the solar 

 system ; a light journey of about three and a half years. 

 (J nix, the Southern Cross, occupies the place where formerly 

 were the Centaur's hind feet — a change which has injured 

 the latter constellation, without giving the southern skies a 

 constellation in the least I'essmbling a cross, except \\hen so 

 high above the horizon that the suggestion of an upright 

 cross is lost. 



In the south-eastern quadrant the Milky Way is full of 

 strange features : the great Coalsack, a sharply -defined semi- 

 circular outline near \ Cnitauri, and the great fan shaped 

 expansions in Argo, between which is a broad dark space. 

 But still more remarkable than the Milky Way here, or 

 than the Jfaf/eUauic Clouds seen high in the south, is the 

 immense starless tract running between IlyJra and the 

 Milky Way. Indeed, although the groups forming C'orvus 

 the Crow, and Crater the Cup, here come close up to Hydra, 

 of which doubtless they originallj' formed a part, the star- 

 less region farther northwards is only broken (so far as 

 conspicuous stars are concerned) by the solitary star 

 Alphard (n Hydr<i'), over the whole space between Argo, 

 Canis, and Orion along one side, and Leo, Cancer, and 

 Canis Minor on the other. Even Cancer contains so few 

 bright stars that it used to be known as the dark sign, and 

 beyond Cancer northwards the starless sjiace expands over 

 Liyn.r and Camelopardas (unseen in the southern skies). 



In the north-western quadrant we find Taurus, Aries, Cetiis, 

 and Eridrtnus, in the places shown in the map ; and in the 

 north-western quadrant the rest of Kridanus, Hydriis (the 

 Water Serpent), P/ia'ni.r, Gru3, and a pai-t of Fiscis, the 

 Southern Fish, with the bright stiLV FomaUimif (and Fisois). 



NOTES ON AMERICANISMS. 



By Richard A. Peoctoe. 



Far's-I-kno\V, which Bartlett for unknown reasons writes 

 " Farzino," is an abbreviation of " as far as I know," often 

 beard in New England and New York. Common enough in 

 England. 



Favoured. Bartlett wildly remarks that the use of this 

 word as applied to the face, once common in England, isnow 

 obsolete, giving as examples of the old English, use of the 

 expression Shakespeare's " A good favour you have, but that 

 you have a hanging look," and from the Spectator the 

 sentence, " The porter owned that the gentleman favoured 

 his master," meaning that he resembled him. These are 

 examples of two entirely distinct way.s of using the word ; 

 but neither one nor the other is obsolete. The former, as 

 when we say the man is ill favoured, or well-favoured, is not 

 only not obsolete but is in use by persons of culture and 

 .admitted into the best dictionaries ; it shows, so far as I can 

 judge, no sigus of going out of favour. Tliere is, however. 



an extension of the usage which I believe to be seldom heard 

 out of America, viz., in such expressions as loiajfavourcd, 

 square favoiired, or the like, meaning that the face is longer 

 square, or so forth. The other use of the word is common in 

 England, but not admissible in literature oi- in the conversa- 

 tion of educated persons. Thus you will hear almost any- 

 where in England the remark, " So and so favours his 

 father," meaning that he looks like his father in the face. I 

 remember hearing the expression for the first time, and being- 

 very much perplexed by it, when I was a small boy; a nurse 

 who had left my mother's service some time called one daj' 

 with a bab}', which she showed with some pride to her 

 former mistress. Presently she remarked, " I think he 

 f^ivours Master Richard," which astonished me, as I had seen 

 no marks of any special favour towards me — on the contrary, 

 he had howled obtrusively at my approach ; but since then I 

 have heard the expression dozens of times among the poorer' 

 classes. In Walker's dictionary we find this use of the verb 

 to favour, as well as the Shakespear-ian use of the noun 

 " fiwour " for the features, presented without any suggestion 

 of obsoleteness or even of obsolescence. 



Fearful, used as we use " awful," fearful big, fearful 

 ugly, and so forth, seems appropriately enough to be peculiar 

 to the Quaker State Pennsylvania. 



Feaze, same as feexe, phee~e. Bartlett seems quite in the 

 dark about this good old English word, which he derives 

 from the French fdcher, to vex. It was used formerly in 

 the same sense as tease, as in teasing wool, but more pai'ticu- 

 larly applied to curry-combing. It has no connection what- 

 ever yi\i\i fdcher. " I'll jjheese you in faith," says C'hi'isto- 

 phero Sly, meaning that he will vex the worthy hostess by 

 staying like teasel in wool. In America feaze, feeze, and 

 plieese are still used not only in speech but in writing. 

 " When a man's in a feeze there's no more sleep that hitch," 

 says Sam Slick. 



Federal Currency. The legal currency of the United 

 States. 



Feed, for grass, as " tall feed " for " high grass." 



Feel, short for feel inclined, is used in America, where 

 in England people are more apt to say, "feel like doing." 

 " I don't feel to work to-day " would correspond with our 

 English colloquialism, '• I don't feel like working." 



Feeze, see " Fease." 



Fellow, short for " Black Fellow," is Southern. " Fellow," 

 or " feller " for sweetheart is leather absurdly given by 

 Bartlett as .an Americanism. It would be difficult to say 

 whether it is move commonly heard in that sense in America 

 or in the old countrj'. 



Fellowship, To. " To fellowship with " is one of the 

 real Americanisms which the Saturday Review would like 

 to see alone in such a list as this. It is used chiefly in reli- 

 gious newspapers (the vulgarity of which in America has 

 become a by word), to indicate communion in religious doc- 

 trine and discipline. The barbarism assumes two forms : 

 thus a Baptist (let us say) may refuse " to fellowship " with 

 a Methodist, or refuse " tofellow.ship " him, or vice versa. 



Fesiale. Bartlett complacently discusses the use of this 

 word for " woman " as an Americanism. Would that it 

 were the invention of our Transatlantic cousins ; but, alas ! 

 the vulgarism is but too obtrusiveh' English to be thus got rid 

 of. It is not only English, but the Queen's English, not in 

 the vulgar use of that absurd expression (absurd seeing that 

 the Queen's C4erman is fifty per cent, better than her English), 

 but literall}' ; for did not the Queen write to the Maj'or of 

 Birmingham, expressing her " horror that one of her subjects 

 — a female — should have been sacrificed," ifec, the .sacrificed 

 "subject" not being a cow or a female i-etriever, as might 

 be imagined, but a woman who had fallen from a rope 

 on which .she had tried to walk blindfolded, and in a 



