ERRATA RECEPTA. 395 



the animal accordingly. Priar Jordanus reports that in India the 

 Less, i. e. the neighbourhood of the Indus, "there be also coquo- 

 driles which are vulgarly called calcatrix ; some of them be so big 

 that they be bigger than the biggest horse. These animals be like 

 lizards, and have a tail stretched over all, like unto a lizard's ; and 

 have a head like unto a swine's, and rows of teeth so powerful and 

 horrible that no animal can escape their force, particularly in the 

 water." (JUirabilia, p. 19.) — Apropos of lizards, — alligator for al-li' 

 garto, the lizard par excellence, is well-known. Lizard-point, on the 

 Cornish coast, is said to be from Uz=cape, and ard=high. In like 

 manner, dormouse for dormeuse {la souris dormeuse), John Dory for 

 jaune doree, belfry for iefroi, bellwether for teller, i. e. vellarius, are 

 vernacularisms too familiar to detain us here. — The name of the 

 Jiawlc (Lat, accipiter) has been curiously vernacularized in Italian 

 into astore, which in the popular mind is supposed to imply that it ia 

 " the bird of Asturia." In Spanish and Portuguese it has become 

 azor, whence the name of the Azores. — The shual (rendered "fox" 

 in the English translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) has become a 

 household word under the vernacularism jac^aZZ. We can easily see 

 what was the transition-term to this very English-sounding word. 

 Ifc was, no doubt, the ciacales of Busbequius. He thus describes 

 them : — " Lupi sunt, vulpibus majores, communibus lupis minores ; 

 voracitate tamen edendique ingluvie pares : gregatim incedunt ; 

 hominibus armentisque innoxii, furto magis et dolo, quam vi, victum 

 quserentes : ab harum ferarum ingenio Turcse, homines fraudulentos 

 et versipelles, maxime Asiaticos, ciacales vocant." (P. 78, ed. El- 

 zevir, 1660.) 



A familiar, and even proverbial, word with our grandfathers was 

 popinjay. This is hahagd, the Arabic for "parrot." The Mediaeval 

 Greeks made out of it papagas, and the French papagai. "We, after 

 our English manner, turned it into popinjay. The modern Greek is 

 papagallos, with the notion implied that the bird so designated is ai 

 favourite pet with priests {papas). Hence the name is, g^uasi "the 

 abbe's delight." — The gay costumes of mingled orange and scarlet, 

 distinguishing the Swiss guards who lounge in the porticos of the 

 Vatican, are strangely suggestive of this bird and its plumage. 

 Many an Italian Hotspur has possibly found " popinjay " rising to 

 his lips, as he eyed them. 



4. Take, next, examples of vernacularisms in implements, fabricss 

 household stuff, &c. 



