482
NOTES AND QUERIES. i[io s. XL JUNE 19, im.
In spite of insinuations against him in
consequence of receiving communications
from Tyrone after the flight of the Earl to
Spain, Tyrrell continued a loyal subject.
Lord Falkland, writing 22 May, 1624, states
that he had lately conferred with him,
which is the last reference to him in the
State papers. His children probably pre-
deceased him, as he disposed of a consider-
able portion of the lands in Cavan comprised
in his grants. His brother William had died
seised of the remainder of the lands, 10 May,
1623, leaving Walter Tyrrell his son and
heir, then aged twenty-four and married,
who was in possession on the breaking out
of the Rebellion, 23 Oct., 1641 ; and he
being described as an Irish Papist, his
estate was forfeited. G. D. B.
BECHE-DE-MER.
THE ' N.E.D.' derives this word as follows : " Fr. ; lit. ' sea-spade.' " This is strangely inaccurate. It is true that Littre, in the supplement to his great dictionary, enters " 4 Beche de mer, sorte de coquillage" (sic), and quotes two passages from the Journal Officiel for 1874 as his authority for the word ; but this does not alter the fact that the French have adopted beche de mer from the English, and not vice versa. The ' N.E.D.' also gives no variants of spelling of the word, while 'The Stanford Dictionary' has : " Variants, 19c. beech-de-mer, 18c. biche de mer." This work and ' The Century Dictionary ' are certainly right in agreeing with Yule, who, in ' Hobson-Jobson,' has :
" Beech-de-mer, s. The old trade way of writing and pronouncing the name, bicho-de-mar (borrowed from the Portuguese), of the sea-slug or holothuria, so highly valued in China."
The earliest quotation in the 'N.E.D.' is from Flinders, 1814 ; but under ' Swallow, Swalloe (Bugi suwdld),' Yule gives :
1783. " I have been told by several Buggesses that they sail in their Paduakans to the northern
parts of New Holland to gather Swallow (Biche
de Mer), which they sell to the annual China junk at Macassar." Forrest, ' V. to Mergui,' 83.
Under ' Tripang ' the second edition of ' Hobson-Jobson ' has the following quota- tion :
1817." Bich de mar is well known to be a dried sea-slug used in the dishes of the Chinese; it is known among the Malayan Islands by the name of Tripang. "Raffles, ' H. of Java,' 2nd ed., i. 232.
I am unable to give any earlier instance than that quoted above from Forrest of beech de mer, nor do the Portuguese dictionaries, so far as I know, register bicho de mar. This need cause no surprise, however, as the
very form of the word in English shows that
it is derived from Indo-Portuguese. In the
dialect used at Damao on the west coast of
India apocope of words is general, such as
bich, filh, boc, vac, sang, &c. ; and the same
is the case in some other Indo-Portuguese
dialects. I may mention that the Dutch,,
when, in 1658, they ousted the Portuguese
from the north of Ceylon and from Tuticorin
and Negapatam, and so became possessed
of the extensive tripang fishery of the
Gulf of Mannar, did not adopt the Indo-
Pprtuguese name, but called the dried sea-
slugs rochevellen or roggevellen, literally
" thornback (or ray) skins," apparently
from some fancied resemblance of the
former to the latter.
In ' The Commercial Products of India,' by Sir George Watt (1908), under the article ' Beche-de-mer ' (pp. 122-3), there is an extraordinary blunder. In the refer- ences to other works we read : " Cf. Barbosa, ' Coasts of E. Africa and Malabar ' (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 165." If we turn to the page in the work referred to, we find that Barbosa, who is describing the Maldive Islands, says
" And as ballast for the ships which take on board these things, they carry away sea-snails, which are worth a good deal in many parts, and in some, especially Cambay, they serve as small change."
Now, in the first place, although the tripang is found in the Maldive Islands, it has never, I believe, formed an article of export ; secondly, it was to China chiefly that the repulsive delicacy was sent ; thirdly, it would be impossible to use the dried holothurians as ballast ; and lastly, the sea-slugs never served " as small change." Barbosa was v of course, speaking of the cowry (Cyprcea moneta), of which an enormous number are still exported to India from the Maldives. I cannot say what is the Spanish word that Lord Stanley translated by " sea- snails " ; but the corresponding passage in Ramusio's version of Barbosa reads :
' As ballast of the ships that they load, they carry certain large and small shells [caracofi, lit. snails, or snail-shellsj, or little piglets [porcellette], as we may say, of the sea, which are prized in many parts, and in some are current as small coin, and especially in Cambaia."
Who is responsible for the reference in Sir George Watt's book I do not know ; but it is entirely misleading, and should be omitted from any future edition.
It may interest readers to know that last year no fewer than 50,590 cwt. of the dried sea-slugs were exported from Ceylon, of which 47,240 cwt. went to British India, and 3,350 cwt. to Hongkong.
DONALD FERGUSON.
