446
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. DEC. 3,
P. 209. *' Louchers," plunderers : not from
Luti. See Yule, under ' Loucher.'
P. 271. S. C. Grier cannot identify " Halli- core," a person of low caste. I refer her to Yule, under 'Halalcore.'
P. 443. " Nuzzer," a present, is not ?iasr, but nazar.
P. 446. " Berbohm " is not=" Birbaum," but Blrbhum. EMERITUS.
HENRY II. ON THE WELSH. Girald us Cam- brensis, in his Description of Wales,' says that Henry II., in reply to the inquiries of Emanuel, Emperor of Constantinople, con- cerning the situation, nature, and striking peculiarities of the British island, gave the following account of the courage of the Welsh people :
" That in a certain part of the island there was a people called Welsh, so bold and ferocious .that, when unarmed, they did not fear to encounter an armed force, being ready to shed their blood in defence of their country, and to sacrifice their lives for renown ; which is the more surprising as the beasts of the field over the whole face of the island became gentle, but these desperate men could not be tamed."
It was in the time of Henry II. that Ireland was conquered ; but it is not generally known at the present day in Wales that this was accomplished by small bands of Welshmen and Cambro-Normans.
JONATHAN CEREDIG DA VIES.
JOHNSON ON THE LETTER H. I have recently met with what seems to me to be a curious thing, and I should like to know whether it has ever before been noticed.
In Boswell's ' Life of Johnson ' (near the end of chapter viii.) is the following pas- sage :
"The celebrated Mr. Wilkes, whose notions and habits of life were very opposite to his, but who was ver eminent for literature and vivacity, sallied forth with a little jeu d'esprit upon the following passage in his ' Grammar of the English Tongue prefixed to the Dictionary : * H seldom, perhaps never, begins any but the first syllable.' In an essay printed in the Public Advertiser this lively writer enumerated many instances in opposition to this remark. For example : ' The author of this observa- tion must be a man of a quick appre-hension, and of a most comjire-hensive genius.' The position is undoubtedly expressed with too much latitude.
" This light sally, we may suppose, made no great impression on our lexicographer ; for we find that he did not alter the passage till many years after- wards."
This note by Bos well is added : " In the third edition, published in 1773, he left out the words perhaps never, and added the follow- ing paragraph :
4 ' It sometimes begins middle or final syllables in words compounded, as block-head, or derived from the Latin, as compre-hended.' "
It does not seem to have been observed
by any one concerned that in Johnson's
" remark " quoted and impugned there occurs
the word per-haps^ which itself is *'in opposi-
tion to this remark," since h in that word
begins a syllable other than the first.
This seems to me to parallel the story (perhaps a humourist's invention) of the grammarian who laid it down as a rule that " a preposition is not a good word to end a sentence with." THOMAS LANGTON.
Toronto.
THE "CHEGO" AT THE Zoo. The Zoo has acquired the only specimen which has reached this country alive of a rare member of the monkey tribe, something between a gorilla and a chimpanzee. The Daily Neivs (14 No- vember) had an article on it, under the name of "cheeko" or "chego." This will probably become widely known. It is therefore worth while to point out that it is only another way of spelling nschiego, which is defined in the ' Century Dictionary ' " a kind of ape resem- bling the chimpanzee, by some considered a distinct species, but probably a mere variety." Moreover, there is still another orthography, namely, jocko, which will be found in the ' N.E.D.' These terms, cheeko, chego, nschiego, jocko, are all derived from the Oamma lan- guage of French West Africa.
JAMES PLATT, Jun.
"OBLIVIOUS." I have of late frequently observed that some writers have assigned a new, and to my mind an inaccurate, meaning to the above word. For instance, the author of 'John Chilcote, M.P.,' writes :
"His mind was full as he walked back oblivious of the stone parapet of the Embankment, of the bare trees, and the flaring lights."
The derivation of the word shows that it is intended to convey the idea of a lapse of memory ; but the sentence quoted indicates that the man's disregard of the objects detailed was due not to any lack of memory, but to a lack of attention, consequent on the absorption of his mind in other matters. The drift of the sentence is not much obscured by the use of the word ; but I think it will be allowed that the substitution for " oblivious " of some such word as "disregarding " or "dis- regardful " would be an improvement in the way of accuracy, though less euphonious. CHAS. G. SHAW.
FOLK-MEDICINE IN LINCOLNSHIRE. J. H., a girl brought up on Snitterby Carr, related the following story some years ago : " Once, when I had toothache very bad, a woman told me to get some scraped horse-radish and put it on my wrist below my thumb here. She
