io- s. in. MAY 20. MOB.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
397
English sound, but the German. The correct
'English transliteration would be Bestuzheff.
JAS. PLATT, Jun.
This name is pronounced Rozhyestvyensky, with the accent on the antepenultimate, as marked. Zh represents the sound of s in pleasure. The vowel e has a slight y sound before it in most cases in Russian. Pronounce the vowels thus : o as a in was (nearly) ; e as in yet ; the final y as i in pin.
The name is not connected with rozha, a face, which, by the way, is a by no means complimentary term, translated by Alexan- droff "phiz, fright, ugly person." Neither has it anything to do with rozh, barley, in the opinion of educated Russians here. There is no reason for refusing to derive it from the root of rozhdyestvo, birth, for the d is not found in several of the derivatives. Rod, race, family ; razhdat, to give birth ; rozk- dyenie, birth, represent the normal form ; but razhat, to give birth, and rozhenitsa, a lying-in woman, are evidence for the omis- sion. In popular pronunciation rozhdyestvo assumes the form roshyestvo.
There seems to be no need to seek in Czech or Polish for the origin of the sign zft to represent the sound of s in pleasure. We have s and s/i (in shall), why not also 2 and zh ? The combination is an invention of the phonologists, and is so self-explanatory that the Germans have adopted it from us. In writing the same sound in Lettish the clumsy sch is used, the distinction between this and sck = English sh being marked by drawing a line through the s.
FRED. G. ACKERLEY.
Libau, Russia.
PROF. LAUGHTON'S presumption that the g has the sound of English /, and not of French /, would be right if reversed. The g has the sound of French./, and not of English j. The stress, or accent, is on the antepenultimate.
H. RAYMENT.
Sidcup, Kent.
THEATRE, PARKGATE (10 th S. iii. 289, 355). The interesting replies to this query settle all doubts as to its identity. The Rev. G. Christian kindly wrote me, pointing out the coincidence of names with the Cheshire resort, and transcribed the following from 'The Cheshire Chronicle, 1881 :
" Such was the influx of visitors at one time, and the constant flow of people into Parkgate, that some enterprising priest, devoted to the worship of Thespis, erected on the site of the Herring Curing House, that stood where Mostyn House school- room stands, a small theatre, where a small company "from Chester, and occasional actors from Liverpool, with a flying fourth-rate star or two, would furnish
amusement to residents and visitors with dramatic
proclivities."
ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road.
Parkgate has always been noted as a bathing place and for its extensive sands, which are celebrated by Charles Kingsley in his beautiful ballad :
O Mary, call the cattle home Across the sanda of Dee.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
NORMAN INSCRIPTIONS IN YORKSHIRE (10 th S. iii. 349). If MR. G. H. CLARKE has copied the Norman-French inscriptions quite cor- rectly they decidedly require explanation, as I was unaware that temple was a Norman- French word, and the second line certainly seems to speak of care of the then queen, roi/ne being Norman French for queen ; but why du royne ? In the second inscription s'alme is the usual mode of expressing his or her soul, and Valme the soul. The remarkable feature in the second inscription is the date 1634, as Norman French was not used after the middle of the fifteenth century.
MATILDA POLLARD.
Belle Vue, Bengeo.
" Dieude saline eit m'cy." Saline is correct Old French, the sounding of the " liaison " for the sake of euphony being more modern.
SHERBORNE.
PICKING UP SCRAPS OF IRON (10 th S. iii. 348). I knew this custom as a regular thing in Derbyshire when a lad, and have known many others in various places do the same. One I know who had quite a collection of odd nails horseshoe nails mostly and bits of iron. It is akin to the once very much observed custom of picking up pins, concern- ing which some lines ran:
Who see a pin, and pick it up,
All his days will be in luck.
Who see a pin, and pass it by,
Will come to want before he die.
And I have heard variations of the same lines. THOS. RATCLIFFE.
W'orksop.
I think the practice to which C. T. refers must be widely spread. I have often seen such scraps picked up, and have done a little that way myself. The correct ritual, as I know it, is to pick up the iron in the right hand, spit on it, and throw it over the left shoulder. You must on no account look to see where it falls, or you will lose the good luck which your action is supposed to bring. I have been told that the idea is that you hit the devil who is behind you as to this
