10* a. v. FEB. 10, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
Ill
strained from the whey. Kentish neighbours
tell me that oast is Anglo-Saxon for dry.
H. SNOWDEN WARD. Hadlow, Kent.
"JAN KEES" (10 th S. iv. 509; v. 15).
Du. ** Kees" is short for Cornelia. A Dutch
boy is never called Cornelis in full, always
"Kees." Kees or Keeshond is also the name
for a particular kind of dog. Thirdly,
"Kees" (pi. *' Keezen") is in the history of
the Netherlands the nickname for a political
party. Cf. Wijnne, 'Geschiedenis van het
Vaderland,' p. 304. Wijune tells us that
under Stadholder William V. they who
belonged to the popular party were called
" patriotten " or "Keezen." the origin of
the latter name is obscure. Some historians
derive it from the head of the popular party
Cornelis de Gijzelaap, one of the chief
magistrates of Dordrecht from 1779 to 1787.
Another explanation is that the name was
given to the party because many of them
kept dogs called Keezen, or wore earrings
shaped like such dogs. In the ' Woorden-
schat,' by Taco de Beer and Laurillard (a
work like Brewer's 'Dictionary of Phrase
and Fable '), s.v. ' Keezen,' the nickname is
supposed to have arisen at Delft, where
there was at the head of the citizens' military
club about 1783 a captain whose head pre-
sented a striking resemblance to that of a
Keeshond. Hence the name of " Keezen "
might have been given to the members of
the club, and afterwards to the patriotic
party.
It may be noted that "Jan" is exten- sively used in Dutch in a sort of general way to denote a person, e.g., "Jan Rap "(the mob, rabble), "Jan Klaassen" (a merry - andrew, Jack Pudding), and "Jan" (the waiter at a restaurant). The combination "Jan Kees" would probably mean "Jan the son of Kees." Or in this phrase kees might mean " cheese," as it is a dialect form of Du. Kaas. D. v. B.
Nijmegen, Holland.
In Ticknor's ' Life,' 1876, vol. ii. chap. vii. p 101, is an account of Ticknor's conversation with J. N. A. Thierry, when the latter sug- gested that "Yankee" was from the Dutch 4 'Jan," pronounced " Yan," and the dimi- nutive Jcee. RICHARD HEMMING.
ROCKEFELLER (10 th S. iv. 507). There can be little doubt that the original form was Rockafellow one of the several family names of English derivation ending in "fellow," of which Longfellow is the most famous, and a once notorious member was Stringfellow, a
leader of the Missouri " border ruffians " in
the Kansas struggle of 1854 seg. The termi-
nation can have nothing to do with the word
"fellow," the sense " individual" being late
and most of the prefixes incompatible ; and
I suggest that it was originally "fallow," a
ploughed field, forming thus one of the
classes of farm-names which have so enriched
family nomenclature. Those ending with
"field" in English and "feld" in German;
the " wangers " from old Gothic, as Ell-
wanger (elves' field), Feuchtwanger (wet
field, swampy meadow), Nicewonger (gneiss-
wanger, granite field, rock farm, exactly
correspondent to Rocky fallow) ; and the
Scotch or Irish names of farms, as Lochhead
or Loughhead (corrupted to Loyd and con-
fused with Lloyd), Craigie, &c , will be
remembered. Thus, Longfallow would be
the long field ; Rockyfallow, the stony field ;
the first element in Stringfallow I do nob
know (a narrow strip along a piece of water
or swamp or crag ?). The change to " fellow "
would be easily accounted for by the English
habit of assimilating a name the sense of
which is forgotten to one with a plain
meaning,; for this sense of "fallow" died
out. FORREST MORGAN.
Hartford, Conn., U.S.A.
DEATH BIRDS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND (10 th 8. iv. 530). So far as Scotland is con- cerned, there is no ill-luck associated with the visit of a robin to a house. During winter storms a robin is a welcome partici- pant of the shelter of a Scottish cottage circle well known to me. Thomson's famous allusion a reminiscence of his Northern home contains a bright and natural view of such an incident :
Half afraid, he first
Against the window beats ; then brisk alights
On the warm hearth ; then, hopping o'er the floor,
Eyes all the smiling family askance.
The statement of G. W. that a super- stition of ill-luck on the subject prevails in England differs from the opinion among the English poets. Wordsworth's lines on 'The Redbreast' are full of cheerful reflection. His opening remarks are these :
Driven in by autumn's sharpening air
From half-stripped woods and pastures bare,
Brisk Robin seeks a kindlier home :
Not like a beggar is he come,
But enters as a looked-for guest,
Confiding in his ruddy breast,
As if it were a natural shield
Charged with a blazon on the field,
Due to that good and pious deed
Of which we in the ballad read.
Mr. Watkin Watkins, in his excellent volume on ' The Birds of Tennyson,' points
