296
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. CCT. 12, 1907.
I regret this idea is so often carried out by
printers. I was glad to observe that
' N. & Q.' (10 S. vi. 187) printed " autobus "
as one word, and why not " motorbus,"
" electrobus," &c. ? Why make the words
ugly with hyphens for half a century, which
is about the time it takes our printers to
begin to think they may venture to print
" Haymarket," " handbook," &c., without
hyphens ? RALPH THOMAS.
" GOTTMIERS " : MOROCCO TERM (10 S. viii. 247). MB. PLATT gives no ground for his odd surmise that " Goumiers " is a form of Khroumirs. "Goumiers" is a French word for the members of a " Goum." The latter word has been used for.." units" of the local native levies of th'e French in Algeria since the conquest in 1836, and " Goumiers " is equivalent to our Indian " Catch 'ems." D.
" Goumiers," which is a French derivative from "Goum," has nothing to do with the Khroumirs of Tunis. As MB. JAS. PLATT is aware, the letter qdf is usually pronounced as hard g in Northern Africa. "Goum" is Qaum, a tribe, pronounced in the Yemen, where Arabic pronunciation still adheres to classical usage, as " Qowm " (ow as in "cow"), and as " Qom " in India. In the debased Maghrabi dialect it is found as " Gum," or Gallice, " Goum." " Goumier," therefore, merely signifies a tribesman. W. F. PBIDEAUX.
" MORAL COURAGE" (10 S. viii. 229). The expression is found in Colton's ' Lacon ' (London, 1825), vol. i. p. 44 (first edition published in 1822) :
Cromwell had much of this decision in the camp, but in the church hypocrisy asserted her dominion, and sometimes neutralized his moral cowaye, never his physical."
A. H. ABKLE.
for thatching (A.-S, theccan). There are-
frequent mentions in documents relating to
Cheshire of the " garbse " or sheaves ex-
acted by the bedells.
As regards " 4 fulcenale," I suspect (from a statement in the inquisition where it occurs- bhat the sheriff was accustomed to clothe his bedells) that this word may be connected with " fullage," i.e., money paid for fulling cloth. Another not unlikely suggestion is that it is a mistake for " fouayle," fuel.
R. S. B.
Among the Scottish proverbs in Ray's ' Collection of Proverbs,' second edition, 1678, p. 363, is " Better a thigging mother^ nor a ryding father."
Ray is said to have taken his Scottish proverbs from the collection made by the- Rev. David Fergusson, who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1573, and died in 1598. If this- proverb was in Fergusson's collection, it was probably current by about the middle of the sixteenth century. See Dean Ram- say's ' Scottish Life and Character,' twen- tieth edition, 1871, pp. 166-72. W. S.
Ainsworth's ' Lat. - Eng. Dictionary r (Mediaeval Law Latin Appendix) gives a different account of putura. It says under potura : "A custom of foresters and others- to take horses' and men's meat gratis, of tenants and neighbouring inhabitants."
H. P. L.
SHEEP FAIR ON AN ANCIENT EARTH- WORK (10 S. viii. 250, 272). Yarnborough Castle, in the parish of Hanging Langford, Wilts, is the scene of a fair on 4 October. The fair is always referred to as Castle Fair. Yarnborough Castle is an extensive and perfect British camp. J. J. H.
'* THIGGYNG " : " FULCENALE " : " WARE-
LONDES " (10 S. vii. 507 ; viii. 92). I am
much obliged to PROF. SKEAT and others
for their suggestions. I should be disposed
to accept the former's derivation of " thig-
gyng " from A.-S. thiging, were it not for
another reference to it which I have found.
In a plea of Robert Grosvenor (14 Hen. VI.)
to hold the serjeancy of the Dee from Eton
Weir to Arnoldseyre, he claimed the right
to a ferry, and, in the case of local users,
to collect from them " thiggyng " in the
autumn " ad voluntatem vicinorum " ;
whilst strangers paid a halfpenny if mer-
chants, and if not, what they chose. In
view of the collection of the toll in the
autumn I suggest " thiggyng " means straw
An ancient earthwork points to the fact
that the site was one where people assembled
of old, and the celebrated Tan Hill Fair on
the Wiltshire Downs, near Devizes, held on
6 August, is another such fair. The date-
and the name (Tan, Celtic for fire) both
point to the time when heathen celebrations
may have taken place at this spot, at the*
August quarter of the May year. Further
information about fairs can be found in the
article by the Rev. J. Griffith in Nature of
5 September, ' The May or Gorsedd Year in
English and Welsh Fairs.' T. S. M.
No doubt such information as is desired! might be traced through a long and instruc- tive paper read by Mr. T. Davies Pryce at
