252
NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.iv. SEPT., ww.
Street. He would put down incredible
sums, and repeat the figures verbatim, getting
people in the audience to record the figures,
so that there should be no deception. He
taught his system to a great many dis-
tinguished people. He also invented a
system of colour to denote sounds. My
informant adds : " He was an odd figure,
-and wore an enormoiis brown-grey beard,
being well known in Hammersmith for
years." JOHN T. PAGE.
MADAME TAGLIONI (12 S. iv. 215). The only work that has ever been published respecting this famous danseuse is ' Six Sketches of Mdlle. Taglioni, drawn from life by A. E. Chalon, with poetic illustrations by F. W. N. Bayley. London, 1831." Of ourse there were long obituary notices at the time of her death in 1884, one of the iullest and best of which appeared in The Theatre for June of that year.
WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.
See the bibliographical and other refer- ences at the end of the account of her in the
- D.N.B.' L. L. K.
"BIAJEB" (12 S. iv. 187>. "Biajers" is a mistake or misprint for " Bajaus," a race of seafaring Malays, known to the English as sea-gipsies, and to Malays as " Orang Laut," or men of the sea. They are principally found in the Macassar Straits, "but wander all over Malaysia, having few permanent settlements ashore, but living in their prahu?, fishing, pearl-shelling, trepang- collectiag, &c. Formerly they had a bad reputation for piracy, and even now, it is said, small native craft meeting with a Bajau fleet are apt to " disappear without trace." They are nominally Moslems, but the settled Malays, who regard them much as we do the land gipsies, call them " kafirs " without religion, and even cannibals, though ^the latter charge is without foundation.
S. PONDER. Torquay.
" STUNT " (12 S. iv. 219). Probably con- nected with stont or stound, frequently used in the metrical Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees Soc. vol. Ixxxvii.) in the sense of "hour" or " time," and once corresponding to the Latin vices. Prior Turgot " used the bishop's stound," i.e., relieved the bishop by acting for him in some of his time ; see the Glossary. So " that little stunt " may mean " that little bit of time." However, we shall soon have all that is known about it in the
- N.E.D.' J. T. F.
" Stunt " is not, perhaps, a graceful woi
but is it uglier than, for example, " shunt
or "blunt" or "stop" 1 Anyway, it
hardly seems to lie with us to regard it as
of American introduction into our language.
Thus the ' Eiig. Dialect Diet.' gives the
word " stent " as "an allotted portion of
work, a fixed task," with quotations, the
earliest of which is 1773. It seems to be
known from Leicester up to Aberdeen, at
all events. What value may be given to
its mute e in some localities does not appear.
The American soil or atmosphere seems to
have suited its growth, and I am not sure
that our idiom is not, after all, enriched by
its re-introduction. DOUGLAS OWEN.
As I have always known it, " stunt " or " stint " is a piece of work expected to be done by an apprentice in a certain time ; and workmen also are expected to do a certain amount of work as a " stunt " or " stint." It is rather different from the " stunt " of the circus-rider or the music- hall artist, though that is also a piece of work done. I have heard workmen say, " There, I've done my stunt," on the completion of a job. THOS. RATCLIFFE.
Worksop.
" GOOD-NIGHT, AND JOY BE wf YE A' " (12 S. iv. 217). There are two versions of this song, whereof Sir Walter Scott gave one in his ' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' under the title of ' Armstrong's Good-night,' with a note explaining that it was said " to have been composed by one of the Armstrongs, executed for the murder of Sir John Carmichael of Edrom, Warden of the Middle Marches,' on June 16, 1600. It consists of a single stanza :
This night is my departing night,
For here nae langer may I stay ; There's neither friend nor foe o' mine
But wishes me away. What I hae done thro' lack o' wit
I never, never can recall ; I hope ye're a' my friends as yet ; Good-night, and joy be wi' ye all.
A somewhat different version, written more in accordance with Lowland Scots ortho- graphy, is given in Gilchrist's ' Scottish Songs Ancient and Modern ' (Edinburgh, James Stillie, 1865, p. 382).
Sir James Carmichael was waylaid by the Armstrongs and killed at a place called Raesknowes (now Pvaehills, the seat of Mr. Hope Johnstone), near Lochmaben, where he was about to hold a court of justice as Warden. Thomas Armstrong, called " Ringan's Tarn," is supposed to have com-
