9* s. in. MAE. is, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
205
toperatriz y Keyna nostra tuno enla Ciudad
< e Segouia el anno d. M.D.xxxij. Juntamente ( onlas Cortes que su Magestad del Emperador
- Key nostro senor tuno enla villa de Madrid
i nel anno de. M.D.xxxiiij.," &c. At either side
< f the Spanish arms are two lines of the i olio wing quatrain :
UCon estas armas vencidos Moros, Turcos, Luteranos, Al yugo de Christianos (Seran toclos sometidos. Q.V.
" COW-RAKE." In the notice which appears ante, p. 160, of 'The Kecords of the Burgery (.f Sheffield,' by Mr. J. D. Leader, attention is drawn to the term " cowle-rake," which in Mr. Leader's book is explained as meaning a "coal-rake," the reviewer stating, however, that "it is almost certain that a cowl-rake has no connexion with coal." In Derbyshire the word "cow" means to draw or rake together, and is distinctive from the word "pow"=pull. There are two cow-rakes, or rather there were two in use when I was a boy. The first was a domestic implement, a small scraper with longish handle, the whole made of iron. This was used to " cow " the "ass-droppings " from the fire backwards and forwards over the " ass-grate," which in those days was let into the hearthstone of every cottage. Through the bars of the grate, the fine "ass" dropped into the "ass-hole" below. The cinders were then " cowed " into the " ass- pan " (coal shovel), and thrown on the " ass- back'^ the back of the fireplace.
The other " cow-rake " was a similar, but much larger implement, made of iron, but with a long wooden handle. This was used in the cow-shed or cow-house for removing the droppings from the heels of the cows every morning before milking was begun, and also at other times. After this morning work was done the cow-boy would say that he had "cow'd out th' cows." The word " cow "= draw or rake, was descriptive of the act of gathering rubbish or manure into a heap with a cow, or an ordinary toothed rake. " Cow up t' muck " would be an order given. "Ah've cow'd 't up" would be said when the work was done.
THOS. KATCLIFFE.
Worksop.
"BENICKE," A GHOST-WORD. In the dic- tionaries of Webster and Worcester I find benicke defined as a Turkish word for a tournament. In the more recent ' Century Dictionary' this word is absent; but there is benish, said to be Arabic for a pelisse, with a reference to Lane's 'Modern Egyptians.'
Apparently these two, benicke and benish
differ in every respect in derivation, spell-
ing, sound, and meaning yet they are one
and the same word, and should be bracketed
together by future lexicographers. Both are
Turkish. The ' Century ' in ascribing an
Arabic origin to one of them was obviously
misled by the occurrence of the term in the
Egyptian dialect. Both are written alike in
Turkish ; the discrepancy between the Eng-
lish orthographies is due to a misprint,
"benicke" for beniche ; the latter is then
seen at once to be merely a French disguise
for benish. Of the two significations ("a
display of horsemanship," "a horseman's
cloak ") I do riot know which is the older,
but they are clearly derivable from the same
Turkish root, having the sense of " to ride,"
by means of the ordinary termination of
verbal nouns, -ish. JAMES PLATT, Jun.
ALEXANDER FYFE. (See 2 nd S. iv. 108.) More than forty years ago inquiry was made concerning this author, who "published a play, ' The Royal Martyr ; or, King Charles the First,' 4to., 1709." No answer was elicited. I have recently come into pos- session of an earlier edition of the same work, entitled 'The Royal Martyr, K. Charles I. : an Opera.' This is a small 4to. pamphlet of 66 pp., printed sine loco in 1705, and dedicated to Queen Anne. The " opera " is written in heroic verse, and has no literary value. The word "Charles" is treated as a dissyllable, which strikes me as a novelty. RICHARD H. THORNTON.
Portland, Oregon.
BATAVIA. A well-known London second- hand bookseller has for some months past been cataloguing under " Batavia " an ' His- toria Batavica,' printed at Cologne in 1541. Batavia (in Java), it may be as well to point out, was not founded until 1619, twenty-three years after the first appearance of the Dutch in the East. DONALD FERGUSON.
A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY INTER-
LUDE. Cataloguing 'Egio' under the head
of anonymous plays no longer extant, Mr.
F. G. Fleay, in his 'Biographical Chronicle
of the English Drama, 1559-1642,' says of it :
" ' Egio.' ' An interlude written about the
year 1560' (Halliwell). I know nothing of
it. Is it extant?" Halliwell, whose 'Dic-
tionary of Old Plays' is frequently inaccu-
rate, was right in this case. He should have
cited his authority, which evidently was the
'nTo>xo//,ovo-etoj/. The Poore Mans Librarie,'
1565, 'by William Alley, Bishop of Exeter, a
folio miscellany in two volumes, dealing
