the cat itself, comes out curiously in countries where the animal has been lately introduced by Englishmen. Thus boosi is the recognized word for cat in the Tonga Islands, no doubt from Captain Cook's time. Among Indian tribes of North- West America, pwsh, pish-pish, appear in native languages with the meaning of cat; and not only is the European cat called a puss puss in the Chinook Jargon, but in the same curious dialect the word is applied to a native beast, the cougar, now called ' hyas puss-puss,' i.e., 'great cat.'[1]
The derivation of names of animals in this manner from calls to them, may perhaps not have been unfrequent. It appears that huss! is a cry used in Switzerland to set dogs on to fight, as s—s! might be in England, and that the Swiss call a dog huss or hauss, possibly from this. We know the cry of dill! dilly! as a recognized call to ducks in England, and it is difficult to think it a corruption of any English word or phrase, for the Bohemians also call dlidli! to their ducks. Now, though dill or dilly may not be found in our dictionaries as the name for a duck, yet the way in which Hood can use it as such in one of his best-known comic poems, shows perfectly the easy and natural step by which such transitions can be made: —
'For Death among the water-lilies, Cried "Duc ad me" to all her dillies.'
In just the same way, because gee! is a usual call of the English waggoner to his horses, the word gee-gee has become a familiar nursery noun meaning a horse. And neither in such nursey words, nor in words coined in jest,
1 See Pictet, 'Origines Indo-Europ.' part i. p. 382; Caldwell, 'Gr. of Dravidian Langs.' p. 465; Wedgwood, Dic. s.v. 'puss,' &c. ; Mariner, 'Tonga Is. (Vocab.)'; Gibbs, 'Dic. of Chinook Jargon,' Smithsonian Coll. No. 161; Pandosy, 'Gr. and Dic. of Yakama,' Smithson. Contr. vol. iii.; compare J. L. Wilson, 'Mpongwe Gr.' p. 57. The Hindu child's call to the cat mun mun! may be from Hindust. mâno=cat. It. micio, Fr. mite, minon, Ger. mieze, &c.='cat,' and Sp. miz! Ger. minz! &c.='puss!' are from imitations of a mew.
- ↑ 1
