Page:Alexander and Dindimus (Skeat 1878).djvu/91

 Eden. The Skt. form of Ganges is gañg'a', i.e. the 'goer,' the flowing; from gam, to go.

146. 'Saw men wander about on the other side of the river.'

151. Stronde, i.e. river; not 'stand' in the modern sense; cf. l. 165.

i.e. over those pebbles shone the beryl streams; Gawin Douglas, Æn. b.xii.prol. l. 60.

155. Heruest, harvest; here hte mouth of August; see the Latin text. In Palladius de Bragmanibus, ed. Bisse, p. 9, it is explained that the months of July and August were colder than the rest, and therefore healthier. So also St. Ambrose; p. 62 of the same volume.

156. As to these dragons, cf. Palladius de Bragmanibus, ed. Bisse, p. 10; and p. 63 of the same volume.

158. 'And grievous crocodiles that hindered the king.' Cocodrill is the usual old spelling; cf. cokedrill, King Alixaunder, ed. Weber, 5720. This spelling was almost universal, and not confined to English; cf. Low Lat. cocodrillus (see the Latin text), whence Span. cocodrillo, and Ital. coccodrillo. By a still further corruption the Low Lat. cocodrillus became cocatrix, whence our cockatrice; so that the common notion of the production of a cockatrice from an egg was no fable, but a fact.

171. 'The king soon commanded a good linquist to enquire quickly, in the speech of the country;' &c.

195. Doþ for to grete, i.e. causes Dindimus to be greeted; viz. by means of the letter.

197. Sendeþ him gon, sends (a man) to go to him.

198. Aftur him, i.e. below him, under him, his followers.

205. 'But we little believe that.'

214. Obviously corrupt. The correction is easy; an old w looks extremely like lk or ik, and the word sewe might easily have been read as seike, and then turned into sinke. Read--'and fonde, for mi miyyht, yyour fare to sewe,' i.e. and endeavour, as far as a Ican, to follow your habit of life. The phrase for my might is the right idiom.

221. For, because. 'Because I heard such a praise of your life.' The anonymous Latin text edited by Bisse (p. 85) begins at this point with the words "Sæpius ad aures meas fando pervenit," &c.

222. In many done þinguns, in things of many kinds; as in l. 999. Done is the pp. of do; lit. 'made,' and hence, make, fashion, kind; the pp. passing into a sb. by use. As to the phrase, it is an imitation of the common M.E. many kinnes thinges, i.e. things of many a kind; a phrase which has been twisted into the modern form 'many a kind of thing' by a complete inversion of the form of construction. So also we have alles kinnes thinges, things of every kind, corrupted to 'every kind of thing;' and again, what kinnes thinges, things of what kind, or 'what kind of thing.' See further in the note to