Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/398

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL 23, 1904.

Tecii.ied the extracts used in the book by reference to Laing's editions of early poets and his collations from the MS. of the ' King's Quair,' and implies that he did all this under his own hand, and without help or super- vision. It seems only fair, therefore, that ha should get credit for a piece of arduous work, honestly and successfully achieved. THOMAS BAYNE.

" PITA." In a former article (9 th S. ix. 226) I discussed the various theories which exist as to the etymology of the term pulque, -applied to a wine made from the American aloe. Pita, the term applied commercially to the fibre of the same plant, is equally of doubtful origin. The following are some possible and impossible suggestions

(a) The ' Century Dictionary ' calls it Mexican, for which there seems to be no evidence.

(b) Von Martius, 4 Beitrage,' 1867, guessed that it might be Carib.

(c) Barberena, ' Quicheismos,' 1894, rather speciously claims it for the Maya language of Yucatan.

(d) Others maintain that it is not American at all, but came into Spanish from the lost tongue of the Canary Islands.

(e) The great ' Worterbuch der Kechua Sprache,' by Tschudi, 1853, has an entry, "Pita, ein diinner Faden aus Bast." This seems to prove that this much- disputed word is Peruvian, and should be of interest to the editors of the 'N.E.D.' JAS. PL ATT, Jun.

CORNISH LEXICOLOGY. There can be no objection to the preservation in 'N. & Q.' of the information contained in the following letter to me:

13, Ham Street, Plymouth, 4 June, 1893.

Dear Sir, In the errata (' English-Cornish

Dictionary') I find under 'Owner' a reference

which is itself a mistake. How this happened 1 do

not now remember. In my 'English-Cornish

MH 0n nn?> P p> ? i, at J d xii> is a list of the Gwavas MHS. Lhis is, I believe, a complete list of the Cornish remains which have never been printed. AH the other Cornish remains are in print. I have no knowledge of Basque words, and cannot say what words are like Cornish; possibly there mav be many borrowed words. Still the Basque is so peculiar, and different from surrounding languages ancient and modern, that the origin of it would seem be very remote from where it is now spoken. But ot this you must be a far better judge than myself alter so long a study. By this post I send you the list of books (No. 133) by Mr. Bernard Quaritch, lo Piccadilly for April, 1893, in which on p. 16 yoil will find my book named and priced. Since the VsS 2 T g u f m Ea glish-Corni S h Dictionary,' in 3iHnn OnS ^en e "g a sed in writing a second Srnted { mis f n ?whmshed. This has not been i f K n am . S t ] 1 . r ? e tlines the amount of m the first edition ; but whether it will

ever see daylight I do not know, I am hoping that the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro, will publish it. But their funds are low, and I cannot afford to publish it at my own risk. The above MS., together with the MS. of the second edition of iny ' Glossary of the Cornish Dialect,' are both at present in the hands of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for their consideration. The ' Glossary of the Cornish Dialect ' is nearly, if not quite, out of sale. There may be a few copies left with Messrs. Netherton & Worth, Truro, the printers of this book. The second edition, in MS., is half as much bigger than the first edition in 8vo, issued in 1882. The Cornish dialect is unique, and con- tains a large number of words handed down and more or less changed from the ancient Cornish tongue. FRED. W. P. JAGO.

E. S. Dodgson, Esq., Paris.

Let us hope that Dr. Jago's manuscripts will be carefully edited, and then no less carefully kept in some public library in England or Wales. E. S. DODGSON.

PUTTING HEADS TOGETHER. The following interesting passage occurs in ' Spanish Life in Town and Country,' by L. Higgin :

"A curious survival exists in Valencia in the 'Tribunal de las Aguas,' which is presided over by three of the oldest men in the city ; it is a direct inheritance from the Moors, and from its verdict there is no appeal. Every Thursday the old men take their seats on a bench outside one of the doors of the. cathedral, and to them come all those who have disputes about irrigation, marshalled by two beadles in strange old-world uniforms. When both sides have been heard, the old men put their heads together under a cloak, or manta, and agree upon their judgment. The covering is then withdrawn, and the decision is announced. On one occasion they decreed that a certain man whom they considered in fault was to pay a fine. The unwary litigant, thinking that his case had not been properly heard, began to try to address the judges in mitigation of the sentence. ' But, Senores ' he began. ' Pay another peseta for speaking,' solemnly said the spokesman of the elders. ' Pero, Sefiores ' Una peseta mas !' solemnly returned the judge ; and at last, finding that each time he opened his lips cost him one more peseta, he soon gave up and retired." -P. 33.

I think it may be fairly doubted whether the tete-a-tete business was of Moorish origin, for I have in one of my scrapbooks an old newspaper cutting which professes to be citing 'N. & Q.' when it says :

" I have been assured by an excellent legal friend of mine that it used to be the custom in one of our northern counties at the quarter sessions, when the chairman had summed up, for him to conclude his address to the jury with the advice given by Sydney Smith to the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls, 'to lay their heads together' with a view of producing the best and hardest pavement. I am told that no sooner were the words uttered from the bench, ' Now, gentlemen, lay your heads together and con- sider your verdict,' than down went every head in the box, and an official approached armed with a long wand. If any unlucky juror inadvertently