Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/502

 NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. NOV. 21,

Reid spoke of " niottes," using quotation marks. (See Bartlett's ' Dictionary of Ame- ricanisms.') The following extracts have not before been quoted :

" It was about four months after these occurrences that with a friend I was traversing-. Western Texas.

Islands of Timber ('Motts'), with long belts of

forest fringing the streams, were dotted and stretched in most delightful variety over the broad ground- work of now undulating, now level prairie. ......After a pursuit of some twenty minutes at full

among the motts, and I reined up." 1845, American Revieiv, i. 128-9.
 * speed, it occurred to me that I might get lost

" The prairie is covered with fine mezquite grass, interspersed with mezquite trees and live-oak moats.

At the ' Twelve-mile Mot ' the road first touches

the Nueces For the sake of reference, the

following list of distances between water is sub- joined : From Corpus Christi to Twelve-mile Mot,

12 To the left are seen the low hills along the

Red river ; and to the right one continuous prairie,

with here and there mots of post oak Near the

Red river the soil is slightly sandy, and you meet with some few post-oak mots." 1849, Lieut. N. Michler, jun., in ' U.S. Public Documents,' Serial 562, No. 64 (1850), pp. 8, 12, 31, 34.

" As we are now on the high table-land, the trees diminish in number and size. A few mezquit trees, stunted, deformed, and decayed, appear on the

prairies, and occasionally a ' mot' of live-oaks

The rolling prairie continued without trees or shrubbery, save here and there a little mot or group.'; 1850, 1852, J. R. Bartlett, 'Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas,' fcc. (1856), i. 72; ii. 521.

"Usually these favorite situations are on the outskirts or surroundings of the prairies ; but, in many instances, the prairies themselves are inter- spersed with " mott*,' or ' inland* ' of timber, con- taining from a few rods to many acres." 1858, D. E. E. Braman, 'Information about Texas,' p. 63.

"The 'upper cross timber ' begins on Red river

the eastern portion running through Wise and

Parker counties, while the western extends irre- gularly, and frequently in patches and ' mots ' or small groves, through Jack, Young, Palo Pinto, and Erath, affording abundant timber (such as it is) to those counties." I. R. Worrall in * The Texas Almanac for 1868,' p. 150.

From this evidence it is clear that the word first came into use about 1844 ; that, though well established, it was not very common ; that it always appears in the forms " mot," " mott," or " motte," except in a single instance, where we find " moat " ; and that from the use of italics and quota- tion marks, as well as from the spelling, it was regarded as a foreign word. When Dr. Bradley states that the word " is appa- rently a special use of French motte, mound," he is clearly in accord with American lexi- cographers and in harmony with the evi- dence.

DR. PALMER, however, is not satisfied. The French origin, he declares, " seems very

improbable." Why ? Is it any more im- probable that the French in Texas called clumps of trees " mottes " than that the Americans in Texas called them "islands" ? Yet, as will presently be seen, the latter was a common term with the Americans.

Not content with disagreeing with Dr. Bradley, DR. PALMER advances a theory of his own. He says :

"It is, I submit, the same word as mote, Old Eng. mot, a spot, speck, or blemish a clump of trees being regarded as a dark patch or stain on the face of the landscape." This theory invites three comments.

First, the latest extract in the ' N.E.D.' for mote, meaning " a spot, a blemish," is. dated 1712. DR. PALMER would have us believe that a word which became obsolete in England about 1712, and which is not known to have been in use in America, suddenly put in an appearance in Texas in 1844. Such a notion, unsupported by a particle of evidence, will to many seem " very improbable."

Secondly, DR. PALMER quotes Florio, a writer on the English lakes, Merimee, and a recent English writer on Italy, as showing that a clump of trees was regarded " as a dark patch or stain on the face of the land- scape," and that the Italian word macchia means both a spot or stain and a wood. These citations are irrelevant. It matters, not what the " still resolute John " thought in 1598, nor what the author of a ' Guide to the Lakes ' thought in 1780. The only thing that concerns us is, What did the French and the Americans think about 1840?

Thirdly, had DR. PALMER been familiar with French and American writings on Texas, he would scarcely have written what he has about " a clump of trees being regarded as a dark patch or stain on the face of the landscape." Texas was visited in 1807 by Major Z. M. Pike, whose ' Sources of the Mississippi ' was published in 1810. It was not until about 1821 that American settlers moved to Texas, and not until about 1831 that Americans began to write books about Texas. The following extracts show how the early writers were impressed with the landscape :

"Toute la campagne environnante presente les sites les plus enchanteurs et les plus pittoresques : tandis que 1'ceil atteint a peine jusqu'a la cime orgueilleuse de ces grands arbres, prnemerits des forets d'Am6rique, d'agreables tapis de verdure rehaussent la beaute du paysage, a laquelle ajoutant encore de belles plantes et de charmans oiseaux." 1819, L. F. L. ? <Le Champ d'Asile, Tableau Topo- graphique et Historique du Texas,' pp. 60, 61.

"Cette zone est nominee par les habitants du Texas, le Rolling Le Rolling est la plus belle