Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/96

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. JULY 23, 1904.

with music and singing, not unassociated with whisky and eatables, as a refreshment after the toilsome ascent. As an instance of how the worship of Flora survives to-day in the "ornaments for your fire-stove," although that once familiar cry in the London streets has ceased, John Watson, in his * Poachers and Poaching,' 1891, says that in the parlour grate of an old widow- woman in the vale of Duddon the Duddon that Wordsworth has immortalized in his series of sonnets was invariably, in summer, a thick sod of purple heather in full bloom (p. 245).

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

It was an old custom annually on May Day for the lads of Millbrook to cross the Tamar and perambulate the streets of Devonport and Stoke, some bearing on their shoulders the full-rigged model of a ship, the hull buried in flowers, the masts about six feet high, with birds' eggs strung on the stays and halyards. Others bore aloft garlands of varied shapes and sizes. A fife band sometimes headed the processions, which I witnessed in the twenties of the last century.

N. D. D.

"WlTHEESHINS" (10 th S. i. 506). ME.

WILSON'S orthography is quite in accordance with precedent, as he would have discovered by referring to Jamiespn's Scottish dictionary instead of the 'Provincial Dictionary ' to which he alludes. Jamieson correctly defines the word as meaning "in the contrary direction," and then adds, "properly, contrary to the course of the sun." Had he said that con- trary to the course of the sun was a sense in which the term is popularly used he would have been correct, for this application of it lingers in Scotland at the present time. Gavin Douglas has the word in the two forms " widdirsinnis " and u widdersyns," and his meaning, as his editor Mr. Small points out, is simply " contrary to the usual way." The former spelling occurs in "The Dyrectioun of his Buik" appended to the Aneid, and the latter has its share in the description of ^Eneas at the critical moment which confronted him with the shade of Creusa. "Obstipui steteruntque comse, ' says Virgil in his realistic present- ment of the scene, and Douglas herein splendidly responding to Mr. Saintsbury's ideal conception of his translating faculty- gives this sonorous rendering :

Abaisit I wolx, and widdersyns start my hair. Here the wori simply signifies "contrari- wise, and thereby indicates its relation to Icel. vtlkr, contrary, and sinni, direction. .Later writers, gradually came to connect it

with ividdersones, " contrary to the sun's course," and this is the sense in which it is used by the modern farmer, who is appre- hensive of atmospheric troubles when the wind has gone withershins, or travelled from the west into the sweet south by the northern route. THOMAS BAYNE.

The statement that this word is not in Jamieson is a mistake. He gives a whole page to it, under the spelling Widdersinni&. It is a common word enough, and occurs in Gawain Douglas's translation of Virgil and in Montgomerie's ' Poems '; and it will appear in the ' Eng. Dialect Dictionary.' Jamieson even correctly compares it with the Mid. Du. wedersi7is, which Hexham explains by " other- wise, or in another manner." There is no- mystery about it at all. The suffix sinnis is simply the Icel. sinnis, the genitive (used adverbially) of sinni, a way, a course ; so- that the sense is precisely "in the contrary direction." This Icel. sinni is cognate with A.-S. sith, O.H.G. sind (gen. sinnes), Goth. sinths, a way, course, journey, duly given in my 'Concise Etym. Diet.' under the derived verb to send. The prefix is the O.Norse withr, Icel. vithr, with which the G. ivieder and A.-S. ivider are cognate.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

NATALESE (10 th S. i. 446, 515). I have to thank ME. J. DOEMEE and ME. JOHN B. WAINEWEIGHT for their answers to my query. May I point out, however, that Natal is a Portuguese word, Terra do Natal being the original name ? Of course, I am aware that Natal stands for Dies Natalis in the Latin, but yet I think the analogy of Portugal, Portugalia, Portuguez, Portugalensis, Portu- guese, ought to count for something. More- over, how can Natalian be, on any Latin criterion, a passable word 1 Is Australian for a native of the Terra Australis of the old charts really good Latin 1 Could Nata- lianus have been formed from Natalis or Natalia ? Rhsetia gives Rhseticus ; Ilhoetius, Rhoetus ; Pamphylia, Pamphylius ; Apulia, Apulicus and Apulus ; and Bsetis makes Bseticus, Bsetica ; Corsis, Corsus. Indeed, I might add that according to Lewis and Short's 'Latin Dictionary,' Natal is itself a substantive, being equivalent to Natale = a birthday festival, and given by Aulus Gellius as the title of a mime by Laberius. This gives the adjective Natalis, also used as a. substantive to mean birthday, anniversary,, the day of a martyr's death, whence, again,, come the adjectives Natalicius, Natalitius. Surely, therefore, even if Natalia be possible, Natalianus as an ethnic name is quite iin-