Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/135

 s. m. FEB. ii, i90o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Hee-hee ("Little Laughter") and Elizabeth Robins's Princess Muckluck. One need only turn over the fine stories of these two authors to become quite learned in the jargon. One favourite expression is che-cha-quo, as London writes it, although it is really two words, and not three (eke, new, and chaquo, come). Elizabeth Robins spells it c/ieckalko, where the I is intended to be silent, and she often uses it attributively, e.g., "chechalko boots" (' Magnetic Xorth,'p. 31), " checJialko persons," &c. It means a greenhorn, new-comer, tender- foot, the "griffin " of Anglo-Indians. Potlach is a gift, the "curashaw" of Pidgin English. Puck-a-puck is a fight, and muck-a-muck means food generally, corresponding to Pidgin Eng- lish chow-chow. Turn-turn is the heart, and, according to Mr. Hale, is intended to repre- sent its beating, but we have a shrewd sus- picion that it is just our own "tummy." tiiwash, a term applied to Indians of different tribes, is said to be from the French sauvaye. There are several Russian and Siberian words still current in Alaska, relics of the Russian occupation. Our novelists use bidarra (canoe), 2wka (fur coat), and tundra (moorlands), which are Russian, while shaman (sorcerer) and nerka fa kind of salmon) are Tunguse. JAMES PLATT, Jun.

WK must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be sent to them direct.

"MASKYLL." In a petition of the Commons dated 1432 ('Rolls of Parliament,' iv. 405), which complains of deterioration in the quality of the wines of Saxony and Guienne, it is stated that these wines had formerly not more than four or five inches of lees in the "tonne maskyll," and three or four inches in the pipe. What was the "tonne maskyll"? and what is the etymology of the distinguishing epithet? Are there any other instances in which this term is used, either in English or in any other language 1 HEXRY BRADLEY.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.

QUEEX OF DUXCAX II. Who was the Queen of King Duncan II. of Scotland, d. 1094] It has been very generally assumed that King Duncan married Ethelreda of Duubar, daughter of Earl Gospatric and sister of Waldef I. of Allerdale. The autho- rity for this marriage appears to be a docu- ment known as the ' Cronicon Cumbria?,' of

which there seem to be three versions. The copy in Dugdale has the following paragraph relating to the marriage and connexion with Waldef and his son Alan :

"Cui Alauo successit Willelmus films Doncani, comes de Murreyse, nepos ipsius Alani et hreres, procreatus ex Ethreda sorore Waldevi patris sui." ' Monasticon, 3 iii. p. 585.

The .copy in Canon Prescott's 'Register of Wetheral Priory ' has not got the final words " patris sui," but the deed by Bain from the Tower Records has, and it may be given here as it is practically a translation :

" And William FitzDuncan, formerly Earl of Murreve [Moray], nephew of said Alan, begotten of Ethelreda, sister of his father Waldeve, suc- ceeded to Alan. 1 ' ' Calendar of Documents,' ii. p. 16.

The extraordinary thing is that Mr. Bain overlooked the absurdity of the document or translation, for how could William Fitz- Duncan the alleged son of Alan's aunt be Alan's nephew] A short tabular pedigree makes the point more clear:

Waldef

Ethelreda

Alan William FitzDuncan.

But there is another confusing point : in the Dugdale and Prescott copies of the docu- ment it is stated that Octreda, i.e. Ethelreda, married Waldeve, son of Gilmin. It there- fore seems clear that the ' Cronicon Gumbrise ' must not be trusted where it is not corrobo- rated by other deeds. A further instance of its untrustworthy character may be given. William FitzDuncau is said to have married Alice, daughter of Robert de Rumely, and the editors of ' Scottish Kings ' and the ' Scots Peerage ' have been misled into adopting that view. But Alice de Rumeli in her charter to St. Bees gives her father's name as William Meschin.

It appears to me extremely doubtful that King Duncan married Ethelreda, sister of Waldef, and it would be interesting to dis- cover the name of his queen. The fact that Duncan was Earl of Moray before he suc- ceeded to the throne suggests an alliance between him and the daughter of Lulach of Moray. This point is of the utmost import- ance, and curiously enough it has been totally overlooked by Scots genealogists. The mere fact that Duncan was Earl of Moray settles the real origin of the Morays, for the identity of Alexander de Moravia (1089-1150), the ancestor of the Moray s of Skelbo and Culbin, can no longer remain uncertain. He was be- yond doubt son of Duncan, and identical with Alexander, the nephew of King Alexander, who attested the foundation charter of Scone