Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/139

 10* a. v. FEB. 10, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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strained from the whey. Kentish neighbours tell me that oast is Anglo-Saxon for dry.

H. SNOWDEN WARD. Hadlow, Kent.

"JAN KEES" (10 th S. iv. 509; v. 15). Du. ** Kees" is short for Cornelia. A Dutch boy is never called Cornelis in full, always "Kees." Kees or Keeshond is also the name for a particular kind of dog. Thirdly, "Kees" (pi. *' Keezen") is in the history of the Netherlands the nickname for a political party. Cf. Wijnne, 'Geschiedenis van het Vaderland,' p. 304. Wijune tells us that under Stadholder William V. they who belonged to the popular party were called " patriotten " or "Keezen." the origin of the latter name is obscure. Some historians derive it from the head of the popular party Cornelis de Gijzelaap, one of the chief magistrates of Dordrecht from 1779 to 1787. Another explanation is that the name was given to the party because many of them kept dogs called Keezen, or wore earrings shaped like such dogs. In the ' Woorden- schat,' by Taco de Beer and Laurillard (a work like Brewer's 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable '), s.v. ' Keezen,' the nickname is supposed to have arisen at Delft, where there was at the head of the citizens' military club about 1783 a captain whose head pre- sented a striking resemblance to that of a Keeshond. Hence the name of " Keezen " might have been given to the members of the club, and afterwards to the patriotic party.

It may be noted that "Jan" is exten- sively used in Dutch in a sort of general way to denote a person, e.g., "Jan Rap "(the mob, rabble), "Jan Klaassen" (a merry - andrew, Jack Pudding), and "Jan" (the waiter at a restaurant). The combination "Jan Kees" would probably mean "Jan the son of Kees." Or in this phrase kees might mean " cheese," as it is a dialect form of Du. Kaas. D. v. B.

Nijmegen, Holland.

In Ticknor's ' Life,' 1876, vol. ii. chap. vii. p 101, is an account of Ticknor's conversation with J. N. A. Thierry, when the latter sug- gested that "Yankee" was from the Dutch 4 'Jan," pronounced " Yan," and the dimi- nutive Jcee. RICHARD HEMMING.

ROCKEFELLER (10 th S. iv. 507). There can be little doubt that the original form was Rockafellow one of the several family names of English derivation ending in "fellow," of which Longfellow is the most famous, and a once notorious member was Stringfellow, a

leader of the Missouri " border ruffians " in the Kansas struggle of 1854 seg. The termi- nation can have nothing to do with the word "fellow," the sense " individual" being late and most of the prefixes incompatible ; and I suggest that it was originally "fallow," a ploughed field, forming thus one of the classes of farm-names which have so enriched family nomenclature. Those ending with "field" in English and "feld" in German; the " wangers " from old Gothic, as Ell- wanger (elves' field), Feuchtwanger (wet field, swampy meadow), Nicewonger (gneiss- wanger, granite field, rock farm, exactly correspondent to Rocky fallow) ; and the Scotch or Irish names of farms, as Lochhead or Loughhead (corrupted to Loyd and con- fused with Lloyd), Craigie, &c, will be remembered. Thus, Longfallow would be the long field ; Rockyfallow, the stony field ; the first element in Stringfallow I do nob know (a narrow strip along a piece of water or swamp or crag ?). The change to " fellow " would be easily accounted for by the English habit of assimilating a name the sense of which is forgotten to one with a plain meaning,; for this sense of "fallow" died out. FORREST MORGAN.

Hartford, Conn., U.S.A.

DEATH BIRDS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND (10 th 8. iv. 530). So far as Scotland is con- cerned, there is no ill-luck associated with the visit of a robin to a house. During winter storms a robin is a welcome partici- pant of the shelter of a Scottish cottage circle well known to me. Thomson's famous allusion a reminiscence of his Northern home contains a bright and natural view of such an incident :

Half afraid, he first

Against the window beats ; then brisk alights

On the warm hearth ; then, hopping o'er the floor,

Eyes all the smiling family askance.

The statement of G. W. that a super- stition of ill-luck on the subject prevails in England differs from the opinion among the English poets. Wordsworth's lines on 'The Redbreast' are full of cheerful reflection. His opening remarks are these :

Driven in by autumn's sharpening air

From half-stripped woods and pastures bare,

Brisk Robin seeks a kindlier home :

Not like a beggar is he come,

But enters as a looked-for guest,

Confiding in his ruddy breast,

As if it were a natural shield

Charged with a blazon on the field,

Due to that good and pious deed

Of which we in the ballad read.

Mr. Watkin Watkins, in his excellent volume on ' The Birds of Tennyson,' points