Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/276

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. xn. OCT. 2, 1915.

repainted in 1560, and that fifteen shillings was paid in that year for the work !

The probability would seem to be that in its original form ' The Trusty Servant ' was a painting of the early seventeenth century. JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.

GEBMANIA : TEDESCO (US. xi. 281, 349). Is not the Italian tedesco from the Latin theodiscus or iheotircus, used in the eighth century as a term for the vernacular of the German tribes, resting upon Old German theoda, which corresponds to the Anglo- Saxon theod, " people " ; Welsh tud or tut, district ; Breton tud, people ; Gothic ihiuda, people ; Old High German diot, Middle High German diet ? From the same root is not Teuto, Tuirso, or Tuisto, ancestral deity of the Germans, according to Tacitus ?

In Irish tuath, which may be allied, meant originally populus, people, which it glosses in the Wb MS. of Zeuss ; but, in accordance with the custom of naming the territory after its inhabitants, it came ultimately to signify district, which is now the sense in which it is used. I give an instance. Near Sheenhaven in Donegal is the district called the Doe. Its ancient name, as given by O'Heerin, is Tuath Bladhach, but in the ' Annals of the Four Masters ' and other authorities it is usually called Tuatha, i.e., districts. It was the inheritance of the MacSweenys, the chief of whom was called MacSweeny na d'Tuath, or, as it is pronounced and written in English, na Doe, i.e., of the districts, and it is from this appellation that the place came to be corruptly called Doe.

WlLLIAM MACARTHUB.

79, Talbot Street, Dublin.

FITZJAMES (11 S. xii. 100, 202). The list of names of owners of property in the town of Galway who were dispossessed by Crom- well includes Peter Browne Fitz-James (Cromwell's Roll, No. 4, Roll Office). I do not know if MB. HUMPHBEYS has noted the Irish branch of the family.

WILLIAM MACABTHHR.

79, Talbofc Street, Dublin.

BOOKWOBMS (11 S. xii. 138, 185, 208). It is impossible but that, during the more than two full generations that ' N. & Q.' has existed as a storehouse of quaint and often valuable and original information, many of the queries have been asked, and perhaps answered, more than once. That is the case with the questions propounded by MB. MASSINGHAM (p. 138). But that storehouse can only nowadays be effectively tapped by means of its excellent indexes. It is, therefore,

absolutely necessary that the references indicated by those indexes should be correctly given by correspondents, for nothing can be- more irritating than a wrong r?f erence.

In ST. S WITHIN' s reply "(p. 185) some two dozen references are given. I have gon& carefully through all of them, and find that three are incorrect. ST. SWITHIN has given these, I would presume, from the General Indexes to each Series, and as regards one- of them (4 S. vi. 597) the General Index itself is incorrect. It should be p. 527,. and is so given in the index to that volume. For the other two inaccuracies (6 S. x. 470 and xi. 456) I think, perhaps, your corre- spondent may be responsible. These should be pp. 473 and 455 respectively.

ST. SWITHIN has also omitted in his list of references and that a very important omission 6 S. vii. 505, inasmuch as it deals with what MB. MASSINGHAM especially asks for namely, the antidotes to the- ravages of bookworms.

As it may be inconvenient or impossible for MB. MASSINGHAM to refer to the somewhat scattered references, I hope I may be allowed to give a precis of the most useful or practical part of the information contained therein.

The antidotes suggested comprise :

(i.) Corrosive sublimate.

(ii.) Alum or vitriol mixed with the binder's paste. If too late for this to be done, a strong infusion of the same in the paste of the book-plate (if any).

(iii.) Corrosive sublimate and colocynth.

(iv.) The mixture of starch, instead of flour, in the binder's paste.

(v.) Sprinkling the inside of the covers, or " forrels," with powdered aJum and pepper.

(vi.) Strong-smelling herbs and camphor placed amongst the volumes.

(vii.) Finally, several correspondents suggest that the books should be more read, or, at least, more often aired, dusted, and shaken.

As to kinds of bookworms :

These are said to be of at least two kinds. I will not stay to give the entomo- logical names, but one kind is like the "death-watch," a small, dark - coloured beetle, which is also a wood-borer. Another is like a worm or grub found in a hazel nut or a cheese maggot. A third kind is a silver- shining insect with tapering triple-forked tail ; conf. the specimen illustrated in William Blades's ' Enemies of Books ' (1880). We call this kind the " silver-fish " in the