Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/211

 n s. v. MAR 2, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and was of a grey colour. The wordT&ea is also given to denote the same fur, but this term was evidently used for those skins which had a certain amount of brownish-grey in them ; in fact, of the colour known as bis. This word bis is the same as bish or bysh or biss, which is used as a fur term, and is mentioned constantly in old ' Wardrobe Accounts,' &c. ; it is also to be found in ' The Master of Game,' see p. 74, 1909, 8vo ed. :

" Of conies I do not speak, for no man hunteth them unless it be bish-hunters, and they hunt them with ferrets and with long small hayes."

The note on the word in the Appendix, p. 206, is misleading, the real meaning being that the bish-hunters, when hunting for squirrels, also, incidentally, hunted conies ; otherwise no one else hunted them.

Now as regards minever : the air here also requires to be cleared, for a great deal of misconception as to the real meaning of the words vair and menu vair has arisen, and the following notes may perhaps help to a proper understanding :

" Vair. Quoy qu'il en soit, il est fort probable que le vair a este distingue de Gris, en ce que le vair estoit de peaux entieres de gris, qui sont dJversifiees naturellement de blanc et de gris, les pet its animaux ayans la dessous du venire blanc, & le dos gris, de sorte qu'estant consues ensemble sans art, elles formoient une variete de deux coulcurs." Ducange, ' Dissert. I.' (Joinville, S. Louys), p. 135.

Vair is thus a term to indicate the whole skin, from Latin varius, meaning here of more than one colour.

Meneuer : Menu-vairs : Minutus varius. The skin of the squirrel being thus grey on the back, and white on the belly, the latter came to be spoken of as minutus varius, i.e., varius which had been minutus, or diminished in size by having the grey back removed, the skin before this division being called gros vair.

Meniver was thus the belly of the squirrel in winter, consisting of white fur, with grey sides, the grey colouring extending slightly beneath the body.

This differentiation of vair into two classes is shown by the note mentioned above, in ' Liber Horn ' : " Md. qe Gris et bis est le dos en yuer desquirel et la uentre en yuer est meneuer."

Meneuer gross : Meneuer dimidio-puratus : Meneuer pur, or 'puratus. Minever seems to have been subdivided into three varieties.

1. Meneuer gross. This is the ordinary belly, neither trimmed nor reduced in size, and is generally called miniver by itself ;

the other varieties which have been reduced in size being specified as dimidio-puratus, or puratus. So that minever = minever gross, white belly with grey sides, untrimmed.

2. Meneuer dimidio-puratus.- This is a fur narrower than meneuer, but wider than meneuer pur', so that it would be white, with a narrow grey strip adherent on either side.

3. Meneuer pur', or puratus. This is now quite white, all the grey sides having been removed.

The relative widths of tnese three varieties is as five, four, and three, the largest being the meneuer gross. This is shown by the Skinners' Charter, A.D. 1327. wherein it is specified that the number of bellies required to make a hood, capucium, shall be, of meneuer 24 bellies, of meneuer semipuratus (=dim-idio puratus) 32 bellies, of meneuer puratus 40 bellies. And as the length of the skins is shown by the " Inspeximus " of the charter, 2 Eliz., as being 5 in. for both meneuer and meneuer pur., it is therefore clear that in the trans- ition from meneuer to the other varieties of di pur\ = dimidio-puratus} and pur', the width was reduced, and consequently the grey portions gradually eliminated.

It is equally clear that the statement in the ' N.E.D.,' sub voce ' Minever,' to the effect that " meniver pure " is " powdered minever," must have been made with an incomplete knowledge of the actual facts, for no amount of " powdering," i.e., sewing on little tails of black fur, could possibly get 40, or even 32, bellies into the same sized hood as one made of 24 bellies, if the skins were all of one size.

In further corroboration of the theory that meneuer pur' was white, and white only, may be adduced the ordinance of the Pelleters, A.D. 1385, which absolutely forbade the making up of bellies of calabre " except in their natural way, that is to say, the belly must have its black side, so that people may not be taken in by any falsity in the furs." This clearly was intended to prevent fraud, by the substitution of the trimmed belly of Calabrian fur for the meneuer purus of the North European squirrel. If the latter had not been trimmed down to an entirely white fur, there would have been no necessity for this strict ordinance, for the grey sides of the untrimmed belly would have easily dis- tinguished the fur of the gris proper from that of the calabre, which was much darker in fact, the ordinance calls it " black." The gris came from the North of Europe, Russia, and Siberia, whilst " Calaber " or " Calabre," or " Calabrian fur," came from the Calabrian forests, possibly in the district