Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/200

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. i. MAR. *, me. epigrams were selected from two thousand or more. In the same way the title-page of Caspar von Earth's 'Scioppius Excellens,' published in 1612, under the pseudonym of Tarræus Hebius (Robert Burton quotes from it under that name), informs us that these three books of epigrams are selections from various parts of thirty books. Barth, however, did not spare his readers, and next year appeared the ' Amphitheatrum seriorum jocorum, Libris XXX. Epigrammatum cons true turn,' in which there are frequent attacks on the epigrammatist John Owen.

(12 S. i. 151). The genesis of "Blighty" is as follows. From Arabic walá (=possess, dominate) come wáli, "governor," and wiláyat, "government or province of a wáli." In India wiláyat has acquired the meaning "country" in general, and "foreign country" in particular. Now the foreign country which has most affected India in these latter days is Europe ; so in common Indian parlance wildyat 1 '' Europe," and especially " England." From wildyat is regularly formed the adjective wildyati ; in Hindu patois, owing to its preference of b to w, wildyati has become bildti, and the British soldier has found " Blighty " more easy to pronounce than this last. Voild tout! JST. POWLETT, Col.

" Blighty " is the Hindustani beldti, as

pronounced m Dials. (Conf.

the latest dialect of Seven lidy" and " biby," for

" lady " and " baby.") Beldti is the ad- jectival of beldt (a broad, as in "art") which is a form popular among many Indians of wildyat, a word originally Arabic and adopted into that composite tongue, th< Urdu or Hindustani. The meaning o wildyat is " a foreign country," and wildyat /its adjective) means " foreign." In common Indian parlance they are particularly appliec to England, and thus, when not otherwise qualified, they are accepted as synonymous with " England " and " English." It scarcely needs saying that our brave boys at the front have picked up these words, beldt and beldti, from their gallant Indian com- rades.

The permutation of 6 and w or v is, of course, common to many languages ; e.g., the Greek digamma vau became v in Latin, as vis for is and cevum for aidn. In the Romance languages the Latin 6 became v, as the French avoir and the Italian avere for the

As to the strange language at the front of he Western seat of war Tommy Atkins las a most happy knack of converting oreign names of all sorts, not French only, nto English phonetic equivalents ; e.g., lug Street, for the Flemish Ploegstraete.

H. D. ELLIS. Conservative Club, St. James's Street, S.W.

A military friend of mine, who has been good deal in India, tells me that " Blighty "

s an Anglicized corruption of a Hindustani word Viliety, signifying Europe. Natives all refer to Europe, and England especially, as Viliety. Anything European is so called ;

r or example, Viliety pani means " soda- water." So it came about that soldiers in

tndia spoke of going home as " going back to Blighty " for many years past.

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

An old soldier recently told me that this word was in current use by our regular army in India many years ago. I believe that " B. B." is the regular, though unofficial description of any non-fatal wound serious enough to send its victim back to a base hospital Blighty Boy.

PRIVATE BRADSTOW.

[MR. J. E. DALLAS thanked for reply.l

HEART BURIAL : WILLIAM KING, LL.D.jl PRINCIPAL OF ST. MARY HALL, OXFORD (11 S. x. 431 ; 12 S. i. 73, 132, and earlier references). Having been directly invited, by MR. PIERPOINT to discover " whether thci silver case or vase," supposed to contain Dr. King's heart, " still exists," I wrote tci the Provost of Oriel, and subjoin his reply, the publication of which he kindly permits :

Oriel, Feb. 15, 1916. 1

MY DEAR PROVOST, Re Dr. King's heart. I have never seen a " silver case or vase," but certainly there stood in the north wall of thj cha tra

Latin habere. Ac.

The Slav Vasili is our Basil,

ipel of St. Mary Hall a marble vase, which, if _dition is to be believed, contained the heartr-- it stood over a marble tablet on which a Latin inscription, from Dr. King's own pen, described his character in pleasing terms. After the union with Oriel in 1896 the monuments in the chapsg were all moved into Oriel, and are now in thf? ante-chapel there.

As to the heart, let me add a reminiscence. It was always held that so restless and so turbulent was King's life that after his death the heart went

. . .j XT '4. ~^ I. .,,..., .^ ,,,! f-'Urtf'.

Now it so happened that I Tive~d in St. Mary Hall the head of my

on beating in its vase when

bed abutted on the wall in a recess in which the va.se stood. Barely, if ever, did I go to bed without hearing a sound as of tapping on the wall, the origin of which I could find nothing W