Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/214

172 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S. X. MAR, 4, 1922. became the property of M. Maelzel, who sold the key to Prince Eugene for 30,000 francs, repurchasing it for the interest on the money! Maelzel eventually arrived in London in 1819. Games played by the figure were taken down and published in a small volume by Mr. Hunneman in 1820. During this final visit to England several essays on the subject appeared, one by an Oxford graduate, 'Observations on the Automaton Chess-Player' (1819), giving a full description of the figure and its mode of play. Robert Willis of Cambridge (1800-1875, see 'D.N.B.') brought out an interesting work on the subject in 1821, 'An Attempt to Analyse the Automaton Chess-Player,' and this proves that a man might be concealed in the contrivance. Dr. Brewster copied this account in his work on natural magic. Walker now tells us that "the man who really played the Chess-Automaton was concealed in the chest," and describes how this could be so that he could move about while the works were being exhibited with apparent candour, and how he controlled the movements of the figure after the moves of the game had been indicated on the underside of the chess-board, but the ingenious details must be perused in Mr. Walker's book, as they occupy some space. Mouret, a great chess-player, was the chief "jack-in-the-box," for Maelzel, and they appeared in Spring Gardens and St. James's Street. The automaton travelled over Europe and eventually arrived in America. The last Mr. Walker tells us of it is that "for some years the figure has lain in a state of inglorious repose in a warehouse at New Orleans," so the note by L. L. K. in 'N. & Q.' that it perished in a conflagration is of interest; this may have occurred through the candle that was used when exhibiting the interior, or that used by the enclosed player, after taking up his final position.

THE ENGLISH " H " : CELTIC, LATIN AND GERMAN INFLUENCES (12 S. x. 32, 116). Dropping the h origin of " India." The Sanskrit word for the ocean, wide estuary, great river, was (and is) Sindhu ; root Syand, fluidity, seen in Syundu, the name of one of the three principal rivers in Kashmir, still called by ordinary Indians and Europeans the Sindh. In contemporary vernacular speech, the Sanskrit Sindhu became Sindh and Bind, and was applied specially to the great western river of Northern India, known to us now as the Indus, and also to the delta and country round it. Hence the modern. Indian province of Sindh or Sind. There is a well-known phonological law by which the sibilant breathing s becomes transferred lower down the mouth to the- breathing h. Hence very long ago the name Sind became Hind to the people west of modern India, who still say Hind for Sind, e.g., Persians and Arabs. Long ago, too very long ago the Greeks, with their love of fitting foreign words to their own tongue, adopted 'Ivios for the river, and 'lv ia for the country and land, with 'IvSoi for the people. These the Romans transformed again into " Indus," " India," without even the very light breathing indicated by the Greek spelling. There was a clear dropping of h here, as the- older form Hind is still in common use, as is seen in the term Qaisar-i-Hind (Caesar of Hind) for the title of the King of England as Emperor of India ; while in poetical par- lance Ind is still a common term. We still use the aspirated form in the very common terms Hindostan, Hindustani. In fact, by the ordinary use of the forms Sind, Hind and India, we are unconsciously still disclosing the history of " India " in our everyday speech. There is yet another very interesting form, Scinde, which was common until quite lately, and is still sometimes seen as the name of the province we now write as Sind. This was due to the general European influence, arising ultimately out of old Latin usage, which produced such words as scimitar, scion, scent and many others. I have often wondered whether educated people grasp that when our dear friends Tommy and his wife talk about " Hindia," they are etymologically right, as they are, by the way, When, in discussing the late war, they talk about " Wypers." The use of the word "India" for that portion only of the whole country which was known to the speaker or writer has been common through all history from the days of the Persians, Greeks and Romans to those of the Portuguese, English and other Euro- peans, to say nothing of the Mughals or Mongols. R. C. TEMPLE. EBGHUM (12 S. 9, 55, 99, 136). I now find that "Ralph de Urgham " occurs in Hardy's ' Le Neve ' as prebendary of Decem Libraru<m in Lincoln " some time between 1306 and 1360." J- T. F. Winter ton, Lines.