Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/277

 2 S. IV. OCT., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

271

" KIMONO." What is the earliest instance of the use of this term by English writers ? There is no quotation in the ' N.E.D.' before 1887. In 1637, however, Peter Mundy, then at Macao (MS. Rawl. A. 315), in describing the dress of some Portuguese half-breed children, spoke of " their upper- most garmentts beeing little Kimaones, or Japan coates." Is any earlier instance of the use of the word known ?

R. C. TEMPLE.

WAB SLANG. In The Times Literary Supplement of Aug. 22, 1918, there appeared a review entitled ' L' Argot Poilu,' dealing with M. Albert Dauzat's ' L' Argot de la Guerre.' Has any similar work been under- taken for the words manufactured during the war by British Tommies ? The ex- pressions which are the outcome of the new junior service, the Royal Air Force, are specially interesting, and should be recorded without loss of time. R. C. TEMPLE.

[See ante, p. 270.]

" DOUGHBOYS." I quote the following from an article by Col. Repington in The Morning Post of Oct. 5 :

" Instead of one American army there will in 1919 be many. . . .If I have a preference, it is for the ' doughboys,' the doughty American infantry. I believe that the name comes from a Spanish word, and was given by the American cavalry to the infantry during the old war in Mexico, because the infantry were usually covered with dust. It does not much matter, but doughboys they are and will remain. They are a mighty fine infantry. They are soaked with the offensive spirit." Can any reader elucidate ? J. R. H.

ADAM AS FAMILY ANCESTOR. I find prefixed to two volumes by two very different sorts of person a detailed pedigree of the authors from Adam. The one is Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie (1611-61) in his ' Panto -chronochanon,' and the other is Lutfullah, " the Mohammedan Gentleman, " whose entertaining autobiography was pub- lished in 1857. I notice that the two pedigrees coincide from Adam down to Noah ; but after that the Scottish gentleman takes precedence of the Mohammedan, as he was descended from Japhet. The other traces his descent from a son named Nyam, born, I presume, after the Deluge. Is there any explanation of these pedigrees ? Are they illustrations of some old literary custom ? It is strange to find them in such widely separated quarters.

J. WlLLCOCK.

Lerwick.

THE PILGEIMS' ROAD IN EAST KENT. In the Ordnance, and in m'ost other, maps of Kent, the road part mere trackway, part by-lane, and part coinciding with present roads running from the coast through i Sutton, Tilmanstone, Chillenden, Goodne- I stone, and onwards to Canterbury, is called j " The Pilgrims' Way," and is commonly held or through, Belgium end the North of France to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. What is the actual authority for the statement that this read was so used ? Can any contemporary, or even fairly early, evidence be adduced ?
 * to be the r.oad used by pilgrims coming frcm,

A. THOMAS MORE.

SCOTS INJ5 SWEDEN. In 1907 a small volume on the above subject by T. A. Fischer was published in Edinburgh. It deals with the Scottish soldiers and merchants who emigrated to and settled in Sweden during the reigns of Eric XIV., Gustavxis Adolphus, Charles XII., and Gustavus III. It is an interesting book, but incomplete in many respects. Have any other works treating of Swedo-Scottish families and the relations between the two countries been published in Great Britain or America ?

I should also be glad to have a reference to any English works on Swedish history and biography (apart from those of Nisbet Bain, C. R. L. Fletcher, and J. Grant), and on travel in Sweden. Please reply direct.

(Hon.) G. A. SINCLAIR.

52 Oxford Terrace, W.2.

HENSLOWE AND BEN JONSON. In Gifford's ' Jonson,' ed. Cunningham, is printed a letter of Henslowe's of which much notice has been taken, giving date, place, and circumstance of the slaying of Gabriel Spencer the actor by " Bengemen Johnson, bricklayer " : the qualifying last word obviously is intended, just there, to be contumelious. This letter fixes a date later than the one usually given, and diversely important in the great dramatist's career, as that of his imprisonment, and his conversion, while in prison, to Catholicism. Recently I took up the late Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt's ' Shakespear,' published by Quaritch in 1902. On p. 3 I read in a foot-note : " The letter of Henslowe to Alleyn, 26 Sept., 1598, referring to Ben Jonson as a bricklayer, is doubtless a forgery." " Doubtless " is a strong word, though losing,, in modern usage, its finality. On what authoritySdid Mr. Carew Hazlitt found his statement here ? and is it accurate ? Will some Elizabethan scholar set me right ? L. I. GUINEY.