Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/34

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL JAN. 10, im.

and then restoring them in his own way to their puzzled and anxious owners. The story is an interesting tribute to Chalmers's devotion to chemistry, for which he was favourably known throughout Fifeshire during his Kilraany pastorate. Among Chalmers's successors was a nephew of Sir David Rrewster's, the Kev. D. Brewster, a scholarly and genial man, who was long the trusted Clerk of his Presbytery. There followed him the Kev. D. P. Fenwick, one of the best Greek scholars trained at St. Andrews in the later nineteenth century. Mr. Fenwick, too, was Presbytery Clerk, but uncertain health prevented him from fulfil- ling his early promise. Kilmany is one of the rural parishes within which the railway projector has not yet exercised his skill.

THOMAS BAYNE.

" BEZIQUE." The derivation of this well- known game has been discussed more than once in 'N. & Q.,' without eliciting any satisfactory answer. (See 4 th S. iii. 80, 157, 253; 5 th S. i. 167, 233, 357, 419; ii. 58; 6 th S ix. 445 ) The suggestion most in favour was that it is from Italian bazzica, a game of cards mentioned as early as 1726 in a comedy by Michelangelo the younger. The objections to this theory are, firstly, that the Italian word is stressed upon its first syllable ; secondly, that the Italian game bears no resemblance to our game of bezique. Our lexicographers are there- fore doubtless right in ignoring this explanation. The ' Century Dictionary ' says bezique is "of obscure origin." The 'N.E.D.' says it is "of unknown origin." Under these circumstances it comes as a pleasant surprise to me to find in Prof. Haddon's 'Study of Man,' 1898 ("Progressive Science Series "), a quotation from Figura's monograph 'Das Schwirrholz in Galizien' (Globus, 1896, p. 226), which appears to settle this vexed question. I copy only the essential parts :

"The bull-roarer is used by the young herdsmen

when in good humour By swinging some time and

more quickly the high note passes into a low organ note. This tuning effect is called in Galicia, among

both Poles and Ruthenians, bzik This buzzing or

humming noise excites pasturing cattle Therefore

one says in Galicia that a man whose brain is no quite right has a bzik. It is supposed that the animals get into an idiotic condition owing to the buzzing of the bull-roarer. In what a curious waj> an idea may change maybe seen from the following It is well known that in the year 1831 thousand of young Poles emigrated to foreign parts, especiallj to France, and there a great number enlisted in the Algerian foreign legion. The Poles used to play cards, and their game was called bzik. The French men got to like the game; they could pronounc

he word, but in writing it down according to French irthography it became bezique. Thus this favourite o the bull-roarer."
 * ame of the French gambling clubs owes its name

Bzik is evidently connected with the verb izykac, to buzz. I have looked up the term n several Polish dictionaries. It is not defined as a card game, but merely as sig- nifying "crazedness." Perhaps the game was so called on account of the eccentricity its rules, which, as I can testify from experience, are very baffling to the novice. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

THE MONORAIL SYSTEM OF CONVEYANCE. [ believe that it is generally accepted that his system of railway was copied from some Spanish or South American method of con- duction. It appears from the following para- graph, copied from the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcv. pt. i. p. 628, 1825, that under the name of "suspension railway" the monorail system was invented and used in England seventy-seven years ago :

' A line of railway, nearly a mile long, on the suspension principle, haying been constructed at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, by Mr. Gibbs, of that place, it was lately opened for inspection before a numerous assemblage of spectators. The railway consists of a single elevated line of surface, sup- ported upon posts of wood, at the distance of about ben feet from each other. The average height of this road above the ground is from two to three feet. The carriage has two wheels, one placed before the other ; and two receptacles for goods, which are suspended, one on each side, the centre of gravity being below the surface of the rail. At two o'clock seven carriages were put in motion, each carriage containing an oblong box, suspended on either side of the rail line, in which three of the company were seated, with a quantity of bricks stowed beneath the seats for ballast; thus one horse drew 40 passengers, besides an immense weight of bricks. The experiment answered in every respect."

W. SYKES, M.D., F.S.A.

Exeter.

"SERMON" : "HOMILY." At 9 th S. x. 283 I invited attention to a somewhat remarkable instance of contraction in the meaning of a word, as exhibited in the term " asphyxia." I would now ask readers of ' N. & Q.' to consider a curious case, notof mere contraction in mean- ing, but of positive distortion in sense, which is presented by the word "sermon"; and I would ask how or why that word has come to be applied to the exhilarating addresses which we all know so well.

Now any decent Latin dictionary will show us that the word "sermo" means not only speech, or speaking in general, but speech carried on and participated in by two or more persons conversation, that is to say, or discussion and we have it on the express