Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/211

 9* s. in. MAE. is, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

205

toperatriz y Keyna nostra tuno enla Ciudad

< e Segouia el anno d. M.D.xxxij. Juntamente ( onlas Cortes que su Magestad del Emperador i nel anno de. M.D.xxxiiij.," &c. At either side
 * Key nostro senor tuno enla villa de Madrid

< f the Spanish arms are two lines of the i olio wing quatrain :

UCon estas armas vencidos Moros, Turcos, Luteranos, Al yugo de Christianos (Seran toclos sometidos. Q.V.

" COW-RAKE." In the notice which appears ante, p. 160, of 'The Kecords of the Burgery (.f Sheffield,' by Mr. J. D. Leader, attention is drawn to the term " cowle-rake," which in Mr. Leader's book is explained as meaning a "coal-rake," the reviewer stating, however, that "it is almost certain that a cowl-rake has no connexion with coal." In Derbyshire the word "cow" means to draw or rake together, and is distinctive from the word "pow"=pull. There are two cow-rakes, or rather there were two in use when I was a boy. The first was a domestic implement, a small scraper with longish handle, the whole made of iron. This was used to " cow " the "ass-droppings " from the fire backwards and forwards over the " ass-grate," which in those days was let into the hearthstone of every cottage. Through the bars of the grate, the fine "ass" dropped into the "ass-hole" below. The cinders were then " cowed " into the " ass- pan " (coal shovel), and thrown on the " ass- back'^ the back of the fireplace.

The other " cow-rake " was a similar, but much larger implement, made of iron, but with a long wooden handle. This was used in the cow-shed or cow-house for removing the droppings from the heels of the cows every morning before milking was begun, and also at other times. After this morning work was done the cow-boy would say that he had "cow'd out th' cows." The word " cow "= draw or rake, was descriptive of the act of gathering rubbish or manure into a heap with a cow, or an ordinary toothed rake. " Cow up t' muck " would be an order given. "Ah've cow'd 't up" would be said when the work was done.

THOS. KATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

"BENICKE," A GHOST-WORD. In the dic- tionaries of Webster and Worcester I find benicke defined as a Turkish word for a tournament. In the more recent ' Century Dictionary' this word is absent; but there is benish, said to be Arabic for a pelisse, with a reference to Lane's 'Modern Egyptians.'

Apparently these two, benicke and benish differ in every respect in derivation, spell- ing, sound, and meaning yet they are one and the same word, and should be bracketed together by future lexicographers. Both are Turkish. The ' Century ' in ascribing an Arabic origin to one of them was obviously misled by the occurrence of the term in the Egyptian dialect. Both are written alike in Turkish ; the discrepancy between the Eng- lish orthographies is due to a misprint, "benicke" for beniche ; the latter is then seen at once to be merely a French disguise for benish. Of the two significations ("a display of horsemanship," "a horseman's cloak ") I do riot know which is the older, but they are clearly derivable from the same Turkish root, having the sense of " to ride," by means of the ordinary termination of verbal nouns, -ish. JAMES PLATT, Jun.

ALEXANDER FYFE. (See 2 nd S. iv. 108.) More than forty years ago inquiry was made concerning this author, who "published a play, ' The Royal Martyr ; or, King Charles the First,' 4to., 1709." No answer was elicited. I have recently come into pos- session of an earlier edition of the same work, entitled 'The Royal Martyr, K. Charles I. : an Opera.' This is a small 4to. pamphlet of 66 pp., printed sine loco in 1705, and dedicated to Queen Anne. The " opera " is written in heroic verse, and has no literary value. The word "Charles" is treated as a dissyllable, which strikes me as a novelty. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

BATAVIA. A well-known London second- hand bookseller has for some months past been cataloguing under " Batavia " an ' His- toria Batavica,' printed at Cologne in 1541. Batavia (in Java), it may be as well to point out, was not founded until 1619, twenty-three years after the first appearance of the Dutch in the East. DONALD FERGUSON.

A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY INTER- LUDE. Cataloguing 'Egio' under the head of anonymous plays no longer extant, Mr. F. G. Fleay, in his 'Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642,' says of it : " ' Egio.' ' An interlude written about the year 1560' (Halliwell). I know nothing of it. Is it extant?" Halliwell, whose 'Dic- tionary of Old Plays' is frequently inaccu- rate, was right in this case. He should have cited his authority, which evidently was the 'nTo>xo//,ovo-etoj/. The Poore Mans Librarie,' 1565, 'by William Alley, Bishop of Exeter, a folio miscellany in two volumes, dealing