Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/290

 >354 NOTES AND QUERIES. [o^iv.oor^m About twenty-five years ago I was at Miirren, in Switzerland, and there met Prof. Rolleston, of Oxford, who was collecting the folk-lore of the district. In the evenings we amused ourselves with charades, tableaux vivantf, recitations, music, &c. The professor gave t ,vo lectures upon two different evenings, in lioth of which he instanced many of our olu English childish stories, which, with very (.light variations, were recounted by children of other countries all over the world, their dissemination having been brought about by the merchants meeting at different fairs and telling these stories to each other, who in turn told them to their families on their return to their homes in distant parts. He said they mostly originated in India and Persia. C. Mason. 29, Emperor's Gate, S. W. Rolling-pins as Charms (9th S. iii. 245, 337, 392, 438; iv. 155, 235).-I observe that Pope, in his translation of the ' Iliad,' has the lines : With smiles she took the charm ; and smiling prest The powerful cestus to her snowy breast. Book xiv. 11. -255, 256. If the cestus is a charm, so may the rolling- pin be. But I think that Pope is careless in his use of the word. He is not translating Homer literally. Charms are a check to supernatural power, when they are used against witches and devils. They are also a check to natural power, as Milton's well- known lines show :— Nor uglier follow the Night hag, when called In secret, riding through the air, she conies, Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon Eclipses at their charms. ' Paradise Lost,' book ii. Medea by her charms stays the rivers :— Ilia reframat aquas, obliquaque flumina sistit. Coleridge, addressing Mont Blanc, says :— Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star In his steep course ? Charms have attractive as well as staying power :— Dueite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daph- nim. The word is properly applied to the attrac- tions of a woman and other attractions. E. Yardley. Massena (9th S. iii. 188, 356).—In respect of Disraeli's assertion that this famous general was a Jew, perhaps the following intimation of his calling in early life may not be un- interesting :— " 'I knew you when you wore a different-looking epaulette than that there,' said (iiorgio, ' and when you carried one of your father's meal sacks on your shoulder, instead of that bravery.' ' Parlileu ! so he did,' cried Massena, laughing heartily- ,' That scoundrel was always about our mill.'"—Vide the chapter "A Novel Council of War" in 'Maurice Tierney,' by Charles Lever. Henry Gerald Hope. Clapham, S.W. Pronunciation of " Water " (9th S. iv. 287). —The question of old pronunciations is too wide for general discussion ; for almost every word in the language has altered its pro- nunciation since early times, and some of them have done this five or six times. More- over, we require a phonetic alphabet to repre- sent the sounds. It is easiest to adopt Dr. Sweet's broad romic, for which see my 'Primer of Etymology,' p. 19. The A.-S. waiter was pronounced (wwter); this would rime, nearly, with Mod. E. patter. In some dialects of Early English the pronun- ciation was doubtless (wafer), with the a as in mod. Italian matto or in mod. German Wasser. In both instances the a was short. In later times the a was gradually lengthened, and at the same time altered in quality by the pre- ceding w, which lowered the tone of the vowel. The process was gradual, and varied indifferent parts of England in a manner impossible to tabulate ana discuss at present. That the a remained short in some dialects till a very late period, and indeed down to the present day, is a perfectly natural result. I take the opportunity of saying that I have heard in Shropshire the pronunciation (wei&), which represents phonetically the word which we spell waiter. If anything, the vowel-sound was somewhat more prolonged than we usually hear it in that word. Walter W. Skeat. Waiter is the dialect pronunciation. Read Tennyson's 'The Northern Cobbler':— 'E seeiims naw moor nor watter. An' some on 'cm said it wur watter. Thou can't graw this upo' watter. Mayhow and Skeat's ' Concise Dictionary of Middle English' gives vattir to be found in Morris and Skeat's ' Specimens of Early Eng- lish,' pt. ii. And Stratmann's 'Middle-English Dictionary' gives wattir as occurring in Bar- bour's ' Bruce,' ix. 683, about 1375. Arthur Mayall. [Many correspondents point out that the pro- nunciation matter is widespread.] Les Detenus (9th S. iv. 288).—In reply to the query on this subject, I may mention that I possess a small book entitled ' A Pic- ture of Verdun ; or, the English detained in France From the Portfolio of a Detenu,' second edition, in two volumes, London,