Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/301

 S.V.APRIL 14, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the company. Have their papers ever been printed or calendared ? The case was de- cided against the plaintiff, Lord Hardwicke saying "he knew no instance of restraining one trader from making use of the same mark with another." Q. V.

' THE THREE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM ' (9 th S. v 169). For two long articles on this rime see 'N. & Q.,' 1 st S. ii. 476, 520; also Halli- well's ' Nursery Rhymes,' wherein it is said :

"The foles of Gothan are mentioned as early as the fifteenth century in the ' Townley Mysteries, and at the commencement of the sixteenth century by Dr. Andrew Borcle."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

If MR. STAPLETON will hunt up the passage* cited in the ' H.E.D.,' s.v. 'Gotham,' he will probably find what he requires in the context of some of them. Failing that, he may refer to Ritson's * Gammer Gurton's Garland ' of circa 1760, where it is likely to be recorded.

Q. V.

'EXPOSTULATION' (9 th S. v. 127, 235). The reference that MR. DAVY gives is not the one wanted. The poem (or, perhaps, play) is quoted in the heading of chap. iv. of "Whist: its History and Practice. By an Amateur. Illus- trated by Kenny Meadows. London, 1843," as being taken from the ' Expostulation,' 1645. This work on whist is a humorous book ; but as a genuine quotation is given from Pope at the same place, there seems to be no reason to regard the other as a " sell," which possibly it might be. Perhaps, with these further particulars, MR. DAVY may be able to trace its source. J. S. M. T. *

VOLANT AS A CHRISTIAN NAME (9 th S. v. 229). Perhaps after H.M.S. Volante, a name of long standing afloat. In similar manner a soldier's infant was lately baptized Mod- derina, after the recent engagement on the Modder River. R. B.

Upton.

Volant may be a corruption of Volund. A celebrated Scandinavian hero was named Volund ; and he must have been well known in England at one time through the Saxons and the Danes. He fabricated marvellous arms arid armour. The story of Volund and the Valkyrs has some similarity to that in 4 Hassan of Balsora,' and to other legends of the same sort. The German name of Volund is Wielant, which is much like Volant.

E. YARDLEY.

" BIRD-EYED " (9 th S. v. 168, 235). Your correspondent's consultation of the * H.E.D.'

was perfunctory ; for the epithet is noticed there under "Bird, 8, c.,"as a "parasynthetic and similative" combination, "as bird-eyed, -fingered" and illustrated by a quotation dated 1590: "The fellowe is bird eyed, he startles and snuffes at euery shadow." This is not so old by seventeen years as the ex- ample from Bullein adduced by MR. PERCY SIMPSON, but it is epexegetic. The epithet is derived from the quick and sharp vision for which birds are noted. Who, rambling in the country, has not often startled a flight of birds that have caught sight of him without his perceiving them 1 The meaning in the quota- tion from Jonson's 'Fox' is "quick-sighted like a bird." The lady asks her tirewoman why she failed to observe an irregularity when she was dressing her hair, and upbraid's her for her present sharp sight : "What now? bird-eyed?" That is, "Why were you not bird-eyed sooner?" The application of the epithet to a horse is merely casual, like that of eagle-eyed or hawk-eyed (not to mention lynx-eyed) to a human being. F. ADAMS. 109, Albany Road, Camberwell.

From the use of the hood in covering the head of the hawk to prevent her flight, and the blinkers of the horse, it may be supposed that by bird-eyed is meant shy, wild-eyed, restive, flighty, hare-brained, feather-brained, &c. In these varying senses it appears to be applied in the citation given, leather-eyed would thus imply a keenness or alertness resembling that of a bird recovered from a period of moulting, as " in high feather."

" When a hawk is first taken, she is so blinded with a thread run through her eyelids that she sees not, or very little, the better to make her endure the hood." ' Gentleman's Recreation.'

Such recognition of animal characteristics as the words lynx-eyed, bird- eyed, eagle-eyed, hare- brained, &c., is again reflected in old Eng- lish botanical nomenclature, as in the case of the plants called bird's-eye, hawk weed, dog- rose, &C. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

Bird-eyed will be found in the ' H.E.D.,' s.v Bird,' 8, c., and feather-eyed, s.v. ' Feather,' 19. 3bviously the words require some explana- tion, which MR. SIMPSON'S researches may supply. Q. V.

" DOZZIL " OR " DOSSIL " (9 th S. iv. 479 ; v. 17, 187, 234). A "dozzil," or "dossil," is not in incolnshire a scarecrow. It is meant as an ornament, and has no connexion whatever with a " mawkin," which word in this county lenotes a scarecrow ; not mere floating rags astened to a bush or tree to protect the ruit, but a figure in the form of a man or a