Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/40

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. JAN. 13, im

Since the Frisian house described by Saxo Grammaticus was divided into 12 bays, repre- senting the 12 ounces into which a pound of silver, or in older times a pound of copper, was divided, we may be led to suspect that the word " ounce " means " bay." The Latin uncia, Old Frisian enze, may be related to dyKwv, a bend, bay, and to av/cos, a bend or hollow, a word which, according to Liddell and Scott, is akin to the Latin uncus. We have seen that the English bay, used as an architectural term, was otherwise known as a " goulfe." In Old Norse, too, this division of a building is called golf.* Evidently the comparison of this section of a building to a gulf, bay, or recess was widely spread, and had taken deep root in the mind. There must have been some reason for the division of the as, libra, or pound into 12 ounces ; and if a certain number of bays, such as 12 or 20, were taken as the principal unit of value, the name of this regular and well-defined architectural division would naturally become the name of a lower unit of value.

This equation of ounce and bay is sup- ported in another quarter. According to the * H.E.D.' the A.-S. gafol means interest on money, as well as tribute. The 'Epinal Glossary ' of A.D. 700 has " cere alieno, gaebuli." And then we have gaveller, a usurer, and gavelling, usury. Amongst the Romans the law of the Twelve Tables in B.C. 451 established unciarum fenus, i.e., a twelfth part of the principal or 8i per cent., pay- able yearly, as the normal rate of interest.! If the Roman bay had a fixed size, and if the Romans, like ourselves, sold hay or corn by the bay, it would be easy to pay interest in hay, and by the "gavel," or by the bay. And we know that they often paid interest in corn. It is remarkable that fenum means hay, and fenus interest. Cotgrave gives a French proverb, "De mauvais payeurs foin, ou paille" from a bad payer take hay or straw, i.e., get what you can. So English lawyers speak of a poor man as a man of straw. These sayings are reminiscences of a time when debts were paid in cattle and the produce of the field. I hope to deal with the penny in a subsequent article.

S. O. ADDY.

" room," " apartment." But it clearly means a bay of building. Thor's hall in the Edda is said to have consisted of 540 gdlfa and to have been the biggest house that had ever been made. Compare " In My Father's house are many mansions " (^ovai), John xiv. 2.
 * The word is usually rendered as " floor,"

f One ounce in twenty, or one bay of hay in twenty, would have been 5 per cent.

"Up, GUARDS, AND AT THEM!" (9 th S. iv. 497, 543.) There are not many people alive still who heard what passed from a witness of the scene. I am one who questioned General Alava himself, now more than fifty years ago, as to what ground there was for the story. The general told me that he never knew the Duke show excitement but twice. The first time was at Vittoria, when he drew his sword and waved on the line ; the second time was at Waterloo, on the occasion in question, when he took off his cocked hat and signalled to the line to stand up and advance, saying to Alava, "Now or never." H. R. GRENFELL.

"PAPAW" (9 th S. iv. 515). This is more learned than lucid. At first glance I fancied we were dealing with the Americanized papa, but the botanical papaw is defined as an American production, the Carica papaya, a "native" of South America, whence it seems to have spread ; so the root word may be accepted as Transatlantic in preference to Asiatic. So many Aztec words can be traced to Sanskrit that communication must have subsisted : the argument here is botanical.

A. H.

See the account in Yule's * Hobson-Jobson,' which shows that, as early as 1598, it was regarded as a West-Indian name, the fruit having been taken thence to India by way of the Philippines and Malacca. According to Oviedo, the Cuban name was papaya; and the Carib name is said to have been ababai. WALTER W. SKEAT.

ARTISTS' MISTAKES (9 th S. iv. 164, 237, 293). The admirable "Border Edition" of the Waverley novels is disfigured by some re- markable instances of the failure of artists to make sure that their drawings are not merely pretty, but illustrative of the text. We read : " There was among the ranks of the Disinherited Knight a champion in black armour, mounted on a black horse." The illustration, ' The Knight at the Hermit- age' ('Ivanhoe'), represents the horse as being white ; besides, the knight had dis- mounted when he " assailed the door of the hermitage with the butt of his lance." A few pages further on Cruikshank, in his interior view of the hermitage, gives us the black horse of the story. In the illustration Edie (' Antiquary ') is barefooted, notwith- standing that he tells us a moment before he appears at the window of Knock winnock Castle that he wears hobnailed shoes ; also see Edie in prison. In * Roland and Cathe- rine ' (' Abbot ') Roland should be seated on a