Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/90

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. FEB. 3, 1900.

appears as horn in Corpus 267, which form belongs apparently to type 1, produced by late metathesis. Dieter (Ueber Sprache und Mundart der altesten engl. Derikmaler,' Gottingen, 1885, pp. 51-53) has given a list of the metathesized forms in Epinal and Corpus which appears to be complete, and in this connexion cf. also Zeuner, 'Sprach. d. kentischen Psalters,' 45. But the whole question of metathesis in O.E. and Angl.- Fris. requires investigation. What is needed is a complete account of the process, with a classification of forms according to dialect and period (i. <?., whether due to first or to second metathesis). Further, the distribution of metathesized forms in all the modern English dialects must be determined, and the dis- tinction observed between the early and the later processes. This should be done, not only for the metathesis of r and I, but also for that of sk (ks). The forms tusk, ask, &c., have long been explained by the assumption of a second metathesis, of course much later than that of r. A special investigation of the development of the O.E. -sc forms, based upon very copious material, has convinced me that tusk, &c., cannot be explained in this way, for the simple reason that what evi- dence there is seems against such a change as that of ks from earlier -sc back to sk ever having occurred. In the mean time I hope that some one, with more leisure than I at present have, will take up the suggestion contained in this article. I believe that such an investigation would establish the reality of the three types, *ron, *rcen, and *arn, which I have postulated, and would also prove the existence in Anglo-Frisian of the early process of metathesis prior to Brechung and f umlaut. HY. CECIL WYLD.

University College, Liverpool.

THE WOODEN HORSE. THERE is an illustration of the wooden horse in Jacques Callot's 'Les Miseres,' which was published in Paris in 1633 ; but it is uncertain when that punishment was first introduced into the French army. Littre assigns no date, and simply describes the cheval de bois as " piece de bois qui, taillee en arete et mise sur des treteaux, servait a une punition de soldat." Nor is it clear when the wooden horse first came into use among British troops, but it is mentioned in the Articles of War of 1640. Carlyle, treating of events in England in 1649, alludes to the punishment, and adds :

wooden horse? He is a mere triangular ridge or
 * ' Do military men of theso times understand the

roof of wood, set on four sticks, with absurd head and tail superadded ; and you ride him bare-backed, in face of the world, frequently with muskets tied to your feet, in a very uneasy manner ! "

Immediately after the Restoration the wooden horse became a very frequent punishment for military delinquents, as War Office records attest, and it is note- worthy that the allusion to it m ' Hudibras ' is in part iii., which was not published until 1678 :

Worse Than managing a wooden horse.

Canto iii. 1. 212.

In that year (1678) a new wooden horse was provided at Rochester at a cost of forty shillings. The price, however, varied, and in 1701 the Coldstream Guards secured one for seventeen shillings and sixpence. It was thought that a cavalry man, from his acquired habits of gripping by his thighs, knees, and calves, would be able to find some relief, so the punishment was used almost exclusively for infantry, and in order to counteract any effort for relief it was often the sentence of a court-martial that four muskets, or a heavy shot, should be fastened to each of the culprit's heels. His hands were also tied behind his back.

By way of exciting the ridicule of spec- tators it was sometimes ordered that the culprit should sit with his face to the horse's tail, or that jugs, or cups, or other articles be suspended about him as indicating the nature of his offence, or that a written scroll stating his crime be pinned to him ; and there are two instances on record of putting a petticoat on him, one a sentence for cowardice, the other for beating and ill-treating his wife.

In Callot's illustration four men are shown on one wooden horse, each man with his hands tied behind his back. In Fleming's ' Deutsche Soldat,' 1726, there is an illustration showing three men on one horse, and their hands are not tied.

The duration of the punishment was from half an hour to three hours, sometimes one day only, sometimes every day for a week. Some punishments in our army fell into a sortof partial disuse before being finally discontinued that is, they remained in use at a few stations only ; and the wooden horse, like the " strappado," " neck and heels," and the " picket," fell into disrepute, as it was found to injure its victims so severely that many of them had to be at once discharged from military service.

Grose states that the remains of a wooden horse were standing on the parade at Ports- mouth in 1760, but it must not be inferred that the punishment had wholly ceased before