Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/40

 30 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9"‘S- VI- JU1»Y14» 1900- Accordin to them, a tribe of whom Diodorus speaks le%t North Africa, conquered Pantel- laria and the Balearic Isles, where nuraghi may be seen, and, landing on the western coast of Sardinia, drove back the feeble in- habitants a ainst whom they erected these towers, whigh used to serve as arsenals, work- shops, and sometimes even as burying-places. Gradually villages grew up round them. All this was anterior to the Carthaginian con- iuest of Sardinia, though it is probable that hcenician traders supp ied the invaders with the bronze implements which they evidently used in smoothing some of the stones. T. P. Asmsrnonc. Timperley. PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY (9"' S. v. 496). -In cha .v. of the ‘Origin of the Ar 'ans’ (1890) I have dealt at some length with this question, referring more es cial y, on p. 265, to the ethnic causes of the diifergent phonetic tendencies among the nec-Latin peoples, showinlg how Latin was affected b the speech of the igurians, Celts, Iberians, geltiberians, Rhaetians and Dacians, thus giving rise to the Langue d’oc and the Langue d’oui, to the Castilian, Portuguese, Aragonese, the three Ladino dialects, and Roumanian. IsAAc TAYLOR. “ To HELP,” FOLLOWED BY AN INFINITIVE (9"‘ S. va 476).-The answer to this uestion is that in Anglo-Saxon and Middleqlinglish to was the sig? not of the infinitive, but of the gerund. L1 eall other grammatical questions, this usage can only be appreciated by students of historical grammar, and those who are unacquainted with the early stages of the language will miss the true account of the changes that have successively arisen. There is no particular virtue in the verb to help, since other verbs likewise take the in- fin1tive(without to) in our old authors. Shake- sgeare has: “to help unarm our Hector,” ‘ ro1l.,’III.i. 163; “Hector bade ask,” ‘Troil.,’ IV. v. 71 ; “ time bids be gone,” ‘ 2 Hen. IV.,’ I. iii. 110 ; “ we 'll come dress ou straight,” ‘ Mer. Wives ’ IV. ii. 84, &c. In the Authorized Version of the Bible we find: “Go seek the asses,” 1 Sam. ix. 3° and perhaps more ex- amlples may be found. he fact is, sim lv, that such usa es are archaic; for in (iid English the ingnitive was never preceded b the word to. This word was only prefixed, when the distinctive suffix -an, later -en, -e, was becoming of slight force, till at last the bare stem of the verb re- mained. To this day the to is never inserted after the somewhat queerl named “auxi- hary ” verbs ; we still say, “Iv will go,” “I dare say,” “I might ask.” &c. So also when the former verb is followed by a pronoun, as in “ Bid me discourse,” °‘ See me shoot,” “ Make him come,” &c. So also in some archaic phrases, as “ To bid farewell,” where fare is an old infinitive,* and well is the adverb. It is hardly worth while to pursue the subject ; it is easily understood by use of the historical method. WALTER W. SKEAT. Really it is too bad that the valuable space of ‘ N. & Q.’ should be occusied with remarks and inquiries which woul be shown to be entirely superfluous (if not absolutely incor- rect) by the simple process of referrin tothe ‘N.E.D.’  V. Sonnucn ANcEs'rons (9“‘ S. v. 496). -~ If D. R. would be content with an instance of a person now living whose grandfather might have fought at Culloden, would refer him to the case of the Rev. C. Gorin§ of Wisden, Sussex, whose grandfather, ir Charles Matthew Goring, was first married in 1731. Burke does not give the date of his birth. I do not know whether he did so  D C COUNTING ANo'rHnn’s BU'r'roNs (9“‘ S. v. 496).-In my early schooldays (1855-60) in Yorkshire we counted one another’s buttons, after thefashion of sortes, accordin to the order “ tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggarman, thief.” Sometimes “ apothe- cary, ploughboy,” came in. The first time after my ordination that I went into the Sunday School I noticed one little boy count- ing the buttons on my cassock, from the bottom upwards. Has anything been written about buttons? Whence such phrases as “ Dash my buttons,” “I don’t care a button,” and “He s got all his buttons on ”'l It is possible to have too many. It is related of some North American red men that they refused to listen to the teaching of an Eng- lish missionary because he could not readi y explain the existence of buttons on the back of is coat where they were of no use. Also there is the case of the Frenchman who com- mitted suicide because life was all “ huttoning and unbuttoning.” As for their significance, we may instance the buttons of the mandarins, and the sad history of Sir Walter Scott’s schoolfellow, whose wits went wool-gathering when he missed the familiar button. W. C. B. Every lad had to undergo “button count- ing,” and none seemed to relish it. Some alone, fare is in the imperative m. 1 1 l J _ A
 * Cf. Icel. bidia ...... 'vel fara ; when farewell is used