Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/609

 9- s. vi. DEC. 29, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 505 Infirmary, where he lay in that condition, without moving legs or arms or showing evidence of know- ledge of the outer world; for upwards of seven months. During all this time he never spoke, and •was supposed by his attendants to be profoundly unconscious. Evidence, however, has been forth- coming which shows that consciousness was not entirely in abeyance, inasmuch as when he recovered consciousness he recognized people who had been about him during the height of his period of trance, when he lay as helpless as a log, and when the strongest electrical stimulus, which would have given intense pain to an ordinary individual, failed to elicit the slightest response from him. The case is one which is described in medical books as anergic stupor or trance. He was fed on six pints of milk, four pints of beef tea, and two eggs daily, and he was massaged, the muscles rubbed daily, and the joints freely moved. He has now so far recovered that the doctors believe he will regain his normal condition. In his conversation he shows that he recollects events which occurred months back during his period of trance, one of which was the death of his brother, of which he was told, although at the time he gave no sign that he under- stood what was said to him." RICHARD EDGCUMBE. 33, Tedworth Square, Chelsea. "BLACKSTEAP": ORIGIN OF THE WORD.— Accustomed as I was to accept the above as the description of a treacly port, it was only recently my curiosity arose as to the origin of the term. The ' New English Dictionary' did not come to the rescue, and even the pages of ' N. & Q.' failed to furnish a de_riva- tion. A friend in Kensington has kindly made some search into the history of the word, but is also foiled. As the instances he has collected refer to several varieties of " blackstrap " it rnay be serviceable to record them. " A fictitious name, given by our sailors, to that kind of Mediterranean wine with which the ships are supplied on that station ; and which after the grog and wine usually served, they cannot, for a while, relish : hence to be driven above Gibraltar, is, as they call it, to be blackstrapped."—Falconer's ' Marine Dictionary," improved and enlarged by Dr. William Burney, London, 1830. "A Mediterranean wine such as is furnished to sailors" (quoted from ' Marine Dictionary'); " Spirituous liquor with molasses" (quoted from Bartlett).—Worcester's ' Dictionary of the English Language,' Phila., 1887. " A name of various beverages, (a) In the United States, a mixture of spirituous liquor, generally rum or whisky, with molasses and vinegar. 'A mug of the right blackttrap goes round from lip to lip. (Hawthorne, 'Twice-Told Tales,' ii.). (b) A sailor's term foi*any strong dark-coloured liquor, hence applied to the dark-red wines of the Mediterranean coasts."— Whitney's ' The Century Dictionary,' New York (and London), 1889. " Gin and molasses. ' The English sailors call the common wines of the Mediterranean blackstrap' (Falconer's 'Marine Dictionary"). 'Come, Molly dear, no blackstrap to-night, switchel or ginger pop" ('Margaret,' p. 300). 'Mister, I guess you never drink'd no blackstrap, did you? Why, bless you, it's the sweetest drink that ever streaked down a gullet" (Hill's 'Yankee Stories'). Blackstrap in old times was the common beverage of engine com- panies at fires in Boston, and is thus poetically alluded to by one of her writers :— But, oh ! let blackstrap's sable god deplore Those engine-heroes so renowned of yore ! ' Harvard Register,' p. 235." Bartlett's 'Dictionary of Americanisms,' fourth edition, 1877. "The dark country wine of the Mediterranean. Also, bad port, such as was served for the sick [!| in former times."—Smyth's 'Sailor's Word-Book,' 1867. The word blackstrap does not appear in the later editions of Johnson (editea by Todd and Latham) or in Brewer's ' Reader's Hand- book.' K. B. Upton. EPITAPH AT LEIGH.—In the churchyard of Leigh, near Bolton, will be found a tombstone bearing the following amazing sentence : "A virtuous woman is 5s. to her nusband." The explanation seems to be that space prevented " a crown " being cut in full, and the stone- mason argued that a crown equals five shillings. CHARLES HIATT. 22, Trafalgar Square, Chelsea, S.W. MAHOUN.—Dr. Brewer, in 'Phrase and Fable,' points out that Mahoun is a " name of contempt for Mahomet, a Moslem, a Moor," and adds, " In Scotland it used to mean devil." He further explains that it is a word of three syllables. As regards Scottish practice, it is likely that " auld Mahoun," immortalized by Burns, will continue to be one of the descrip- tive titles of Satan. Dunbar set the example in the ' Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis." We pronounce the word, however, as a dis- syllable, the usage having the support of both poets. Thus Dunbar, after stating the arrival of certain wantons in the royal presence, proceeds :— Bot jit luche nevir Mahoun; Quhill preistis come in with bair schevin nekkis, Than ail the feyndis lewche, and maid gekkis, Blak Belly and Bawsy Brown. Further, the culmination of the poem in a terribly realistic confusion follows on the instant when "cryd Mahoun for a Heleand pad^ane." Burns's use of the name is in his rollicking and jovial 'Exciseman,' which opens thus:— The de'il cam' fiddling through the town, An" danced awa' wi the Exciseman, And ilka wife cries—"Auld Mahoun, I wish you luck o' the prize, man !" Thanks very largely to the wholesome in- fluence of Burns himself, we do not attach so much importance to the " de'il" under any of his designations as our remote ancestors did,