Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/193

 s. vil. MARCH 9, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

185

German name of the animal is Wiihlmaus, and I would rather suggest that "vole" is derived from wiihlen, to dig or burrow, as this seems to suit the habits of the creature, which is a vegetable and root feeder. Todd's ' John- son ' has the word, but the only reference it gives is to Thomas Bell's ' History of British Quadrupeds,' the first edition of which ap- peared in 1837. W. T. LYNN. Blackheath. [See Prof. Skeat's account of vole in 9 th S. iv. 222.]

" FOLIO," "QUARTO," &c. I venture to think that, if no one else will move in the matter, librarians should enter their protest against the present absurd system of indicat- ing the sizes of books. Of course, in the first instance the words folio, quarto, octavo, were terms of form-notation and not of size- notation ; still, so long as the words are used in a rough general sense there is not much harm done. What I complain of is the tiresome division and subdivision of the terms, till to the general public there arises a bewildering confusion : certainly many a book would be differently defined by different men.

I take from a batch of booksellers' cata- logues now before me the following specimens, confining myself, for the sake of brevity, to octavo only: Octavo (small, medium, square, octavo), crown octavo (large, small, extra, wide, crown), demy octavo, post octavo (small post), foolscap octavo (large, extra, foolscap), pott octavo (extra pott), royal octavo, imperial octavo. The catalogues were all English ; had foreign ones been included, some other varieties would have had to be introduced.

In the library I have the honour to be con- nected with the plan has long been adopted of indicating in the catalogue the sizes of modern books by the inches of height and width (e.g., 6 in. by 4 in.), which might be simplified by giving the height only, since in the great mass of books there is much the same proportion. A book would be called, e.g., six inches when of clear six and under seven. Persons who wish for greater precision might give the dimensions in millimetres, but per- haps for most people a reckoning by incnes, or by half-inches, would suffice. R. S.

[Tables of sizes of books are given in 6 th S. xi. 164 and 289. See also 6 th S. xi. 373 ; 7 th S. x. 407, 516 xi. 98.]

POINT DE GALLE. Apropos of Leghorn. CANON TAYLOR refers (ante, p. 110) to the corruptions that have befallen other place- names, and writes : " Galla, ' the stone,' the Singalese name of a rocky cape in Ceylon was made by the Portuguese into Point de Galle, the ' cock cape,' and the town adoptee

cock as its crest." I do not know who first suggested the above derivation for the name of Galle, but it is tolerably venerable, and it s about time it were laid to rest, for it is utterly untenable. The Sinhalese name is Galla, whereas a rock or stone in the same anguage is gala (with only one I and short a). There have been various suggestions as to the origin of Galla, but even the best native scholars appear to be unable satisfactorily to solve the difficulty. The statement that the Portuguese made the Sinhalese name into

Point de Galle" is incorrect and absurd. The earliest Portuguese writers on India agree in calling the place the port of Gale or Galle, and the village or town was invariably referred to by the Portuguese as Gate or Galle (the a being sometimes written a to show that it was pronounced long). The rocky point on which the Portuguese fort of Galle was erected was called Ponta de Galle, and the Dutch, who ousted the Portuguese from Ceylon, transferred this name to the town itself, sometimes writing it as one word, "Puntogale." After the British seizure of Ceylon the place continued to be called Point de Galle for many years, but it is now known simply as Galle (pronounced like Gaul). Yule, in ' Hobson-Jobson ' (s.v. 'Galle, Point de'), says, "The Portuguese gave the town for crest a cock (Gallo), a legitimate pun." I doubt the statement, and believe that the Dutch were the first to adopt the cock crest. The pun may be legitimate, but it is very far-fetched. * DONALD FERGUSON.

Croydon.

MACHYN'S 'DIARY,' 1550-63. At p. 310 of this ' Diary,' as edited by Nichols for the Camden Society from the Cottonian MS. (Brit. Mus.) Vit. F. v., we find the following curious, but (owing to injury by fire) un- fortunately imperfect entry :

"1563 The xxvj day of June ther was taken in Dystaffe lane the persun of Abchyrche be-syd Lon- don stone he havyng a wyff, and wher that he la

a-bowtt have hys pleasur on her, and offered her

serten money, and the pla^e [ap-]ponted, and she mad her fryndes [aware] of yt, and so they stod in a

plases tyll'he had mad off with gowne and'jakett,

and downe with hosse "

I have, however, recently chanced to meet with, in Lamb. MS. 306, fol. 71b, a contem- porary entry, apparently by John Sjtfy, the antiquary, which not only practically sup- plies the missing portions as above, but alfco throws further light on the subject, as follows :

" Anno 1563. y e 26. of June was a mynyster parson of sent marie abchurche, of sent martyns in Jar- mongarlane, <fe of one othar benitice in y e cuntrie,