Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/198

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL MARCH 9, 1001.

have chased for years, but never caught. The word rubible occurs again in Chaucer, in connexion with the Idle Apprentice in ' The Cook's Tale.'

Another grave error has crept in anent the dulcimer. The dulcimer is identical with the cembalo played by the central figure in the familiar bands from Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow Hungary, which interrupt con- versation at the modern " rout."

" A pocket pistol " as a term for a flask is universal, but the glass or earthenware flask in the shape of a pistol with a cork in the muzzle is not "invariably antique." I saw two recently in Wardour Street, made, I dare swear, within twelve months in Venice or Bavaria. You can get them in the Frezzaria, and in the Marienstrasse at Munich in any quantity. EDWARD HERON- ALLEN.

It is curious to have Chaucer credited with a knowledge of arrowroot. There can be no doubt that his "galingale" is cjalanga, and very little that it is Alpinia galanga. a species of Zingiberacese, used for the same purposes as ginger. It occurs in the glossary at the end of Prof. Henslow's 'Aledical Works of the Fourteenth Century ' with a reference to Chaucer, and in the 'Alphita' glossary as follows : " Galanga, ciperus babilonicus idem ; gall, et angl. galyngale." In some old medical works it is met with as Maranta galanga, which may have led your correspondent to confuse it with arrowroot. C. C. B.

I think MR. LELAND is wrong in saying that Tyrwhitt was incorrect in defining "chirking " as chirping. The late Dr. Morris gives it that definition, and adds also " creaking." In ' The Sompnoure's Tale,' 96-7, we have

And kist her swete, and chirkith as a sparwe

With his lippes.

In 'The Persone's Tale,' section 'De Ira,' occurs "chirkyng of dores " ; and in 'The House of Fame,' Liber Tertius, 852-3,

This house was also ful of gygges,

And also ful eke of chirkynges.

" Gygges " are given in Dr. Morris's glossary as "irregular sounds produced by the wind?' Mr. Dobson has, in 'The Maltworm's Madrigal/

The sparrow when he spieth his Dear upon the tree He beateth-to his little wing ; ho chirketh lustily. ' The root idea throughout is that of whistling. The 'Promptorium Parvulorum' gives "Chyr- kyn, sibilo? and "Chyrkynge, sibilatus." The notes on "Chyrkyn" and "Cherkyn" arc interesting, especially the statement that in connexion with the line under notice the term is used " to express generally a disagree-

able sound." The sound, however, made by a cart-wheel need not be disagreeable, as those who have heard the "hillside music" from the brakes and wheels of quarry waggons whistling under the stress of their heavy blocks of stone can testify. Halliwell gives "Chirk, to chirp," and says it is applied to the noises of various animals. The ' H.E.D.' confirms the preceding statements, and further draws a distinction between "chark"(O.E. cearciari), which is associated with stridere, and "chirk," which is used to express a thinner sound.

In the short summer nights, when the sparrow talks in his sleep he unconsciously reproduces the vocal inflexions of the night- ingale. There is but a difference in sound. ARTHUR MAYALL.

A MUSSULMAN LEGEND OF JOB (9 th S. yii. 63). A few friendly notes on this interesting contribution by MR. MARCHANT may not be out of place here.

In line 8 " Khazret-Ayoub i.e., holy Job," is surely a mistake for Hazrat Ayoub (no hyphen), his highness Job. Musulmans (not, as in the title, with ss in middle of word), when speaking of the ancient prophets, in- variably prefix the word Hazrat to the name : Hazrat Ayiib, Hazrat Ibrahim, Hazrat Daiid, tfec., just as they invariably say Hazrat Isa (Jesus) and Hazrat Muhammad. "Like Aaron's rod or the staff in ' Tannhauser,' Job's staff broke into foliage." The Musulmans believe that it was a serpent into which Aaron's rod was changed. " Umala himself is not honoured as Khazret, holy." This was because he was not an ancient prophet, but a modern descendant. Hazrat is a femi- nine substantive, not an adjective, holy. Cf. eccelema in Italian. MICHAEL FERRAR.

Little Gidding, Ealing.

"MONEY TRUSTED" (9 th S. vii. 67). The first brief obtained by Lord Brougham was for the defence of a criminal at the Circuit Court of Justiciary at Perth. His lordship was then an advocate at the Scottish Bar. The agent who employed him was the late Mr. Thomas Gibson, writer in Perth, who afterwards became a farmer at Bel hie. He used in his latter days to refer with pride to the fact of his having been the first to retain the future Lord Chancellor. A. G. REID.

Auchterarder.

See a version of this story told of the great St. Ives, son of Ilelor, in 'Les Vies des Saints de Lretagne,' by Dom Guy-Alexis Lobineau, edition 1837, vol. iii. pp. 8-10. St. Ives was born in 1253. M P