Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/494

486 illustrated 'The Spanish Lady. She certainly illustrated this old ballad, but did not write it. It is attributed to Thomas Deloney by Hazlitt in his edition of Ritson's 'Ancient Songs and Ballads,' 1877, p. 240. 1em

', 1617.'—The following list contains names which will be of interest to many of the readers of 'N. & Q.'; I think, therefore, it is worthy of a place in its pages. One name I can verify by a pedigree in my possession, which runs as follows:—

The list is as follows:—

"Annals of Aberdeen, 1617. The following attendants of the King [James VI.] were admitted Burgesses of Guild on this occasion:— Sir Thomas Gerard, Baronet, Gentleman of His Majesty's privy chamber. Sir Thomas Puiridok, one of His Majesty's Sellars. Sir Edward Zutche, one of the Gentlemen of the privy chamber. Sir George Gorine, Lieutenant of His Majesty's Pensioners. Sir John Leid, Sir Theobald Gorges, Gentlemen Ushers of His Majesty's privy chamber. Dr. Chalmers, Physician to His Majesty. George Spence, Esq., one of his Carvers. Francis Knighthe, one of his Cupbearers. Thomas Stephaine, Cupbearer extraordinary. David Ray, one of His Majesty's bodyguard. James Auchmunty, Patrick Abercromby, Richard Caulvele, Grooms of the privy chamber. Adam Hill, Page to His Majesty's privy chamber. John Freyand, Sergeant at arms. Duncan Primrose, Sergeant Surgeon. John Wolfrumla, Apothecary, and Archibald Armstrong." 'Aberdeen Council Register,' vol. xlviii. p. 110.

F. K. H.

"." The name of this bird is variously explained. According to one account (Trans. Phil. Soc., 1885-6, p. 92) it means "nose of bone," but the best dictionaries (Littré for French, the 'Century' for English) give their readers the choice between Burton's statement, that it is an imitation of the cry of the bird, and Buffon's, that it means "feather." Nobody seems to have taken the trouble to find out whence Buffon derived his information. I have traced it to Jean de Lery, 'Voyage au Brésil,' 1580, p. 154, where, under the head 'Poictral Jaune du Toucan, à quoy sert aux Sauvages,' we read, "Ils en portent ordinairement quand ils dansent, et pour ceste cause le nomment Toucantabourace, c'est à dire plume pour danser." It is clear from the garbled version of this in Buffon that he assumed toucan to mean "plume," and tabourace to mean "danser." I venture to suggest that Buffon guessed wrongly. In a Brazilian vocabulary nearly contemporary with De Lery, Montoya's, 1639, I find the entry, "Tuca, paxaro conocido; tucanda, plumas deste paxaro." This amounts to proof that the phrase quoted by De Lery divides into toucanta, "plume du toucan," and bourace, "danser." In other words, toucan does not mean "feather," and De Lery never said it did. The possible etymologies of the term are thus reduced from three to two, and the advantage is strikingly shown of the principle of going to the fountain-head for facts, so often advocated in these columns by.

, Jun.

"."—

In an annotation on the passage in 'Macbeth,' I. iii., "Like a rat without a tail," Steevens says, "It should be remembered (as it was the belief of the times) that though a witch could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail would still be wanting." Parey or Paré is fond of showing that monstrous births coincided with startling political events. I quote the phrase as casting possibly a light on Shakespeare.

H. T.

"."—In the text of the Authorized Version of the English Bible this word occurs only in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, where it is used in five passages (xl. 44 twice, 46, xlii! 15, and xliii. 4), and bears nearly the modern sense, except that "aspect" would now better express the idea, so that one is almost surprised that the revisers did not substitute that word for it. But in the margin of the A.V. of 1 Kings vii. 5 the expression "square in prospect" is offered as an alternative to the textual reading; and though it seems scarcely intelligible, the revisers have not only introduced it into the text, but substituted "prospects" (with marginal alternative "beams") for "windows" in the preceding verse (4). The Hebrew word which it translates is also used in the preceding chapter (vi. 4), where both our versions render it "windows." But the original word in the passages above referred to in Ezekiel is quite different, and is, in fact, the ordinary Hebrew word for "face," by which