Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/95

 SLANG "rench novels, especially in Sue's Mysteres de Paris; indeed, the language of some of the characters in that work was so difficult to un- derstand that it was found necessary to pub- lish a Dictionnaire complet de Vargot employe dans les Mysteres de Paris. Some of the argot words are very expressive: thus, God is Mec des mecs (Matire des maUres, Master of mas- ters) ; the devil, boulanger (baker) ; prison, college or abbayede sots (college, fools' abbey) ; the gibbet, veuve (widow) ; to suffer capital punishment, epouser la veuve (to marry the widow); a cafe", locard (stamping mill); to eat, jouer des dominos (to play dominoes) ; an omnibus, four banal or face d face (parish oven, face to face); the sea, la grande tasse (the big cup) ; rain, bouillon de chien (dog soup) ; the moon, moucharde or cafarde (fe- male spy, hypocrite) ; an Englishman, goddem, rosbif, &c. In Spain the slang language is called germania (Lat. germanus, a full brother, hence faithful, true), from the brotherhoods or associations of thieves who make use of it. Some, with less probability, refer the name to the German origin of the earliest associations in Spain. Cervantes used some of its terms in "Don Quixote" and others of his works, and some are also to be found in the writings of Quevedo. In 1609 Juan Hidalgo compiled a book on the subject entitled Romances de ger- mania de varios autores, con su vocabulario, &c. In germania a highway robber is called picturesquely ermitano de camino (hermit of the road) ; death, cierta (the certain) ; suspi- cion, espino (a thorn); a person hanged, ra- cimo (bunch of grapes). In Portugal thieves' slang is called calao, perhaps from calar, to conceal. The slang of the Italian vagrants and thieves is called furlesco (from furbo, a quack, knave, rogue), and sometimes gergo, jargon. Some of its expressions are very sug- gestive: thus, hell is calda casa (hot house); a stone, artone di calcosa (earth bread); the mouth, caverna (cavern) ; the nose, flauto (flute) ; the tongue, ingegnosa (cunning) ; the stomach, fagiana (bean box) ; the beard, losco di lerlo (face forest). The thieves' slang of Germany is called Rothwalsch, from roth, a cant term for vagrant, and wdlsch, foreign. It is called also KoTcamloschen, from the Hebrew 'hakham, adroit, ingenious, and lashon, lan- guage. It is composed of LOAV, High, Jew, and gypsy German, has a grammar and almost a literature of its own, and two dialects, one in North and one in South Germany. Among its words are: custom house officer, AusMt- scher (one who rummages everything) ; law- yer, Diftler (one who finesses) ; night, schwarz (black); priest, Schwarzfarler (black dyer); gold, Fuchs (fox) ; sword, Kehrum (face about). One of the earliest and most curious books on Rothwalsch, entitled Von denfalschen Bettlern und Hirer B'iiberey (Wittenberg, 1528), has a preface by Martin Luther. A vocabulary of it was published in 1661, and since that time many other works have appeared. In Jutland SLATE 87 a slang allied to German cant is much spoken. The Czech thieves' cant is called hantyrka. The slang language of Holland is the bargoens or dieventael. In Norway, Sweden, and Den- mark, besides the fantasprog, spoken of in Sund's work, Om Fante eller Landstrygerfollcet y Norge (Christiania, 1850), are used the tater-. sproget, or gypsy gibberish, and the sleoier- sproget, the jargon of thieves and vagabonds. Russian thieves make use of different slang dialects, and several of the dissenting religious sects have languages peculiar to themselves. In Albania a slang language made up of a mix- ture of modern Greek, Wallachian, Italian, and Latin, with a few words of oriental invention, is spoken chiefly by quack doctors. In it the verbs signifying to practise medicine and' to cheat are synonymous. Asiatic criminals speak the lalaibalan, an artificial language made from the Arab, Persian, and Turkish vocabu- laries. The Indian Thugs speak the rama- seena language, a vocabulary and history of which appeared in Calcutta in 1836. SLATE, a rock of no definite composition, distinguished by its structure, which is of par- allel sheets or lamina?, easily separated. The term is in common use also applied to various rocks which do not possess the fissile charac- ter in so eminent a degree, and which are sometimes distinguished from the true slates by the name of schists; such are the mica, tal- cose, hornblende, and chlorite schists or slates. Shale differs from slate in its more earthy tex- ture and less tenacity, as well as want of the perfect slaty structure. But its composition is like that of the argillaceous or clay slate, which is the well known roofing and writing slate. This variety, which is the only slate of eco- nomical importance, is found among the met- amorphic rocks passing into mica slate, and with the strata of the Silurian period, and sometimes with those of still later origin. It is eminently characterized by splitting with ease into large smooth plates, which have a uniform degree of hardness, possess a dull or feeble lustre, and are blackish gray, bluish black, bluish or reddish brown, purplish, or greenish. The rock is often traversed by thin seams of quartz, but the prepared slates should be entirely free from foreign minerals, and es- pecially from iron pyrites, which are too often seen in yellow cubical crystals scattered over the surface of what would otherwise be excel- lent roofing slates. Such are unfit for writing or school slates; and for roofing slates they are objectionable on account of the pyrites weakening the slates, and also being liable to decompose after exposure for some time, and cause unsightly stains of oxide of iron. Car- bonate of lime is also sometimes present, and is likewise injurious. The best slates are dis- tinguished by an appearance of compactness and solidity in the blocks, with nothing to sug- gest their fissile character ; and yet this should be so perfect, that when fresh from the quarry these blocks may be split with greater ease than