Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/297

Rh strange mistake upon this article. We have usually in our fleet some large man of war, called the Anibal with great propriety, because it is so strong that it may defy any ball from a cannon. And such is the deplorable ignorance of our seamen, that they miscall it the Honey-ball.

Cartago was the most famous trading city in the world; where, in every street, there was many a cart a going, probably laden with merchants goods. See Alexander ab Alexandro, and Suidas upon the word Cartago.

The word Roman itself is perfectly English, like other words ending in man or men, as hangman, drayman, huntsman, and several others. It was formerly spelt Rowman, which is the same with Waterman. And therefore when we read of jesta (or, as it is corruptly spelt, gesta) Romanorum, it is to be understood of the rough manner of jesting used by watermen; who, upon the sides of rivers, would row man o'r um. This I think is clear enough to convince the most incredulous.

Misanthropus was the name of an ill-natured man, which he obtained by a custom of catching a great number of mice, then shutting them up in a room, and throwing a cat among them. Upon which his fellow citizens called him Mice and throw puss. The reader observes how much the orthography has been changed, without altering the sound: but such depravations we owe to the injury of time, and gross ignorance of transcribers.

Among the ancients, fortunetelling by the stars was a very beggarly trade. The professors lay upon straw, and their cabins were covered with the same materials: whence every one who followed that VOL. XVI.