126
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL FEB. i<;, 1907.
roll, by masters called a cob) ; Flood (Fleet-
wood), biff (=to cane), stub (in one house
"root "=kick), gut (=to guzzle), dak
.(=doctor), clew (= to hit), blood ( = a pro-
minent boy).
4. Of the American type were : mystery bag (= rissole, or meatball), private tu(ition) with the guntz ( = punishment school in
charge of a sergeant).
5. Idioms used were : It 's rip ( = delight- ful), to stick it ( = endure, stand it), Is there a bully (crowd) at the tuck (shop) ? It 's on bell (nearly time for the bell to ring).
T. N.
PARISH BULL AND BOAR. The following is a sixteenth-century action for consequen- tial damage to parishioner Yelding, through the failure of parson Fay to observe the parish custom for the parson to keep the above animals :
" Trinity 36 Eliz. rot. 948. Accion sur le case per Yelding yers Fay, et declare que le custome del parish fuit que le parson ad gara un Bull et un Boar pur Fincrease del cattle des inhabitants deins le parish : et montre que le def esteant parson et le pi' inhabitant, le def n'ad garde le Bull n'un Boar per 4 ans ensemble al damage le pi'. Le def prise le custome per protestation, et le plea noil cntp\ Et adjudge sur demurrer pro quer', quia 1'accion gist."
MISTLETOE.
BLUNDER OF A TRANSLATOR OF THE VULGATE. A curious blunder in the A.-S. translation of Exod. xv. 1 may occasion trouble to the student of ' Eadwine's Canterbury Psalter' (E.E.T.S.), wherein " equum et ascensorem " (Canticum Moysi, v. 1) are rendered " Emlice & aestigende." Emlice, for efenlice, points, of course, to the translator having read equum as cequum.
H. P. L.
TARTAR"* LEGEND OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. To vol. xxi. of the Transactions of the Society for the Study of Archaeology, &c., in connexion with Kazan University' Mr. N. Y. Sarkin contributes the following Kirghiz tradition of Alexander of Macedon '(Iskander Zu'1-karnein). The monarch had horns, the existence of which his subjects did not suspect. As Iskander feared that the rumour would conduce to his death, every barber was killed after completing his task on the prince. Gratification of every earthly wish was not enough to satisfy him, and having heard of the water of immortality lie sent two vizirs, Kidir and Elias, in quest of it. During their absence Iskander required the services of a barber, and on this occasion promised to spare the man's life if he could keep the secret. The barber did so for some time, but reticence
became intolerable, so he whispered the secret
into a well. The fishes heard, repeated it
all over the steppe, and a herdsman watering
his flocks learned it. The prince's time to
die arrived, and when the emissaries returned
with the water it was too late to save him.
The vizirs Kidir and Elias became immortal,
the former of whom wanders invisibly over
the earth, seeking to aid good men, while
the latter chiefly watches over cattle. Some
Kirghiz believe that rain is the water of
immortality, while the vizirs appear to
correspond to " the Christian prophets "
Elijah and Elisha.*
While in the act of procuring the water Kidir and Elias noticed a stranger, and asked who he was and his business, remark- ing that he seemed to be a Mussulman (Eastern tradition says that Iskander \vas a Mussulman, a hard case to explain). The stranger reported that he was also a great prince whose every mortal wish had been fulfilled. Like Iskander, he desired im- mortality and quaffed of the spring. After a while his empire fell away, misfortunes came, and he went forth a wanderer over the world. Weary of earthly life, the stranger would have renounced both soul and body, were that possible ; but God did not permit it. Having fled the world, he had arrived at the spring again.
Needless to say, we have the stories of the asinine ears of the foolish Midas of Phrygia and the Wandering Jew, occurring in a strange conglomeration of Greek, Sla- vonic, and Christian tradition, attached to the name of Alexander the Great.
FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Streatham Common.
" IMPECUNIOSITY." In the ' N.E.D.' the first use of this word is given in a letter from Sir Walter Scott to Mr. Morritt of Eokeby, dated 1818. In the Globe edition of Gold- smith, Prof. Masson, the editor, states in his introduction (p. xxii) that the w^ord was invented by Hiffernan, a contemporary of Goldsmith. W. E. WILSON.
Ha wick.
" INCONSIDERATIVE." The ' H.E.D.' con- tains only one quotation, and that of the year 1684, illustrating the use of the word " inconsiderative." In ' A Vindication of the Divines of the Church of England,' &c. (London, 1689), ascribed by the Catalogue of the British Museum to T. Bainbrigg (100, i. 3), one finds, p. 12, these words: "are
- Cf. the shadowy thunder-deity Ilya Muromets.
In one of Lermontov's Eastern tales Khaderiliaz designates St. George.
