322
NOTES. AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL OCT. 19, 1901.
dialect word " cop," meaning to catch in the
sense of to take, then one would know, apart
from etymology, whether "copped" and
" couped " are synonymous or associated. It
will be seen readily also that this would be a
language-dialect dictionary, as distinguished
from the dialect-language form of the ' E.D.D.'
The principle on which the select lists of
Latin and Greek words in the appendix to
Prof. Skeat's 'Concise Etymological Dic-
tionary' are arranged take, for example,
the words " lattice- work" and " cancel," which
are derived from cancri shows what might
be done in the way of further progress in this
important dictionary-making period. A dic-
tionary of synonyms, even if compiled on the
widest possible lines, would cover only part
of the ground. ARTHUR MAYALL.
Mossley, Lanes.
"TOBACCO": " PIROGUE." " Whether 'to- bacco ' is Haytian or Caribbean I cannot as yet discover," said Prof. Skeat some years ago (Trans. Phil. Soc., 1888-90, p. 147). In the new edition (1901) of his valuable 'Concise Etymological Dictionary ' he describes it as a word taken from the language of Hayti, but his only authority for this is Clavigero(1780), who, from his late date, is practically useless. There is an older and far more explicit writer, namely, Oviedo (1535), whom the professor has overlooked. The edition I use of his works is that published by the Madrid Aca demy in 1851. I find two important passages bearing on this term. The first of these states that it belongs to the language of Hayti (" En lengua desta isla de Haiti 6 Espanola se dice tabaco," vol. iv. p. 96). The other states that "a aquel tal instrumento con que
toman el humo llaman los Indios tabaco
e no a la hierva, 6 sueno que les torna " (vol. i p. 131). Tabaco, therefore, was then used in three senses : firstly and most correctly, fo the pipe ; secondly, for the plant ; thirdly, fo the sleep which followed its use. Thesi quotations have never found their way intc anv English dictionary.
Of pirogue Prof. Skeat remarks that it i " said to be Caribbean." He may be glad t( know that this point also is settled by Ovied ("llamanlas los Caribes piraguas," vol. P- 171). JAS. PLATT, Jun.
MOZART'S SKULL. The following appeare in the Standard of 11 October from its Vienn correspondent :
"The skull of Mozart, which, since the death c Prof. Hyrtl, who kept it in his house, has bee transferred from one place to another, has no found its final home in the Museum at Salzbure The rehc was hauded over on Sunday last, with al
he solemnity befitting the occasion. An attempt
was made some time ago to substitute another skull
s that of Mozart's for the one preserved by Prof.
lyrtl, but the fraud was discovered ; upon which,
n some mysterious way, the spurious skull dis- ppeared and the genuine one was restored to its lace. Every care will be taken at the Salzburg luseum of what is the only known portion that is
eft of the great composer's remains. The place of is grave is forgotten, and even for the authenticity f the skull there is only the evidence of a grave- igger, an engraver, and the late Prof. Hyrtl.
N. S. S.
STEALING THE STARS. The following in- tance of twentieth-century ignorance ap- )eared in the Daily Telegraph of 10 October :
"A St. Petersburg dispatch received in Paris tates that the arrival of a band of Russian astro- tomers at Tomsk, in Siberia, where they are about ,o establish an observatory, has caused an outburst of lostility among the peasants in the neighbourhood. The natives are convinced that the astronomers will gather the stars together in a bag and take them away, thus causing droughts, since the rain, they >elieve, comes from the stars."
The Daily News of the llth inst., in a long etter on Siberia's capital from its special correspondent, states that the town is half [ull of millionaires, "uncouth, illiterate men, unable to write their own names, and abso- lutely ignorant of the outer world They know no place but Tomsk, and they think there is no place like it. London and Paris are but vague names to them. If you begin talking about these cities they grunt and regard you as a liar." Y.
H ALLEY. I shall be very pleased to ex- change notes with those having information respecting the Halley families of England, and particularly that of Dr. Edmond Halley (1656-1742), the second Astronomer Royal. EUGENE F. McPiKE.
4205, Evans Avenue, Station " M," Chicago.
BACK-FORMATIONS. In 9 th S. vii. 5 I see burgle, edit, greed, and collate mentioned as examples of back-formations. To these may be added the cockney verb to empt, back- formation from its own preterite emptied.
C. HARPUK.
Carlisle.
JOHN RAMAGE, MINIATURE PAINTER. For the benefit of some future inquirer, I enclose a cutting from the New York Evening Post, bearing the signature of Mr. John D. Ander- son :
" All records of John Ramage's early history lead to the conclusion that he was an Irishman, born in Dublin, and possessed of all the gallantry of the race. His marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of
