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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. i. JUXE *, 1910.
MAY-DAY SONGS. It would be in all
probability a custom borrowed from that
of singing carols on the eve of Christmas
Day for lads and lasses to do the like on the
eve of May Day. May songs are now
seldom heard in Midland counties, and it is
probably years since good folk were roused
from their " beauty sleep " to hear
If we should wake you from your sleep,
Good people, listen now ; Our yearly festival we keep,
And bring a May-thorn bough. Or
On the Mayers deign to smile ;
Master, mistress, hear our song ; Listen but a little while,
We will not detain you long.
We would taste your home-brew'd beer ;
Give not, if we 've had enough : May it strengthen, may it cheer !
Waste not e'er the precious stuff.
We of money something crave ;
For ourselves we ask no share ; John and Jane the whole shall have,
They 're the last new-married pair.
The next day the lads went out early with billhooks to cut rods of may, which they brought into the villages, leaving these at the house-door of good masters, good neigh- bours, and pretty maids. These May songs were sung, and these may-rods were laid, as I have heard my mother say, in her girlish days in the early years of the last century in Derbyshire. T. RATCLIFFE.
Worksop.
SHAKESPEARE AND THE GREEN SEA. I have never understood why Byron, who knew more about the sea's moods than most poets, should have called Shakespeare a " greenhorn,' 1 and ridiculed the lines
Thy multitudinous sea incarnadine, Making the green one red.
Byron maintained that " blue n or " grey " would have been more true to nature. Shakespeare may have judged by his own experience, and he must often have heard sailors speak of lt a green sea " washing over the forecastle of their ships ; but in that case the adjective is applicable not to the actual colour of the wave, but to its volume.
As to the general appearance of the sea, that must, I suppose, be a matter of cir- cumstance and opinion ; but, from a purely scientific point of view, it is interesting to note a remark made by Lord Rayleigh, who a few months ago delivered a lecture on ' The Colours of the Sea and Sky ' :
"The true colour of the sea might be seen in rough weather, when, looking through a wave with the sun behjnd it, the observer would perceive no blue, but a fully developed green."
Experimenting with water from Capri
and from Suez, Lord Rayleigh
"got a colour which might complimentarily be
called blue, but rather was greenish-blue ; while
that from the Seven Stones Lightship off the
Cornish coast gave a full green."
So Shakespeare was, as usual, perfectly correct. RICHARD EDGCTJMBE.
Edgbarrow, Crowthorne.
WINTER WAGE AND SUMMER WAGE. On a fly-leaf at the end of Balliol College first register (begun 1514) there is this note (undated, but by the handwriting not later than 1528) :
"Memorandum quod secundum consuetudincm artificum carpentarii, lathami, serra tores, et compagniatores a festo Omnium Sanctorum usque ad crastinum Purificationis accipiunt precise in die v d ; et ex tune, usque ad idem t'estum Omnium Sanctorum, in die vi d ."
That is : " According to custom of crafts- men, carpenters, stonemasons, sawyers, and slaters (?), from 1 November to 1 Febru- ary receive 5d. a day, and from 2 February to 31 October Qd. a day."
The difference of day's wage probably represents longer hours of work in the summer half-year. ANDREW CLARK.
KOFTGARI WORK. The art of inlaying various metals with gold or silver is widely practised in India, and has been well de- scribed and illustrated by Sir G. "Watt ('Indian Art at Delhi, 1 pp. 42 ff.), Sir G. Birdwood, and other writers. The usual name for it is koftgari, a word commonly derived from the Persian koftan, " to strike " (root kob ; Zend khshub ; Skt. kshubh). In his recent book, ' Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt,* p. 103, Prof. Flinders Petrie says, not quite correctly, that this form of copper decoration is known in India as keft-work ;
- ' the name suggests that it was introduced
from Egypt, where Keft was the starting- point of the Indian trade route from the Nile.** It is, of course, possible that, if introduced into India under the name of keft-work, it may have been provided with a Persian folk-etymology. But there seems little doubt that it came into India from Persia ; and, if this be so, the connexion of the Indian name with Egypt can hardly be accepted. EMERITUS.
" CHEMINOTS.*' Although it does not afford a distinct example of clear and precise expression, the newly formed French term " cheminots,"- which is not yet found in Littre, nor in Darmesteter-Hatzfeld, but frequently occurs in French journals (see Journal des Debats of 16 April, ' Le Congres
