Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/306

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298


NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL APRIL n, 1903.


amount of the " cap " is an object of much interest to the performers. W. C. B.

COPPER TOKEN (9 th S. xi. 188). This is one of the long series of eighteenth-century tradesmen's tokens issued between 1787 and 1800. They were issued because the Govern- ment of that day did not coin enough copper coin to supply the traders with the necessary small change. This particular one was issued in Norwich, and there are a number of variations in the dies used in the manu- facture of it. It was issued in large numbers, and its value in fine state is about Is. to 2s. Qd., according to the die and edge variety. ARTHUR W. WATERS.

20, Charlotte Street, Leamington Spa.

Issued by John Rooks, Norwich, in 1793, of no present use or value except to collectors of tokens, and then the value depends upon the state it is in, say from 2d. up to 2s. It is described in Atkins on * Tokens,' p. 155, and there is a pictorial representation of it in Pye's ' Tokens,' plate 20. W. L.

"TRAPEZA" IN RUSSIA (9 th S. xi. 230). When used in connexion with a church, the technical equivalent in English or French is parvis. It is so rendered in the dictionaries of Reiff (1879) and Makaroff (1881). This, I take it, would imply some kind of porch. Pawlowsky's ' Russian-German Dictionary (Riga, 1879) has " Vorhalle."

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

Trapeza, meaning "table" in Greek, and "altar" in the Greek Church, may have entered the ecclesiastical vocabulary of Russia in the latter sense. Cf . " Communion table '


in English.


E. S. DODGSON.


" ROLLICK " (9 th S. xi. 47, 177). In the melo- drama ' Jack Sheppard,' which was ver} popular fifty years ago, and in which Mrs Keeley played the principal character anc Paul Bedford Blueskin, was a song callec 1 Nix-my-dolly,' sung by the latter, in which after recounting his adventures, he winds up Then here I am, pals, merry and free, A regular rollicking Romany. Nix-my-dolly, pals, fake away, Nix-my-dolly, pals, fake away.

JOHN HEBB.

TRINITY SUNDAY FOLK-LORE (9 th S. xi. 224,. It is very curious and interesting to read in ST. SWITHIN'S note of the conversation be tween Miss F. P. Cobbe and the French nun en route to Cairo, as the idea of seeing " toutes le.s trois personnes de la Sainte Trinite" at sunrise appears to be the survival of a very ancient belief dating from the time of the early empire in Egypt. We learn from


he myth of the god Osiris, who was the sun f yesterday, that at sunset he died and was eceived into the arms of Isis, his wife and ister, who represented the dusk and the lawn, and Nephthys his sister, who likewise ypified the dawn. Again at sunrise the nfant Horus (i.e., the sun) was ushered over he horizon between these two goddesses of he dawn, thus forming the well-known Egyptian triad Isis, Horus, and Nephthys. F. G. HILTON PRICE.

LONDONERS OF CHARLES II. 's TIME (9 th S.

xi. 248). "A Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie,

Composed by Tho. Jordan London,

.664," is dedicated " To the most liberall Lover of Sciential Industry and Native In- genuity, the truly Noble John Adams, Gent." G. THORN DRURY.


" PACK " (9 th S. viii. 144, 273, 433 ; ix. May I mention incidentally that we Ger- mans still use the words das Pack in the ontemptuous sense yours had three and a half centuries ago ? G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.


NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The English Dialect Dictionary. Edited by Joseph Wright, M.A. Parts XV. and XVI. Ma- On; Parts XVII. and XVIII. OnQwyte. (Frowde.) WITH the two double parts before us the fourth volume of Dr. Joseph Wright's magnificent ' Eng- lish Dialect Dictionary ' is completed, two-thirds of his self-imposed task being thus accomplished. The case, as is pointed out, is unique of a work of primary importance and of immense labour not only being published within the time promised, but largely in advance of it. Subscribers have received half a part yearly beyond what was stipulated for in the bond. These facts, even, do not convey an approximate idea of the state of forwardness in which the work is. 1905 is men- tioned as the period at which the whole will be delivered. Five volumes out of six are already in print, and a considerable portion of the sixth is in type. It would even be possible, we are told, to issue the whole of the dictionary proper by the close of the present year. Prof. Wright is, however, unwilling to precipitate matters, and is anxious to afford the utmost possible time for the receipt of information concerning words which are not yet fully identified and explained. These words, with additions and corrections, are reserved for the supplement to vol. vi., which will also contain a bibliography and a grammar. For the grammar large collections have been made. It will be treated historically, and will contain phonology, accidence, and, if possible, the syntax of the dialects.

Nearly 5,000 pages will be devoted to the dic- tionary, which will supply upwards of one hundred thousand words, and is designed to be a complete vocabulary of all dialect words "which are still in use or are known to have been in use at any time during the last two hundred years in Scotland,