NOTES AND QUERIES.

Evening Star, Issue 7484, 31 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Filter, from the word felt, of which strainers for liquids were originally made. Finger comes from Jang!— that with which anything is seized or held. Coax. Cokes, in old English, was a simpleton or gull, probably from the old French cocasse or cocosse, imbecile. To cokes or coax one is to make a fool of him, by wheedling or gulling him into doing something. CosirETE.—Familiar as this word now seems, it is of Very modern introduction. It does not appear in the dictionaries earlier than 1820. It is of Scotch origin. " Comparisons abe Odorous." Thia phrase is generally, but wrongly, attributed to Mrs Malaprop. It was written by Shakespeare, and occurs in 'Much Ado About Nothing,' act iii., scene 5. What Mrs Malaprop really did say ('The Rivals,' act iv., scene 2) was: "No caparisons, miss, if you please; caparisons don't become a young woman." Cabbage—To pilfer or purloin. It is termed by Dr Johnson a " cant" word, but has been adopted by lexicographers as a respectable term. It is said to have been first used in the above sense by Arbuthnot. Coach.—A private tutor. Originally a University term, but now a general one. Any man who now trains or teaches another, or others, is called a coach. To coach is to instruct as regards either physical or mental acquirements. A private tutor is sometimes termed a rural coach, when he is not connected with a college. At Rugby a flogging is termed " a coaching." To Pull or Call (Hapl) Over the Coals, is to take to task—to scold. It is supposed by Jamieson to refer to the ordeal by fire. Deodand.—We find in that inexhaustible mine, the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' the following :—" 1796, Jan. Bth. This evening a Bath coach was overturned at the bottom of King street, Reading, from the horses having set off_ before the coachman was on the box; the inside passengers fortunately escaped with only a few slight scratches; but the coach falling.on John Baker, a sailor, who was on the outside, he was bruised so much internally that he died on Sunday morning. The coroner's verdict, Accidental death, the coach and horses forfeited as a deodand." Mr Stiggins's custom was to ask questions of the members of his flock only to answer them himself, and I, without in any way likening myself to that canting humbug, would now ask what is a deodand ? It is laid down in the marvellous, commentaries of Blackstone, eighth edition, 1778, that deodand is a species of forfeiture which from the misfortune rather than the crime of the owner, and thia odious claim is thus further defined :—"By deodand is meant whatever personal chattel is the immediate occasion of the death of any reasonable creature; which is forfeited to the King, to be applied to pions uses, and distributed in alms by his high almoner, though formerly destined to a more superstitious purpose. It seems to have been originally designed in the blind days of Popery as an expiation for the souls of such as were snatched away by sudden death; and for that purpose ought properly to have been given to holy church; in the same manner as the apparel of a stranger who wai found dead was applied to purchase masses for the good of his soul.'' Deodands for the most part formed part of the revenue of manors, having been granted by the King; in course of time they became very objectionable, so much so that juries took to finding that some very trifling thing was forfeited, and at last, about forty-one years ago, they were altogether abolished. Perhaps it was well that they disappeared before the development of the iron horse, for what would all the world say if, after a terrible and disastrous railway accident, the coroner's jury declared the train and engine and tender forfeited as a deodand ? # Evil Eye.—ln both anoient and modern times the belief that some persons had the power of injuring others by looking upon them has been widely diffused. The Greeks frequently speak of the "Ophalmos Baskanos," or Evil Eye, which they conceived to be specially dangerous to children ; and the Romans used the word Jascinari to express the same fact. The Illyrians believed that they, with their very eyesight, could not only witch—yea, and kill those whom they wistfully looked upon for any long time. In Virgil's «Georgics' Menaleus complains that some evil eye has fascinated his young lambs. In the British Isles the belief in the power of the Evil Eye is of old date, and is by no means dead—at least in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. In these countries and elsewhere it was once a very common superstition that cattle were subject to injury in this way. In the East it was and is no less prevalent. Hobhouse, in his 'Travels,' bears conclusive testimony to the prevalence of this superstition in the Turkish Empire. Passages from the Koran are painted on the outside of houses, globes of glass are suspended from the ceiling, and a part of the superfluous caparison of their horses is designed to attract attention and divert a sinister influence. Not only among Mahommedans, but among Christians, this superstition prevails. The American Indians partake of the same belief. The univerthis superstition goes far to prove that it has what may be called a natural origin. For this disease—for it may be so called, wherever it has existed or does yet exist—there is no cure but that solid culture of the understanding which comes through strength of will and brain. Feast of Fools.—The Romans kept the festival of Saturn in December as a time of general license and revelry. During the brief season of the Saturnalia the slave reclined on his master's seat at table, the master waited upon his slave, and society for the time seemed to be turned upside down. The grotesque masquerade survived the Pagan creed which gave it birth, and not only kept its place among the Christians, but, in the face of solemn anathemas, found its way into the ceremonial of the Christian Church. The observance of this custom varied owing to circumstances, but was everywhere marked by the same spirit of broad, boisterous raillery, and coarse but not ill-natured caricature. The donkey played such a frequent part in the pageant that it was often called the Feast of Asses. When the ass did not come upon the stage the chief point of the farce lay in the election of a mock pope, patriarch, cardinal, bishop, and so on. These mimic dignitaries took such titles as " Pope of Fools," "Archbishop of Dolts," "Cardinal of Numskulls," " Abbot of Unreason," and the like. On the day of their election they often took possession of the churches, and even travestied the performance of the church's highest office, the Mass, in the holiest place, the altar. In some convents the nuns disguised themselves in men's clothes, chanted mock services, and elected a little abbess, who for that day took the place of the real abbess. At Antibes, in the South of France, this absurd mimicry survived until 1644, when it was described by an eye-witness in a letter to the philosopher Gassendi. The carnival, now yearly held in Rome, Naples, and elsewhere is a relic—modified, however, to a great extent—of this past absurd observance—" The Feast of Fools." Gilt Toys is the name known in trade as a designation for the cheap jewellery which is almost exclusively manufactured in Birmingham. In that town this trade is very extensive, and employs thousands of persons, and a considerable amount of machine power. Cheap jewellery of the most elegant forms is made from copper, which is drawn through rollers into small ribbons and wires, with elegantly embossed surfaces to represent the fine chasing employed on articles made from the precious metals. These the gilt-toy maker twists and solders into brooches, rings, bracelets, and a variety of trinkets, usually with a raised bezell for receiving a piece of polished colored glass, or a cheap stone. Previous to setting the glass or stone, the trinkets are strung on copper wires, and sent to the electro-plater, who gives them a coating of gold or silver, and returns them to the maker, who finishes them by burnishing and by setting the imitation gems. In this way really beautiful imitation jewellery is produced at incredibly small cost,