the present Lord O'Neill, who has also taken the H. 1367 he was constituted Lord Justice of Ireland, and In This Gerot is the earl, I believe, who, according to the folk-lore or legends of Limerick, is said to live still in an enchanted realm beneath the waters of Lough Gur in that county. Macgregor's History of Limerick says that the enchanted Earl of Lough Gur was Gerott na Sceaidhe, the sixteenth earl before mentioned, and that every seven years "GARRT LAIDIR ABOO " (5th S. iv. 149, 195, 237, he rises and rides round the lough on a horse 318; v. 217.)-I beg to suggest that the first word of with silver shoes. When the shoes are worn out, this war cry has reference to the feudal lord of the he will return to earth again, say the people. county of Kerry, the famous Gerrott, Earl of Des- Either of the Earls Gerott was strong" and mond, called by the Irish Gerod or Gerott na Sceaidhe" powerful" (laidir) enough in his day to have (i.e. Gerald of the Preys or Excursions), killed in his name used as a rallying war cry. I hope rebellion in 1584, when his palatinate was for- Mr. Hennessy will act on MR. FITZGERALD'S feited and partitioned amongst the Courtenays, suggestion. M. A. H. Dennys, Brownes, &c., whose descendants still retain their portions. In the writings of English and Anglo-Irish historians the Earl is always called Gerald, Earl of Desmond, but he subscribed his letters, still to be seen in the State Paper Office, "Gerott Desmond." If the war cry did not originate with this great rebel, it was probably first used in the time of Maurice Fitzgerald, the companion in arms of Strongbow, described in an Irish lyric as "Maurice Fitzgerald, the scorner of danger, The scourge of the Gael, and the strength of the stranger." But he soon became more Gaelic than the Gaels themselves, or at least his descendants did. The first Earl of Desmond, to whom the palatinate was granted on August 27, 3 Edward III., rebelled and was imprisoned, but afterwards received a pardon, and was made Lord Justice of Ireland for life. His three sons succeeded him in turn, and of the youngest, Gerald or Gerott, fourth Earl of Desmond, Dr. Smith, in his History of Kerry, now a rare book, but one highly commended by Lord Macaulay, says :— "This said Gerald, fourth Earl of Desmond, was a very learned man for that age, being well versed in poetry and mathematicks, and was by some looked upon in those ignorant times as a magician. In 1358 he had the custody of all his brother's estates with the keeping of the counties of Cork, Waterford, and Kerry. In P.S.-I may add that Garret or Gerott, as the equivalent of the English Gerald, is a common Christian name amongst the Kerry peasantry at the present day. A very natural corruption of the word as pronounced by them, for an AngloIrishman, would be the Garrt of the cry. If MR. FITZGERALD will look into the Ulster Journal of Archeology for 1855, p. 203, he will find an article, possibly by the editor of that valuable work, on the "War Cries of the Irish Septs," such as that which he expressed a wish to have from the pen of Mr. Hennessy, and in it I think he will find an explanation of the one given above. "Kero-lader-aboe. . . . Upper Ossory," to Amongst a number of battle shouts therein noted which the following note is appended, showing the proper Irish reading of these words: "Gearlaidir-aboo! the sharp and strong, was the cry of the Mac Gilla Patricks." I think there can be little doubt that the Garrt of MR. FITZGERALD and the Gear of the above are identical, and that the whole was the battle shout of the followers of the Mac Gilla Patricks or Fitz Patricks, ancient Lords of Upper Ossory. TIR EOGHAIN. ON SOME OBSCURE WORDS IN SHAKSPEARE: SHAKSPEARE ACCUSED OF PROVINCIALISM (5th S. v. 201, 337, 390, 493.)-JABEZ seems to overlook some facts which have an important bearing on the subject in dispute. Phillips was not only Milton's nephew; he had been brought up by his uncle, and was as an adopted son. The Theatrum Poetarum must have been written in Milton's life, and apparently in his house. It is scarcely conceivable, therefore, that he should not have been acquainted with the work, or that some of the information about the poets of the early part of the seventeenth century should not have been derived from him. The probability that he had a share in the work is so great as to gain the assent of writers whose opinions must always command respect. Warton writes :—“There is good reason to suppose that Milton threw many additions and corrections into the Theatrum Poetarum" (Milton's Juv. Poems, p. 60). He asserts the same opinion in his Hist. of Poetry (iii. 440). Sir Egerton Brydges, who had carefully studied the question, says:- "The preface of Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum has always appeared to the present editor not merely of pure and extensive taste, but of wide and accurate learning, &c. That much of Milton's opinions and judgments were infused into it cannot reasonably be doubted" (note to Preface). It seems equally unreasonable to doubt that the fact stated by Phillips about these critics had Milton's sanction, or that it was derived from him. He was more likely to hear the opinions of literary critics than his nephew. If, then, we have here a recollection of Milton, some of the critics referred to would have been contemporary with Shakspeare. This, I admit, is not absolute proof; but we act, and must act, in ordinary life, in many cases, on circumstantial evidence less satisfactory than this. But if we must assume, though the assumption is improbable, that Phillips was speaking only of his own knowledge, it is certainly true that such criticisms were made within the half century after Shakspeare's death. This is sufficient for my purpose, for, in this interval, all the "unfiled expressions" could not be terms that had become obsolete from length of time. JABEZ seems indignant at my explanation of this phrase, "unfiled (unpolished) expressions." I understand it as meaning such expressions as were not universally accepted or understood at that time; or, in other words, such as we should now call "provincial." If this explanation be rejected, what other meaning can be given to the words, the sense of "indecency" being expressly set aside? If we now call a person's language "unpolished," do we not mean that it is not according to a received standard, and sometimes call it "country fashion"? It would take up too much of your space to enter into a discussion of the "vexed questions" connected with the Poetaster. I will only oppose to the opinion of JABEZ the judgment of Gifford, a very competent critic. He maintains that the passage which I quoted refers to Shakspeare, adding, "It is as undoubtedly true of Shakespeare as if it were pointedly written to describe him." I was under the mistaken impression that this decision was generally accepted. I do not wish to be misunderstood. It is quite superfluous to speak at the present day of the supremacy of Shakspeare's genius. I do not yield to JABEZ or any other person in my admiration of it. But it is nevertheless true that in his own time, and for many years after his death, it did not receive the universal and unqualified acknowledgment which we justly give to it now. The more important question of the two, however, is whether the obscure words in Shakspeare, about which our commentators have been disputing for more than a century, can be satisfactorily explained by dialectic words now or lately in use in the west and north of England. I have offered some instances in support of this opinion; but this is a part of my communication which JABEZ has not chosen to discuss. I find that I have been anticipated in referring to our dialects in illustration of some of Shakspeare's words. A writer in "N. & Q." (1st S. i. 467), who signs with the initials R. R., in explaining the phrase "sneck up" by the provincial use of the word, adds, "There can be little doubt that this provincialism was known to Shakspeare, as his works are full of such; many of which have been either passed over by his commentators, or have been wrongly noted." The writer promised to give other instances, but I do not know whether the promise was fulfilled or not. JOHN DAVIES. Belsize Square. THE SOUTHERN CROSS (5th S. v. 145, 295.)— The legend of the stars of the Southern Cross being created for the purpose of guiding the Wise Men to the infant Saviour, mentioned by your correspondent GLIS, is merely a legend. The Southern Cross, though no longer visible in the North Temperate Zone, was seen there from the time of Adam to the Christian era. In the latitude of Jerusalem it must have gradually declined from a considerable altitude, until the topmost star disappeared from the horizon about the time of the crucifixion of our Saviour. In the third and fourth centuries the Christian Anchorites in the Egyptian Thebaid would see the Southern Cross at an altitude of 10°. The Southern Cross will again appear in the northern latitudes after countless ages, some 18,000 (if the world lasts so long). It appears very strange that a constellation of such brilliancy should have been omitted in the early arrangements of those emblems; but at the time that Hipparchus of Greece drew up his catalogue of the stars (the earliest on record, 125 B.C.), this constellation was nearly unseen in the latitude of Greece. The cause of the gradual disappearance | We have many records of temporary stars that have appeared and then vanished. In the Zend Avesta it is said that Zerdust or Zoroaster, who taught and founded the sect of the Magi, informed his followers that a star should appear at the birth of the Messiah, or the promised and desired one, and that when it appeared they should go and offer gifts, and worship the great one. It would appear very probable that Zoroaster was a Jew by birth and a disciple of Daniel's, and acquainted with Daniel's prophecy of seventy weeks of years, and with Balaam's prophecy in Numbers. A star in the Eastern nation was a sign of divine dignity. Christ calls himself the bright and morning star (Rev. xxii. 16). See Bishop Horsley on the prophecies of the Cinderford. of this constellation from northern latitudes is to be found in the precession of the equinoxes, or the slight receding westward of the points where the ecliptic or sun's path crosses the equator twice a year. Owing to the greater thickness of the earth at the equator, that part of the earth comes to the equinoctial points a little sooner; consequently the sun appears to recede or go back towards the west, and the North Pole moves every year a little backward on the circle it describes in the northern sky. This movement being about 50" of a degree yearly, the relative place of the stars in ancient times can be ascertained by it. The North Pole makes this circle in about 25,900 years. The North Polar star of to-day has not always been nor will it continue to be the Pole star. At the time of the construction of the earliest catalogues of the stars, 120 B.C., it was 12° from the Pole, it is now only 1° 24'; it will continue to approach to within half a degree, and will then recede. At the time of the erection of the great Pyramid of Gizeh, some 4,000 years A FOLK-LORE SOCIETY (5th S. v. 124, 294, 457.) ago, the pole of the heavens was near Alpha-Hailing as I do with great satisfaction the exDraconis. It is a curious fact that of the nine cellent suggestion of your accomplished corresponpyramids, six of the largest had the narrow dent ST. SWITHIN (5th S. v. 124), I must admit entrance passages inclined downwards at such an that I have been greatly disappointed that that angle that the Pole star of that time must have been visible, perhaps in daylight. In about 12,000 readers. As one who suggested upwards of thirty proposal has not elicited greater support from your years the bright star Vega or Alpha Lyre will become the Pole star. As regards the Star of years ago the advisability of collecting the remains Bethlehem, the star that guided the Wise Men, it they were quite trampled out by the iron horse, of our popular mythology and superstitions before is a matter of history that about 125 years B.C. a and who has never ceased to take an interest in bright star appeared, and gradually increased in the subject, I venture to say that not a day should brilliancy, so as to be seen in the daytime about be lost in organizing such a society. A central the time of our Saviour; it gradually decreased in committee in London, of some half dozen who brightness and disappeared. It was the appear- have made Folk-Lore more or less a study, with ance of this star that induced Hipparchus to draw local secretaries in different parts of the country, up his catalogue. It was situated in the constella- if backed by a couple of hundred subscribers of a tion Coma or Koma, not far from Virgo. Its guinea, might collect and print an interesting great peculiarity would be that its appearance had been predicted some 1,400 years before. yearly volume. From its position it would culminate, or be on the meridian about twelve at night, in the latitude of Jerusalem. "It is a fact independent of all hypotheses that at the precise hour of midnight, when Christ was born and Christianity appeared, the celestial sign which mounted above the horizon was Virgo."-Dupuis's Orig. des Cultes. R. C. Trench speaks of this star "shining in calm and silent splendour, larger, lovelier, and brighter than any of the host of heaven."-R. C. Trench's Star of the Wise Men. He also quotes from Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who may have heard of it from those who had seen it. Prudentius is also quoted, "that not even the star of the morning was fairer." He also adds we have many allusions in the ancient Christian writers "to the surpassing brightness of this star," which I conceive, as many ancients and moderns have done, to have been a new star in the heavens. Judging from what I have seen in some local newspapers, one of the committee's greatest difficulties would be not that of collecting, but that of selecting what is not already recorded by Brand and his editors, Sir Henry Ellis and Mr. HalliwellPhillipps. This would require to be done with considerable judgment, and with great care, so as not to discourage those who take the trouble to communicate what they believe to be not generally known. Ladies should be specially invited to take part in the work, who, in their kindly ministrations in the cottages of their poorer neighbours, must often come across traces of old world customs and beliefs. Though I have spoken of an annual volume, I would not wait for the completion of a volume, but keep alive interest in the Society by issuing a few sheets from time to time, as soon sufficient materials of interest had been collected. Success to the Folk-Lore Society! AN OLD FOLK-LORIST. as Many of your readers will be obliged to MR. RATCLIFFE for the information contained in his note. Will some of your correspondents in other parts of the country give us the names of papers in their localities that devote a portion of their space to the preservation of folk-lore? I, for example, feel an interest in all that relates to the county of Gloucester, and have a pretty considerable stock of trifles by me illustrating its bygone customs. Have any of the Gloucester, Cheltenham, or Bristol papers set apart a column for the reception of such matters? I know some of them have done so occasionally. The Bristol Times, for instance, is rich in matters relating to the lesser history of the city. But we want something more than this. We want a portion of our local papers devoted to the preservation of the most humble matters that cast a light on the rapidly changing life of the people. H. BOWER. THE REGICIDES, &c. (4th S. x. i.)—It is well known to all readers of Swiss history, and even to perusers of the ordinary guide books, local and general, that two of the so-called regicides are buried in the fine old church of St. Martin, at Vevey, in the Canton de Vaud. But while the names of Bradshaw (sic) and Ludlow are thus rendered familiar, the fact has, till recently, been quite ignored, or rather unknown, that in this same church are the graves and the monuments of two other regicides, viz., Nicolas Love and William Cawley. Some short time ago a stranger visited Vevey, and said that it was traditionally reported in his family that one of his ancestry (a regicide) was buried in the above church of St. Martin. The inquirer's name has escaped, but it was either Love or Cawley. However, he only inquired after one. The church authorities obligingly permitted a search; and after a minute examination, under the boarded floor of a dark niche, a lettered stone was discovered intruding. Of this slab nothing could be made out except Ta and Ar, the evident commencement of two lines. A removal of the pews and the flooring, however, not only brought to light the above protruding stone, but led to the discovery of another monument. In fact, it was placed beyond a doubt that St. Martin's Church was the burial-place not only of Broughton (sic) and Ludlow, but also of Love and Cawley. The Rev. W. P. Prior, the much esteemed British chaplain at Vevey, was immediately on the spot. He was too good an archæologist to pass over so important and interesting a discovery; and it is to him that the readers of "N. & Q." are indebted for the verbatim et literatim transcripts of the following inscriptions, which he has kindly handed to me for transmission to the pages of "N. & Q." — "D.O.M. Hic jacet Corpus NICOLAI LOVE, Armig 5to Die Nov An Dom 1682 "Hic jacet Qui postquam ætate 6o Jan 1666 JAMES HENRY DIXON, LL.D. THE BASQUES (5th S. v. 330.)-The term "Iberian" is applied to the part of Spain occupied by the Basques, and has also been applied to the whole of Spain. The term is derived from the Iberi, who dwelt on the Iberus or Ebro. According to some writers the Basque language is related to some of the North African languages; others say it is allied to the American languages. Mr. Webster tells us it is one of the purest remains of the Celtic. According to others it is of Tátar origin. It has certainly grammatical affinities with some of the Tátar languages, but I am not aware that it contains a single Tátar word; neither does its vocabulary contain half-a-dozen words that would appear to be related to any of the Celtic languages. More than half the vocabulary may be traced direct to Latin and Greek. A late writer asserts that its surface is strewn with Sanskrit roots. I doubt whether it has any Sanskrit word that it did From the bad carving it is not clear whether the name be Cowley, Cawley, or Gawley. We are therefore obliged to adopt the reading in "N. & Q." ut supra. + Between this line and the next the family arms are inserted, but they are too crowded and confused to decipher heraldically. We find for crest a griffin holding a cross in his paws. In the shield are three stags' heads, three griffins' do., and something that resembles a lymphad. Perhaps some correspondent can give a correct description. Burke's Armorial may assist. We have it not at hand. not acquire through the Latin or Greek. The Basque cannot be said to belong to any family of languages (Humboldt); to the contrary, there is no philological evidence that the Basques ever occupied any much greater portion of Spain than they do at the present time; nor is there any such evidence of their settlement in Thrace, Italy, Sardinia, or any of the Italian islands. There is no evidence that the Iberi of Spain migrated from Iberia in Asia, nor that the two names are etymologically the same. R. S. CHARNOCK. Junior Garrick Club. My classification of Basque is with the Houssa, &c., of Africa, and consequently with the Kolarian of India. Ethnologists have sought and found a southern continuation of area for the Basque skull in North Africa. Those who have not investigated hesitate at finding light and black populations speaking the same language; but even the Aryan family is only a development from the languages of blacks. What in my book on Prehistoric Comparative Philology I have called the Vasco-Kolarian family, is marked by the characteristic of having combative races, but they have never established large civilized states. It is in the sources that I have named that the congeners of the Basque language will be most conveniently found. The Lesghian of the Caucasus is also a member of the family. Thus we have two black and two light groups. The balance of evidence is now tending to the identification of the ancient Leleges, Lycians, &c., with the Lesghian. 32, St. George's Square, S.W. HYDE CLARKE. The Basque language, together with the original languages of America, belongs to the Polysynthetic class of the so-called Allophylian or Turanian family. See Dr. Farrar's Families of Speech, pp. 179, 180 (ed. Lond., 1870). The question how it came to be where it is yet requires an answer. H. F. BOYD. THE TOWNS OF COLON AND CHAGRES, ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA (5th S. v. 457.)-The writer was master (navigating lieutenant) of H.M. ship Hyacinth on this station from 1831 to 1833, and, being of a robust constitution and fond of adventure, was permitted to explore and survey this part of the isthmus at that time. He recommended Point Manzanilla, in Navy Bay, to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty as being well situated for the terminus of a railway across the isthmus; and, heading a party of volunteers, cut down trees and planted gardens where the town of Colon, or Aspinwall, now stands. There was not a hut or habitation of any kind in Navy Bay until 1849, and in 1852 a town had sprung up at this very spot, and a railway completed across to Panama, by American | enterprise, over the track surveyed by the writer some twenty years before. Chagres was, and is still, a miserable little unhealthy village of thatched huts, situated at the mouth of the Chagres river, a few miles to the westward of Colon. The writer also fixed tide poles on both sides of the isthmus, and ascertained that the tide at new and full moon rose twenty-three feet at Panama, and only a little over two feet at Chagres and Navy Bay. A copy of my letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the above interesting explorations, &c., with all particulars, dated Port Royal, Jamaica, 14th Nov., 1831, was published in 1859, and the original is no doubt in the Admiralty archives. It contained also an account of my and on the lakes of Nicaragua, and my important and explorations up the river St. Juan discovery that the east coast of Nicaragua was laid down in longitude nearly a degree (fifty-eight statute miles) wrong in the Admiralty charts, and in all maps and books on geography at that time GEORGE PEACOCK, F.R.G.S. surveys extant. Pioneer of Steam Navigation in the Pacific from 1840 to 1846. Starcross, Devon. ERYNG": "EGGING" (5th S. v. 448.)-These are pure Anglo-Saxon or Old English words. Erying is the present participle of erian, to plough, which finds its congeners in Goth. aryan; O.G. aran, erran; Gr. apoûv; Lat. ars. Egging is the participle of egean, to harrow, to break the clods, from a radical egi common to the Teutonic dialects, equivalent to Latin horridus, standing on end, bristling, rough. In Archbishop Alfric's vocabulary (tenth century), the ploughman says, "Elce dæg ic sceal erian fulne æcer oththe mare "Every day I have to plough a whole field or more." Egethe was a harrow or rake; egtha was a threshing instrument. These corresponded exactly with Latin tribulum and tribula, both consisting of a wooden frame studded with teeth below; a lighter one for threshing corn, a heavier one for harrowing the ground. When we talk of egging on or goading a man to do some rash thing, we are employing metaphors derived from the agriculture of our remote forefathers. Sandyknowe, Wavertree. J. A. PICTON. The first of these words is fully accounted for by Prof. Max Müller in his Lectures on the Science of Language, First Series, p. 293, et seq. There he shows that the word is an offspring of the root ar, to plough, and quotes Shakspeare :"Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound With keels." The explanation of the word there given is so full and satisfactory that I cannot do better than refer M. W. to it, without any attempt at an elucidation of my own. I will only add that the |