finding of which, by fair means, is supposed to be ominous of the finder's being first married." Crowdie is made by pouring boiling water over oat-meal and stirring it a little. It is eaten with milk or butter. The more modern manner of preparing is described in the Musœ Anglicana, 1689, ii., 86.

Crow-Keeper.-See Nares, Glossary, in v., and Hazlitt's Proverbs, 1882, p. 181.

another, in order to deprecate some punishment which both might tremble to have incurred the expectation of. At a cardtable, I have also caught some superstitious players sitting cross-legged with a view of bringing good luck." It was a point of belief that a witch, by sitting cross-legged, could prevent a woman's delivery, and Heywood, in his "Silver Age," 1613, has bestowed on Juno this power, where the goddess hinders the labour of Alcmena. The dramatist followed the classical legend Cry. See Auctions, where the employto a certain extent, while he made it conment of the Preco or Crier is recorded. form to the superstitious creed of his own But the cry was used on a multifarious country. Flecknoe, speaking of "your fanatick reformers," says: diversity of occasions: 1, for the announceHad they ment of the issue of new money; 2, for the their will, a bird should not fly in the air publication of the decrees of Councils; 3, with its wings across, a ship with its crossfor the advertisement of plays to be yard sail upon the sea, nor prophane tay- performed; 4, for the for sit cross-legged on his shop-board, or lost property; 5, for proclaiming the recovery of have cross-bottoms to winde his thread approach of royal or high personages upon." This whimsical detestation of the to their seats; 6, for the notificacross-form, no doubt, took its rise from tion of any local event, not only prior the odium at that time against everything to typography and journalism, but down derived from Popery. to the present time in some rural disCross Monday. In Bridges "His-tricts. In ancient times the crier or usher tory of Northamptonshire" are recorded carried, not a bell, but a trumpet. Lavarious instances of having processions on croix, Mœurs et Usages, 1872, p. 337; HazCross Monday. litt's Venetian Republic, 1900, ii., 355, 457; Hazlitt's Monograph on Shakespear, 1902, p. 103. The heraldic Oyez and the legal Oyer and Terminer are evolutions from the ancient use of the cry in manifold cases; and Oyentia is a feudal term for the public indication of the time for paying a periodical tribute. Maigne D'Arnis Lexicon Medio et Infimæ Latinitatis, 1856, in v.

Cross Point.-See Horse-Trick. Cross-Questions.-Said to be a game by Nares, Glossary, in v. Perhaps allied to Questions and Commands, and to Cross-Questions and Cross-Answers. Compare Hazlitt's Handbook and Bibl. Coll. v. Breton, and Children's Games suprâ.

Cross Ruff.--This is a species of ruff, a game at cards. There was ruff (q.v.), double-ruff, and cross-ruff. In A Notable Discovery of Cosenage, 1591, the preface states, among other matters, how the author, going into the West of England,

found at

Cry Coke.-To cry Coke is in vulgar language synonymous with crying Peccavi. Coke, says Ruddiman, in his Glossary to Douglas's "Virgil," is the sound which Cocks utter, especiwhen they are beaten, from which Skinner is of opinion they have the name of Cock.

a country ale-house half-a-ally dozen farmers playing at cross-ruff, and hoped to win all their money, when he found to his disappointment that they had read Greene's exposure of conycatchers, and were on their guard. This, with others, is quoted in "Poor Robin's Almanac " for 1693:

"Christmas to hungry stomachs gives relief,

With mutton, pork, pies, pasties, and roast beef:

And men at cards spend many idle hours,

At loadum, whisk, cross-ruff, put, and

all-fours."

Crowdie.-In Scotland, Eden says, they used to eat crowdie on Shrove Tuesday, as in England they did pancakes. He adds: "On this day there is always put into the bason or porringer, out of which the unmarried folks are to eat, a ring, the

Crying the Mare.-There is a harvest sport in Hertfordshire, called "Crying the Mare" (it is the same in Shropshire), when the reapers tie together the tops of the last blades of corn, which is throw their sickles at it, and he who cuts Mare, and standing at some distance, the knot, has the prize, with acclamations and good cheer. I was informed of the chin in the same county where each farmer following custom on this occasion at Hitdrives furiously home with the last load of his corn, while the people run after him with bowls full of water in order to throw on it: this is also accompanied with great shouting. Blount tells us farther that "after the knot is cut, then they cry with a loud voice three times, 'I have her.' Others answer, as many times, 'What have you ?'-'A mare, a mare, a mare.'

'Whose is she?' thrice also. J. B. | (naming the owner three times).Whither will you send her?'-'To J. à Nicks,' (naming some neighbour who has not all his corn reaped); then they all shout three times, and so the ceremony ends with good cheer. "In Yorkshire upon the like occasion they have a Harvest Dame, in Bedfordshire a Jack and a Gill."

Crying the Nack.-A harvest custom in Dorsetshire and Devonshire. A correspondent of Notes and Queries writes: "I was present last year at a farm in North Devon where the curious old custom of "calling the nack was observed. The reapers were gathered round a pond, where they sang three times, first in low tones, gradually increasing in loudness, the words:

"Arnack, arnack, arnack,

We haven, we haven, we haven,
God send the nack."

After which they all laughed and shouted.
They then retired to the house-not to
supper, for the ceremony was not yet over.
One of the party had the "nack" secreted
on his person.
A member of the farmer's
family tried to discover the possessor, be-
fore he entered the kitchen in order to
drench him, or, as they said, "wet the
nack," with a bucket of water. Failing
to do this, the farmer was obliged to sup-
ply a larger quantity of beer than would
otherwise have been given to each indi
"nack
The
supper.
is pre-
served in the farmer's kitchen for the

vidual after

year.'

Cucking, or Goging Stool. Called also a tumbrel, tribuch, and trebuchet; also a thewe. In the "Prompto; rium Parvulorum," ""Esyn, or Cukkyn, is interpreted by stercoriso: and in the Domesday Survey, ," in the account of the City of Chester," we read: "Vir siv3 mulier falsam mensuram in civitate faciens deprehensus, iiii. solid. emendab'. Similiter malam servisiam faciens, aut in Cathedrâ, ponebatur Stercoris, aut iiii. solid. dab' prepositis." See Cowel in v. ex Carta Joh. regis, dat. 11 Jun. anno regni 1. It is called thewe in Lambarde's "Eirenarcha," lib. i. c. 12. The following extract from Cowel, in v. Thew, (with the extract just quoted from Lysons) seems to prove this: Georgius Grey Comes Cantii clamat in maner. de Bushton & Ayton punire delinquentes contra Assisam Panis et Corvisiæ, per tres vices per amerciamenta, & quarta vice Pistores per Pilloriam, Braciatores per Tumbrellam, & Rixatrices per Thewe, hoc est, ponere eas super scabellum vocat. a Cucking Stool. Pl. in Itin. apud Cestr. 14 Hen. VII." But comp. Stool of Repentance, infrâ. The

cucking-stool was an engine invented for
the punishment of scolds and unquiet
women, by ducking them in the water,
after having placed them in a stool or
chair fixed at the end of a long pole, by
which they were immerged in some muddy
or stinking pond. Blount tells us that
some think it a corruption from ducking
stool, but that others derive it from
Choaking Stool. Though of the most re-
mote antiquity, it is now, it should seem,
An essayist in the
totally disused.
"Gentleman's Magazine," for May, 1732,
observes that "The stools of infamy are
the ducking stool, and the stool of repent-
ance. The first was invented for taming
female shrews. Lysons gives us a curious
extract from the churchwardens' and
chamberlain's accounts at Kingston-upon-
Thames in 1572, which contains a bill of
expenses for making one of these cucking
stools, which, he says, must have been
much in use formerly, as there are fre-
quent entries
of
money paid for
its repair. Environs, i., 233. Blake-
way, in his History of Shrewsbury,
1779, p. 172, furnishes the subjoined en-
tries:"1572. The making of the cuck-
ing stool, 8s. ; iron work for the same, 3s. ;
timber for the same, 7s. 6d. ; 3 brasses for
the same and three wheels, 4s. 10d." There
is an order of the Corporation of Shrews-
bury, 1669, that "A ducking stool be
erected, for the punishment of all scolds."
Borlase tells us that: "Among the pun-
ishments inflicted in Cornwall, of old
time, was that of the cocking-stool, a seat
of infamy where strumpets and scolds,
with bare foot and head, were condemned
to abide the derision of those that passed
by, for such time as the bailiffs of manors,
tion, did appoint. Nat. Hist. of Cornwall
which had the privilege of such jurisdic-
P. 303.

A certificate of the punishment of an incorrigible scold by ducking, dated 1673, and addressed by the churchwardens of Waddington, co. York, to Thomas Parbearer of Bolland Forest under the Duke ker, Esq., of Browsholme, hereditary bowof Buccleuch, is to be seen in "Current Notes" for December, 1855.

land:

28

i.e.,

In Skene's Regiam Majestatem, occurs this punishment ch. 69, having been used anciently in ScotBrowsters, speaking of "Wemen quha brewes aill to be sauld" it is said, "gif she makes gude ail, that is sufficient. Bot gif she makes evill ail, contrair to the use and consuetude of the burgh, and is convict thereof, she sall pay ane unlaw of aucht shillinges, or sal suffer the justice of the burgh, that is, she sall be put upon the cock-stule, and the aill sall be distributed to the pure folke.' Braithwaite, speaking of a Xantippean, says: "He (her husband) vowes therefore

to bring her in all disgrace to the cucking- be seen within a few years on the banks of stoole; and shee vowes againe to bring him the Stour at Fordwich in Kent. Some adwith all contempt, to the stoole of repent-ditional particulars, illustrating this obsoance." Whimzies, 1631, p. 182. In one lete usage, but to the same purport, were of the jest-books, there is the following printed in Willis's "Current Notes" for anecdote: Some gentlemen travelling, February and April, 1854. See Wright and and coming near to a town, saw an old Fairholt's Archaeological Album, 1845, p. woman spinning near the ducking stool: 49-54, and Halliwell's Dict., 1860, in v. one, to make the company merry, asked Morant, speaking of Canuden, in the hunthe good woman what that chair was made dred of Rochford, mentions" Cuckingstole for? Said she, you know what it is. In- Croft, as given for the maintenance of a deed, said he, not I, unless it be the chair light in this church, as appears by inquisiyou use to spin in. No, no, said she, you tion, 10 Eliz." Essex, 1., 317. know it to be otherwise: have you not heard that it is the cradle your good mother hath often layn in ?" New Help to Discourse, 1684, p. 216. These stools seem to have been in common use when Misson, the French traveller, visited this country, and when Gay wrote his Pastorals they are thus described by the latter:

"I'll speed me to the pond, where the high stool

On the long plank hangs o'er the muddy pool,

That stool, the dread of every scolding queen," &c.

Misson says: "La maniere de punir les femmes querelleuses et debauchées est assez plaisante en Angleterre. On attache une chaise à bras à l'extremité de deux Especes de Solives, longues de douze ou quinze pieds et dans un eloignement parallele, en sorte que ces deux pieces de bois embrassent par leur deux bouts voisins la chaise qui est entre deux, & qui y est attachée par la côte comme avec un essieu, de telle maniere, qu'elle a du Jeu, et qu'elle demeure toujours dans l'etat naturel & horisontal auquel une Chaise doit être afin qu'on puisse s'asseoir dessus, soit qu'on l'éleve, soit qu'on l'abaisse. On dresse un pôteau sur le bord d'un Etang ou d'une Riviere, & sur ce poteau on pose presque en equilibre, la double piece de bois à une des extremitez de laquelle la Chaise se trouve au dessus de l'eau. On met la Femme dans cette Chaise et on la plonge ainsi autant de fois qu'il a été ordonné, pour raffraichir un peu sa chaleur immoderée.' See Ozell's Translation, p. 65. In "Miscellaneous Poems," &c., by Benjamin West, of Weedon-Beck, Northamptonshire, 8vo. 1780, is preserved a copy of verses, said to have been written near sixty years ago, entitled "The Ducking Stool." A note informs us, "To the honour of the fair sex in the neighbourhood of R***y. this machine has been taken down (as useless) several years." The stool is represented in a cut annexed to the "Dumps," designed and engraved by Louis du Guernier, and also in the frontispiece of "The old Woman of Ratcliff Highway." A specimen was to

CUCKING STOOL.

Cuckold. I know not how this word, which is generally derived from cuculus, a cuckoo, has happened to be given to the injured husband, for it seems more properly to belong to the adulterer, the cuckoo being well known to be a bird that deposits its eggs in other bird's nests. The Romans seemed to have used this cuculus in its proper sense as the adulterer, calling with equal propriety the cuckold himself Carruca or which bird is well known to adopt the hedge - sparrow, other's spurious offspring. Richardson and Worcester, in their Dictionaries, endorse Tooke's etymology of cuckold, which seems, after all, to be the correct one, namely, cucol, from the Italian cucolo, a cuckoo; the word should be cucol, as in some of our old writers, and not cucold (or cuckold), and we get the word from the past participle of the English verb formed from the Italian substantive: cucolo, cucol, cucol'd. Douce says: "That the word cuculus was a term of reproach amongst the antients there is not the least doubt, and that it was used in the sense of our cuckold is equally clear. Plautus has so

тбо

introduced it on more than one occasion. In his Asinaria he makes a woman thus speak of her husband :

"Ac etiam cubat Cuculus, surge, Amator, i domum

and again:

:

| verbs, 1882, p. 56, where the converse is suggested, in which case we should conclude that the reason was because his jaundiced eye would take the thumb to be yellow or golden.

There is a song in Ritson's collection in which a jealous wife is represented as

"Cano capite te Cuculum Uxor domum putting on her yellow hose. ex lustris rapit."

66

"Here is Maryone Marchauntes at All-
gate,

Her husbòde dwells at ye signe of yo
Cokoldes Pate."

-Cock Lorels Bote. In the Boke of Mayd
Emlyn (about 1540), it is stated that the
lady had five husbands, all cuckolds, and
that she made their beards, whether they
liked or not, and gave them a pretty hood-
Hazlitt's Popular
Greene in
ful of bells to wear.
Poetry, iv., 83. Dickenson, in "
Conceipt," 1598, uses this expression of a
cornute: "but certainely, beleeved, that
Giraldo his master was as soundly arınde
for the heade, as either Capricorne, or the
stoutest horned signe in the Zodiacke."
"It is said,-Many a man knows no end
of his goods: right: many a man has good
'tis none of
horns, and knows no end of them. Well,
that is the dowry of his wife;
his own getting. Horns? Even so:-
Poor men alone?-No, no; the noblest
deer hath them as huge as the rascal."-
As You Like It, act iii., sc. 3. Among the
witticisms on cuckolds that occur in our
old plays, must not be omitted the follow-
ing in "Ram Alley," 1611 :

Why, my good father, what should
you do with a wife?

And yet in another place, where Pseudolus says to Callidorus "Quid fles, Cucule?" the above sense is out of the question, and it is to be taken merely as a term of reproach. Horace certainly uses the word as it is explained by Pliny in the passage already given, and the conclusion there drawn appears to be that which best reconciles the more modern sense of the term, being likewise supported by a note Historia in the Variorum Horace, from Mirabilium," by Carystius. The application of the above passage to our use of the word cuckold, as connected with the cuckoo, is that the husband, timid, and incapable of protecting his honour, like that bird, is called by its name, and thus converted into an object of contempt and derision. In the "Athenian Oracle" it is "The Romans remarked of cuckoldry: were honourable, and yet Pompey, Cæsar, Augustus, Lucullus, Cato and others had this fate, but not its infamy and scandal.” In "Paradoxical Assertions," by Robert Heath, 1664, it is said: "Since Plautus wittily, and with more reason calls the adulterer, and not him whose wife is adulterated, Cuculum, the cuckold, because he begets children on others wives, which the credulous father believes his own: why should not he then that corrupts another man's wife be rather called the Cuckow, for he sits and sings merrily whilst his eggs are hatched by his neighbour's hens?" Prosopopeia of JealouChaucer, in his " sie," brings her in with a garland of gold yellow, and a cuckoo sitting on her fist. Two items in A. C. Mery Talys, 1526, turn on this somewhat unconventional topic: the story of the wife whose pigs died in farrowing, and who being told that she should get a cuckold's hat, and farrow them therein, applied to a female neighbour, whereupon the latter angrily retorted that her husband was no cuckold, and so had no hat, and the woman, after inquiring all round, declared that if she lived another year, she would get one of her own; the second, the account of the miller's rejoinder to the merchant, who ob- Flecknoe's Diarium, 1656. Butler, in his "Hudibras," informs us for what a sinserved that he had heard say every true "Truth it gular purpose carvers used formerly to inmiller had a golden thumb. is," quoth he, "that my thumb is gilt, voke the names of cuckolds. This allusion arose, according to a passage in the 59th how be it ye have no power to see it, for there is a property incident thereto, No. of the "British Apollo," from the dexthat he that is a cuckold shall never havé terity of one Thomas Web, carver to the power to see it." Comp. Hazlitt's Pro-Lord Mayor in Charles the First's time,

Would you be crested? Will you needs thrust your head

In one of Vulcan's helmets? Will you perforce

Weare a city cap and a Court feather?"

The following passage is in "Plaine
of Eng-
the
Percevall,
peacemaker
Sal sapit
You say true,
land”:
omnia; and service without salt, by
the rite of England, is a cuckold's fee if
"On Dr. Cuckold.
he claim it."

"Who so famous was of late,
He was with finger pointed at:
What cannot learning do, and single
state?

"Being married, he so famous grew,
As he was pointed at with two:
What cannot learning and a wife now

do?"