Antiquarian Notes and Queries

Ulster Archaeological Society

Antiquarian Notes and QueriesSource: Ulster Journal of Archaeology, First Series, Vol. 7 (1859), pp. 347-353Published by: Ulster Archaeological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20563515 .

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347

ANTIQUARIAN NOTES AND QUERIES.

LoCUdnn.-Is it not possible that the name Itsi LANGUAGE iN Aracx [vol. vii., p. 1956. Loc/an is compounded of the words loo/t a lake, -I have perused with interest your article on and ion, full? We can point to the analogy of the question of the Irish language being spoken other Irish words, leabsar-lann, a library, and in Africa. This question is one which I am not

abhal-lann, an orchard. The name would there- disposed to discuss on its merits, but I can add fore signify "a country abounding in lakes." a few particulars to those mentioned by Mr.

Now, there is no country in Europe that answers Buckingham, which it may be advisable to place to this description so well as Switzerland; and on record. I have some reason for believing that this is the I was myself well acquainted with the native true Lochlan of Irish romance. " We are three of Morocco, whose real name was Sadi Ombark royal chiefs of Muir n-Iocht," exclaim three Benbey. He was from Mogador; and, according

warriors in the old Irish romnance of Diarmuid to his own account, when on his way as a pilgrim

agu Grainne (p. 83, published by the Ossianic to Mecca, was stopped in his joumey by the

Society.) Miir n-loeht is the Iccian Sea, be- French invasion of Egypt. He volunteered his tween France and England, which took its name services against them, and subsequently ber-me from the Ports Iccius, a Roman town in Gaul, acquainted with many officers of the English near the present Boulogne, as is mentioned by army. This led to his visit to England, where

the translator of the Annals of the Four Masters, he spent the last twenty or thirty years of his

in a note to a passage (A.D. 405) where the name life. I knew him also in IDorsetshire, where he

occurs. Hence these warriors exclaimed that they was intimate with many of the most respectable

were 'natives of Gaul.' But in the same ro- families, particularly the Morton Pitts, and the mance (p. 93), these very Gauls are termed ' men Seymers, of Handford. I have heard him make of Loch/dn': hence the name Lochlan was not the statement about his understanding the Irish restricted by the ancient Irish to Scandinavia, language. He told me that it resembled a dialect as is usually assumed. I believe that it signi- spoken in a mountainous district near Mogador, fied Europe in general, and Switzerland in par- called Bus, or Sus. TALBOT DE RAT)AIDE, ticular. It is a curious fact, which somewhat Mal ahide Casfle. corroborates this opinion, that Switzerland is the IErIS LANGUAGE iw ARircA.-I have just read

only country in Europe, besides Ireland, where the article in your last Number on the use of we find artificial islands in lakes used as habita- the Irish language in Northern Africa. I have tions: as is fully shown in a late article in this heard it stated by a friend of Mr. Richardson, Journal, vol, 7, p. 179. C. IM. O'KEzxn. who published some notices of the Tuarick lan

2 z



S48

guage (one of the dialects used there), that that account of the river. He mentions another river, gentleman mentioned to him, on his return to said to be a tributary of the Obi, but which, from London, his having met with a French traveller other circumstances, seems to have been the in Northern Africa, who had collected a voca- Yenisei, down which came " great vessels laden bulary of words, spoken in some out-of-the-way with rich and precious merchandise, brought by place, which proved to be Irish. Now if such a black or swart people." In ascending this river, vocabulary be in existence, it may probably be men came to the great lake of Kittay (Baikal?), found among the papers of the Geographical on whose banks were the Kara Kalmucs, who, Society of France, or in those of some other he asserts, were the very people of Cathay. It society in Paris, whose agent this traveller may is added, that on the shores of this lake had been have been. If not forthcoming in either place, heard sweet harmony of bells, and that stately and I think the fact ought not to be lost sight of; large buildings had been seen therein. Sxnx. and perhaps the inquiry would be worth the INCIDENT IN TEE GrEP, or DlRur-,.-The peo attention of the academy at Algiers: and more ple of Derry, who, by the long continuance of especialy at the present time, as its president the siege were reduced to such great straits for is an Irishman of considerable celebrity as an provisions that they are said to have paid great

Oriental scholar-thel3aronMaIcGuckendeSlane, prices for rats and cats, contrived on one occa whose national feeling would, no doubt, prompt sion to deceive an emissary of the enemy, who him to have the question thoroughly examined, came into the city to propose terms of capitula If you would send him a copy of your last tion. They had only a few pounds of meal Journal to Algiers, it would direct his.attention remaining (says the tradition), but having a to the subject, and might procure some reliable number of barrels, they turned them, mouth inormation. K. downwards, and strewed a thin coat of meal over

There is a well-known tradition on the shores the upper end, thus giving them the appearance of Lough Neagh, that at some remote period, the of full barrels, and completely outwitting the

waters of the lake overwhelmed a city, and that SPY. Dm wsiss. the ruins of towers and other buildings are some- The seal of the corporation of Naas, in the times seen by boatmen, as they sail over it. County Kildare, bears a serpent in a shield, with

Moore alludes to it in one of his Irish Melodies: the motto ' Prudens et Serpens.' Was this an "And he sees the round towers of other days, erudite pun, borrowed from the Hebrew nahash, In the waves beneath him shining." a serpent? The word Naa is given in O'Reilly's

The following is a curious paralel case in a Irish Dictionary as denoting a ' fair,' which was very distant part of the globe. probably the origin of the name of the town.

John Balak, who had taken up his residence Aarus. at Duisburgh, on the river Osella, wrote to Gerard During the exhibition of Irish antiquities in

Mercator, the famous cosmographer, a particular Belfast, on the occasion of the meeting of the



349

British Association, in 1852, several interesting tormenting him so far as even to draw tears from reliques seem to have escaped the notice of the him-he began with vehemence of spirit to pray,

curious: among these was the Bearnan Brighde, invoking the saving name df Christ, and rising or gapped bell of St. Bridget.' It formed part up against them with continual and frequent

of the extensive collection contributed to the striking of his Bell, conjuring them and com

exhibition by Mr. Bell, of Dungannon. Tradition manding them, in the name of the Saviour and

says this is the identical missile which was hurled by the virtue of his saving Cross, to fly away by the hand of St. Patrick at the disobedient host thence, and never to return to those regions:

of fiends who were marshalled on the mountain and presently, hurling the bell which he carried

called Cruachan Egle, now Croagh Patrick, inx in his hand into the midst of the foul armies, he

the County of Mayo. Immediately on the throw- scattered them and drove them headlong into

ing of the bell the diabolical assembly fled with the Western Ocean, near to the mountain, and

precipitation, and rushing straightway into the put them to flight: and afterwards the whole sea, quitted Ireland for a space of seven years island (as was revealed to a certain saint), for

seven months and seven days. Owing to the the space of seven years and seven months and

violence with which it was thrown, the bell as many days, continued free from all incursions suffered an injury on one side: hence its name, and visits of evil spirits. But the bell which

Bearnan, which signifies 'gapped.' [See Colgan, was then thrown was broken at its extremity; Vol. ii., pp. 102, 103, 138.] The followingpas- and afterwards being given to St. Bridget, it sages relating to this subject are translated from wrought many cures and miracles, and hence it

the Tripar ti LVe.of St. Patrick, xiv., p. 138: was called Bernan Brigide, 'the broken bell -"When that most painful fact was brought to of Bridget."' I "When these wonders of

an end, the Prince of Darkness being indignant divine grace were granted to Saint Patrick, and

at so great a victory of the servant of God, upokh liberally bestowed on the nation converted by

the holy Sabbath innumerable troops of demons, him, the apostolic maan was commanded by the

in the hideous form of the blackest birds, flitted Angel, for the purpose of returnimg thanks and

above and around the mountain, and by their praising the divine goodness, to strike his bell horrible appearance, most noisome stench, and so as to be heardthrough the regions round about;

frightful screaming, wonderfully annoyed the and, in confirmation of the favours bestowed, as holy man. Against which ho contended for some a pledge of the general blessing of the whole

time, invoking the divine aid by holy psalmody island, to wait for a most dense shower of rain to

and praising of God; but when he was unable to be sent from heaven, which presenlty descended."

drive away these terrible goblins-and they were Garxro.



350

ANSWERS TO QUERIES#

Bunny [vol vi., p. 228;vot. vii., p. 175,264].- founded on the fact that ' beddy' is an adjective, (To the Editor.) Sir, between your correspondents while ' busy-body' is a noun substantive; for wve T. H. P. and A. H., for nine months-almost a all know many instances in which nouns in the month for every year that the most memorable of English language are converted into adjectives, ancient sieges endured-adirefulwar has raged re- and ricee versa. ULTONrENSIS. specting the meaning of this word. II cannot offer Escninw [Queries, vol. vii., p. 71].-Walker, my friendly offices to mediate between the beffi- in his Pronouncing Dictionary, gives reasons for gerents, but in the hope of putting, an end to the adopting Es-tshew as the proper pronunciation strife, I must tender my services as an ally to of the word. This he states to have been the T. H. P. The word ' beddy' has been familiar universal custom in his time. Upon matters of to me fron my childhood, and I never on any fact like this he is a good evidence,l howeve occasion heard it used in what A. H. says is its deficient he may sometimes have shown himself 'current meaning,' "greedy, covetous, or meanly in taste and power of argument. At present, selfish," but always in that of "meddling, however, there is not the same unanimity respect officious, self-sufficient, and impudent," convey- ing this word; of which no fixed pronunciation ing, in fact, the compound meaning expressed by can be said to be established by usage. The these four words. I cannot pretend to assign only strong point in favour of Walker's opinion any origin to the word, although the first of these is the sound of the word eseheat, about which synonyms may suggest one: for, by changing the there seems no variety of practice. Ogilvie's initial letter m of 'meddling,' into 6-a change opinion is quite insufficient to enforce the sound

which your philological correspondents will tell of eskew, for which he contends. W. H. P, you is not uncommon-and by shortening the Escnrnw.-I am decidedly in favour of the pro final syllable ling into y, you have the word at nunciation eskew, for this reason: that the word

once. Or, may it not, by a scarcely more violent came into English either from the French or

change, be derived from 'busy-body,' a word Italian, and not from the German. Your corres

which nearly expresses the meaning conveyed pondent, S. T. P. (Notes and Queries, vol. vii., by the words ' beddy person.' In ' busy-body' p. 264), mentions a French word, eschouer, to

we have the initial b and the final syllable dy, which he thinks our word eschew corresponds; and by a simple colloquial abbreviation of the bnt he confesses it has a different meaning.

intermediate syllables, we can easily imagine the Now, there is another French word, esquiver, word in question to have been formed. I do not which I conceive to be the real origin of the think that any valid objection to this can be English word, and which has the same meaning,



351

'to avoid' or 'to evade.' The Italian schivare, Cnoo, DoG!-Sir, having chanced to see the corresponds exactly both in sense and sound, as suggestions of two of your leamned correspondents

we know the Italians sound 801h le our sk. respecting the origin of the cry 'chew,' addressed The original meaning of all the three words is in -Ulster to dogs, I feel called on to give mv 'to move aside, to slant off;' and we have evidence as to its being derived from a mauch

actually existing in our own language another more ancient and classical source than they are word which preserves both the meaning and the aware of. When I was at the siege of Troy, in sound, namely 'askew.'-I think I have proved the penon of Euphorbus, I remember big Ajar,

my ease. Snrnx, the son of Telamon, having a little cur of a half SxiuRAarnEAeu [vol. vii., p. 2 64].-This brother, a ' dead shot' with the bow, who, when

name is, inIrishorthography,Sgeir na y-caorach, he had discharged an arrow, would r for

' the rock of the sheep,' or 'sheep rock.' I do shelter under his huge brother's seven-fold shield. not know at what time the village took the pre- The giant would sometimes get angry at the sent name of ' Emyvale,' but the old name was urchin's hiding between his legs, when he would quite current at the close of the last centurv. cry 'chew, Sir,' which the Anglo-Latins have In a burlesque poem printed in the Anthologia corrupted into Teucer.

Hibernica, in 1793 [vol ii., p. 208], it is Atalaterperiod, I was a Roman senator, at the alluded to thus:- time when Julius Cwsar was assassinated, and I

"Here Peggy skips, dress'd in a yellow gown, heard him say indignantly, to his chief assailant, Which cost in Bkernagecrah just a crown.

SENEL 'Che, iBrute!'

SIGxRsON [Queries, vol. iv., p. 2731.-Mr. These facts I bring forward in no cynical or

BucivNAw inquires whether the name Sigereon dogmatical spirit, but with due diffidence as an is Danish or Celtic. It is Danish: in the Chron- humble contribution to the great seiLene of iles we read of Somerled Sigurdson, A.. 1015. philology. PYTnAGONAS.

F. N. L.



352

QUER I ES.

In the first canto of Butler's Hudibras are the examined or explained. Can any of your readers following lines:- throw light on the subject ? It refers to a body

"A deep occult philosopher, of wild Irish led into the Low Countries in 1586, As lear'd as the Wild Irish are." along with other auxiliaries, during the war

WTbat occult learning of the Irish is here alluded then raging: to? FITZPrArAhcx. "Erant hi Angli plerique, ac Scoti, quibus se

At what places in Ulster were there establish- addiderant, ductore Iibernie Prorege, Hiberni ments of Knights Templars ? CRUX. miRe ac quadringenti, e' silvestri omnes genere

I should be glad to learn through the medium atque ferino, medio tantum corpore subter umbi of your ' Notes and Queries,' what is the received licumn velati, cetera nudi; grallis seu perticis, opinion amongst archmologists as to the period quarum usus in trajiciendis amnibus, alte im till which the ancient Irlsh continued to use positi, longe aliis superstabant; arcubus ac those weapons, ornaments, &c,, &C., of bronze, sagittis minaces. Prierat autem universo equi so frequently found throughout our island. The tatui Robertus Essexie Comes, castris Wilhelmus subject to me appears an interesting one and Pelhamus, Anglis precipue peditibus Ioannes

worthy of attention, and could, I am sureY be Norritius."-" These were chiefly English and made very attractive in the hands of some of Scotch, to which were added, under the com

your antiquarian friends, MAc CATHOIR. mand of the Viceroy of Ireland, fourteen hun I am very desirous to ascertain, through some dred Irish, of a wild and savage kind, having

of the readers of this Journal, the truth of a clothing only on the under half of their bodies statement made by a gentleman of much anti- below the navel, and the remainder naked. They

quarian knowledge, now deceased, namely, that were mounted high on stilts or poles, the use of the late Dr. James Stuart, author of the History which was for crossing rivers, and they stood far

of Armagh, left behind him the MS. of a new above the other soldiers. They were armed edition of that work, ready for the press; and, with bows and arrows. Robert, Earl of Essex,

if possible, to learn in whose possession it nowv is. commanded all the cavalry, William Pelham the

J. A. camp, and John Norris the English foot."'

What is the origin of the word 'doit, as ap- SENEX. plied to a small copper coin? JuvEsrs. In appendix No. I to the first volume of Reid's

The following extraordinary statement, given History of the Presbyterian Church, he gives a by Strada, in hiswork Ie Bello Belgico, published large quotation from the Ulster Visitation Book, in 1648, has never, so far as I am aware, been preserved among the lESS. in Trinity College,



353

Dublin: and at page 432, there occurs this :- nification in other old English books? S. T. P.

"Albavado, alias Belfast-Robert Morley, M.A., AuBuRN.-In an act passed by a parliament Incumbent," &c., &c. I have not before met held at Trim, 5th Edward IV., it was ordered

with this name for Belfast, and would wish to that " every Englishman, and all Irishmen that know whether it is given by any other authority. dwell with Englishmen, that is between 60 and

W. B. 16 in age, shall have an English bow of his own It does not appear to be commonly known that length . . . . of yew, wych-hazel, ashe,

the word '.nephew,' in the authorized English auburn, or any other reasonable tree, according translation of the Scriptures, always means to their power." What is the modern name of

'grand-son.' Query-Does it bear the same sig- this particular tree? SCRmUTATOr.

END OF VtOL. VII.



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