THE SWALLOW.

*

The term Swallow is derived from the French Hirondelle,* signifying indiscriminately voracious. The Swallow makes its first appearance in Great Britain early in spring; remains with us during summer, and disappears in autumn. The four species which inhabit this island, are also found during summer in almost every other region in Europe and Asia, where their manners and habits are nearly the same as in this country. In the more southern parts of the continent, they appear somewhat earlier than in England. The distinguishing marks of the swallow tribe are:—a small bill; a wide mouth; a head large in proportion to the bulk of the body, and somewhat flattish; a neck scarcely visible; a short, broad, and cloven tongue; a tail mostly forked; short legs; very long wings; and a rapid and continued flight. No subject has more engaged the naturalist in all ages than the brumal retreat of the swallow; neither is there any subject on which more various and contrary opinions have been entertained. Some have supposed that they retire at the approach of winter to the inmost recesses of rocks and mountains, and that they there remain in a torpid state till spring. Others have conjectured that these birds immerse themselves in the water at the approach of winter, and that they remain at the bottom in a state of torpidity, until they are again called forth by the influence of the vernal sun. Dr. Foster admits that there are several instances on record of their having been found in such situations, clustered together in great numbers, and that, on being brought before the fire, they have revived and flown away. But he thinks that few of the accounts were well authenticated; and that the celebrated John Hunter and Mr. Pearson clearly prove, from various experiments, that these birds cannot continue long under water without being drowned. The Doctor does not deny that swallows have occasionally been found under water; but he attributes their having been found in such situations to mere accident. As it is well known that, towards the latter end of autumn, swallows frequently roost by the sides of lakes and rivers he therefore supposes that a number of these birds had retired to roost on the banks of some shallow and muddy river at low tide; that they had been induced by the cold to creep among the reeds and rushes which might grow in the shallow parts of the river, and that while in that situation, driven into a state of torpidity by the cold, they had been overwhelmed, and perhaps washed into the current by the coming in of the tide. However, Dr. Forster clearly shows, that swallows are birds of passage, and produces the accounts of mariners, who had seen these birds many hundred miles out at sea, and on whose ships *Literally a marshy place, that absorbs or swallows what comes within its vortex.

they had alighted to rest, almost exhausted with fatigue and hunger.

SCEPTIC.

The word Scepticis from the Greek σ×ETTOμаι, I examine. Pyrrho was the chief of sceptic philosophers, and was at first, as Apollodorus saith, a painter, then became the hearer of Driso, and at last the disciple of Anaxagoras, whom he followed into India to see the Gymnosophists. He pretended that men did nothing but by custom, that there was neither honesty nor dishonesty, justice nor injustice, good nor evil. He was very solitary, lived to be 90 years old, was highly esteemed in his country, and created Chief Priest. He lived in the time of Alexander the Great, about the year 300 B. C. His followers were called Pyrrhonians, besides which they were named the Ephectics and Aphoretics, but more generally Sceptics,-i. e., men who doubted.

This sect made their chiefest good to consist in a sedateness of mind, exempt from all passions; in regulating their opinions and moderating their passions, which they called Ataxia and Metriopathia; and in suspending their judgment in regard of good or evil, truth or falsehood, which they called Epochi. Sextus Empiricus, who lived in the second century under the Emperor Antonius Pius, wrote ten books against the Mathematicians, or Astrologers, and three of the Pyrrhonian opinion.

SENATOR.

The term Senator, says Maitland, is derived from the Saxon Senex, which has a similar meaning to the Saxon word Ealderman, alderman, or old man.

SI QUIS.

Si Quis, i. e., “If any one,” was the first word of advertisements often published on the doors of St. Paul's Cathedral.

SINGING-BREAD.

Amongst the effects belonging to Sir John Fastolfe, one of the heroes of Agincourt (of which an inventory is given in the Archaologia, vol. xxi. p. 238), will be found in the chapel, "One box for syngyng brede, weyng 4 oz." To this item the following note is attached by the late Mr. Amyot: “Pain à chanter,' . e., the host or unleavened bread, consecrated by the priest singing. In Caxton's Doctrinal of Sapyence, there is a direction to the priest, 'that if in the host be any form of flesh, or other form than bread, he might not to use that host, but ought to sing again.' In Queen Elizabeth's injunctions it is ordered that the sacramental bread shall be 'of the same fineness and fashion, though somewhat

bigger in compass and thickness, as the usual bread and water heretofore named singing-cakes, which served for the use of the private mass.' It was made into small round cakes, impressed with the cross."-P. 239. Davies, in his Monuments, &c., of the Church of Durham, 1593, speaks of an almery near one of the nine altars in that cathedral, “Wherein singing-bread and wine were usually placed, at which the Sacristan caused his servant or scholar daily thereat to deliver singing-bread and wine to those who assisted in the celebration of mass." In Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker is given a certificate from the Cathedral of Canterbury, concerning thec onformity to the rites and ceremonies of the church, in which it is stated (inter alia), "For the ministering of the communion we use bread appointed by the Queen's Injunctions." A marginal note, referring to the word "bread,” repeats what has been quoted, viz., that it was to resemble the singing-cakes formerly used in private masses.— -Notes and Queries, vol. vi. p. 471.

STATHE.

Stathe, Staid, and Steed, are Anglo-Saxon terms, formerly applied to single fixed dwellings, or to places on the banks of rivers, where merchandise was stored up, and at which vessels could lie to receive it. In 1338, the Prior of Tynemouth let for two years, at 40s. a year, a plot of ground in Newcastle, upon which sea coal had usually been laid up, and which was at the west end of a house upon the Stathes, which in modern language is, as if one said, upon the Wharf, or upon the Quay.

SURNAMES.

In Additional MSS., British Museum, No. 5805, p. iv., Cole says: "Before surnames were in use, they were forced to distinguish one another by the addition of Fitz or Son, as John Fitz-John, or John the son of John, or John Johnson, as now in use. This was in the first Edward's time: nay, so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in some places in France they had no surnames, but only Christian names, as the learned Monsieur Menage informs us: 'Il y a environ cent ans, à ce que dit M. Baluze, qu'à Tulle on n'avait que des noms propres, et point de surnoms."-Menagiana, tom. i., p. 116, edit. 1729. Again, in Cole's MSS., vol. xliii. p 176, relating to a deed of the Priory of Spalding, Cole says: One observes in this deed several particulars: first, that the Priory used a seal with an image of the Blessed Virgin, together with one of their arms; if possibly they used one of the latter sort so early as this John the Spaniard's time, in the reign, as I conceive, of King Richard I., when arms for the gentry were hardly introduced. Among the witnesses are two Simons chief, one distinguished by his complexion, and called Simon Blondus, or the Fair; the other had no name as yet to distinguish him by, and

therefore only called here another Simon.'

This occasioned the

introduction of surnames, and shows the necessity of them."

TAWDRY.

At the annual fair in the Isle of Ely, called St. Audrey's fair, much ordinary but showy lace was usually sold to the country lasses, and St. Audrey's lace soon became proverbial; and from that cause Tawdry, a corruption of St. Audrey, was established as a common expression to denote not only lace, but any other part of the female dress, which was much more gaudy in appearance than warranted by its real quality and value.

TERM.

Term is derived from Terminus, the heathen god of boundaries, landmarks, and limits of time. In the early ages of Christianity, the whole year was one continued term for hearing and deciding causes; but subsequently, the daily dispensation of justice was prohibited by canonical authority, that the festival might be kept holy.

Advent and Christmas occasioned the winter vacation; Lent and Easter, the Spring; Pentecost the third; and hay-time and harvest, the long vacation, between Midsummer and Michaelmas. Each term is denominated from the festival day immediately preceding its commencement; hence we learn the term of St. Hilary, Easter, the Holy Trinity, and St. Michael. There are in each term days called dies in banco (days in bank), that is, days of appearance in common bench. They are usually about a week from each other, and have reference to some festival. All original writs are returnable on those days, and they are therefore called the return days.

TOADY.

Toady, or Toad-eater, a vulgar name for a fawning, obsequious sycophant, was first given to a gluttonous parasite, famous for his indiscriminate enjoyment and praise of all viands whatever set before him. To test his powers of stomach and complaisance, one of his patrons had a toad cooked and set before him, which he both ate and praised in his usual way.-Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary.

TOMBSTONE.

The compound word Tombstone, which signifies a tablet on which is inscribed the virtues or peculiarities of the deceased, is derived from toma, a volume. The hillocks of earth over the majority of graves, originated from the Roman Tumuli, or Mound, which they placed over their dead, and those who are at all versed

in history, are aware that a great many of our artificial hills are the Tumuli of numbers who have been slain in battle.

VOLUME.

Volume is derived from the Latin volvo, to roll up, the ancient manner of making up books, as we find, in Cicero's time, the libraries consisted wholly of such rolls.

WALLOON.

The Body Guard of the Spanish monarch, denominated the Walloon Guard, receive their name from the Walloons, a people in the Low Countries, so called. They were famed for making and dyeing fine woollen cloths. The Duke of Alva, who was Governor of the Netherlands for Philip II. of Spain, in order to flatter those whom he ruled, selected a body guard from among the Walloons for the Spanish monarch, and gave it the appellation of the Walloon Guard, or Walloon Guards.

WHOOHE!

Whoohe! a well-known exclamation to stop a team of horses, is derived by a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," 1799, from the Latin. "The exclamation used by our waggoners when they wish to stop their team for any purpose (an exclamation which it is less difficult to speak than to write, although neither is a task of great facility), is probably a legacy bequeathed us by our Roman ancestors; precisely a translation of the ancient Ohe! an interjection strictly confined to bespeaking a pause—rendered by our lexicographers, Enough! oh, enough!

WAITS.

The popular name for the music played in our streets on the nights of the Christmas Holidays is thought to be only a corruption of "wake," the common name for a nocturnal solemnity. It has been presumed that Waits in very ancient times meant Watchmen, and that they were minstrels at first attached to the King's Court, who sounded the watch every night, and prevented depredations. "This noun," says Dr. Busby, "has no singular number, and formerly signified hautboys. From the instrument its signification was, after a time, transferred to the performers themselves, who, being in the habit of parading the streets by night with their music, occasioned the name to be applied generally to all musicians who followed a similar practice.'

WHIFFLER.

This word, which we so often meet with in Shakspeare's plays, is a term, Mr. Douce says, "undoubtedly borrowed from whiffle,