H. True, Sir.

A few days after my visit to Chandeshwur, I climbed to the summit of the Pandu Koli hill, some eight thousand feet above the sea-level, ten miles to the north-east. There I found a lingam shrine, composed of two circles of stones, with several monolith lings in the centre of the inner circle. The little shrine was open to the elements on all sides, save where it was partially sheltered by a wild guelder rose, to the branches of which votive offerings of shreds of cloth had been attached by many pilgrims. This ling temple seems, indeed, to be built in the shape of what I have called the conventional rendering of the symbols of this faith, in the same manner that a Christian church is built in the shape of the cross.

I have only time to scribble, in the great cold of these regions, the above brief notes. On my return to my head-quarters, at Ghazipur, I hope to be able to amplify these notes, and to send a paper with sketches to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In the mean time I should be glad of any

information bearing on the above subject.

H. RIVETT-CARNAC. Camp in Kumaon (N. W. Provinces of India).

A LIBEL UPON PEPYS.

Pepys stands out so prominently as the one complete and altogether unique personality of the Restoration life that everything about him is more or less of interest. I have often thought that it would add considerably to the value of the wonderful portrait which he has left of himself if his book were accompanied with a collection of the various notices and descriptions of him which occur in contemporary literature,-views, in fact, of Mr. Pepys ab extra.

One of these-a very spiteful one-occurs in a folio sheet in my possession, entitled Plain Truth; or, a Private Discourse betwixt P. and H., and affords a good illustration of the charges brought against the naval administration of the period, and of Pepys's office in particular. It is undated, but from the allusion to the expected war with France it was probably printed in 1666. H., I suppose, stands for Hewer, Pepys's chief clerk, who figures so much in the Diary.

The two are introduced taking counsel together to improve the occasion of the war rumours :—

P. But H. Which way shall we go to work upon this, to get an Order of Council, for an Imbargoe upon all Ships?

H. O God, Sir, easily. P. But how?

H. Sir, You know, that in any thing that you will propose to the Commissioners of the Navy for their Assistance, they will be ready to serve you; and you joyning together, may give Reasons to the Council; of the Necessity there 's for it.

P. The Commissioners of the Navy shall Dine with me to Morrow and then we 'll agree together, how we shall do it; and of our Reasons, for the Necessity of it. H. That's very well, Sir.

Order for an Imbargoe.
P. H. we have been before-and have got their

H. And Gad, Sir I am very glad of it; for if it holds
but two Months, we shall get six or seven Thousand
Pounds by it.
P. But how, H.

whatsoever, to stir out, but what must come hither for a H. I'le tell you, Sir; There is not one Ship or Coaster Permission and Protection; and must pay what Rates we please, from a Fisher-man, to the biggest Ship of all: And if there should be fitted out an Hundred Sail more during this Imbargoe, than usually is in any two Months, we can give them all Permissions and Protections: But they must pay for them."

After this they go on to devise many subtle schemes for levying black mail upon purserships and dockyard offices, and obtaining plunder out of the timber of the cripples" twelve pence annually for the repurchases. One of their devices is to "squeez out newal of their pension licences. This amounts to 300l. a year, and Pepys is so delighted at the prospect that he exclaims "Poor men! who would think there were so much to be gotten out shall ever part us but death." of them? but it is very well, Dear H., nothing 66 "You see, Sir," W. C. has got, and what my Lord Treasurer and says H., "what my Lord A. has got, and what Sir others have got in a little time." "Thou sayst world say if we do not? That we are all fools : right, H.," rejoins Penys. "And what will the but we will give them no cause for't."

H. is the bolder spirit. P. hesitates :

"I like this all very well (H.) so that, I perceive, it is impossible, that ever I should be brought in question. H. Sir, Never fear it; I 'le keep you and my self, clear enough, let the World pry never so close into our business.

P. I thank thee (good H.) it was strangely our good Fortune, that we ever met together: (Then they Hugg and Kiss one another)."

On another occasion H. suggests other schemes : "H. Since I was with you last, there is Clark of the Checkques dead at ( ), and if you please, we will go another way to work with this to our better Advantage.

P. How is that, H.

H. There's the Store keeper at (P.) will give me 200

H. Thank you, Sir.

P. Give me thy hand (Honest H :) here's to all our

Friends.

P. Good night (Good H.)." Again :

u (as pronounced in Germ. our oo in fool). We see this very clearly if we compare the French ouest and ouate with the corresponding English words west and wad(ding), and the Italian uomini (men) with our woman or women. The fact is, if we have an initial o or u (=00 in fool) followed by another vowel, and we put the accent upon the second vowel, and not upon the o or u which we slur over, that then the sound of the English wis heard. Thus in the Ital. word uomini, given above, the accent is upon the o, and therefore the u, which is slurred over or run into the o, has very much the sound of our w. Similarly, in our very vulgar "Swelp me "="So help me," &c., the o, before another vowel, e,* which has the accent, has so thoroughly lost its own sound and taken that of w, that it bas disappeared and the w is actually written for it. And so again in Greek, if in the words οἶκος, οἶνος, we put the accent forcibly

P. What's that?

H. I'le tell you, Sir: you know, we give out Passes for Ships; out of which, I genteely pick twenty pounds a Week, over and above your concern; and did you ever hear the least of it, till now?

P. No I protest.

H. Well, Sir, all this together, makes a good addition

in the Year to our stock.

P. O my dear Partner, so it does; and when we lose our Imploy's if we please, we can shew as great a Bank,

as the best of them all.

H. Truly, Sir, I believe it, and something better; but

that's to our selves.

Thus has the Wheel of a part of their just Dealings, over-run time; at last, their Axeltree crackt: And now, at this time, if all the Engineers in France, can Splice it, they will not spare to imploy them, whatever it costs them; if they will but warrant it, that it shall be able to bear their Just Dealings again."

The Diary affords abundant evidence that there was some truth in this picture. The writer has, I think, contrived to introduce a few characteristic touches. C. ELLIOT BROWNE.

"W" AND "Y" AND THE GREEK DIGAMMA.

In my note on "The Difficulty of pronouncing Two Consecutive Initial Vowels" (5th S. vi. 309), in which, however, the "two consecutive initial vowels" world have been more correctly described as "initial nd y when followed by a vowel," I pointed out aw (as pronounced in English) and y were all but vowels. With regard to w, I am glad to find that I have the support of Curtius, for in his Griechische Etymologie (third edit., Leipzig, 1869), p. 511, he says, in speaking of the digamma, "Der Laut des F muss dem des Vocals u ungemein nahe gekommen sein," and then goes on to say that the digamma very probably had the sound of the English w, from which the inference may readily be drawn that in Curtius's opinion the sound of the English w is almost exactly that of the vowel

, we must pronounce these words as if written wikos (=weekos), winos (=weenos),† with which compare the Lat. vicas and vinum, in which it is now pretty generally acknowledged that the v had very much the sound of our w. We now see how in the Greek, because the sound of the digamma is it is that it is not necessary to write the digamma inherent in every initial o or u which is followed by another vowel having the accent. We can also understand how in Greek a v and an o oro have sometimes, as Curtius tell us (pp. 512, 518), come to replace a F in words which originally did not begin with o or v; for there would be but very little difference in pronunciation whether I wrote for example Fa, or va, or oa (wa), provided in these last three cases the accent were upon the a, and that the u had the sound of our oo in fool.§

It is not necessary, however, when the o and u are run into a following vowel which has the accent, that the whole of the o or the u should become merged in a w sound. If the o and the u are not too much slurred over, we have a portion of the o and u sound left, and the w introduced between this and the following vowel. Compare the Greek

The h being dropped.

If, on the contrary, we put the accent upon the o, ciation in this country, and may, possibly, have been the then the ooy, as in boy, which is the common pronunoriginal one. The modern Greeks pronounce o, ee (as in feel), and this pronunciation may have arisen out of the pronunciation wée(nos), given above, the to having been rejected on account of its difficulty, or for other reasons, as in our vulgar ooman for woman.

It is a question whether the digamma (if our w) could originally have been used before any word not beginning with o or u, but it is quite conceivable that, having taken its origin in such words, it may have been transferred to words beginning with another vowel (see

note §).

in feel, or, as others say, like u in French; the sound oo § In modern Greek, v is, I believe, pronounced like ee (in fool) being represented by ov.

wóv, which in this way would be pronounced o-wón, with the Lat. ovum (pronounced o-wum). Comp. also the Greek is, where, however, the accent in Greek is on the first syllable, with the Lat. ovis. And so again the Italians have made ovest and ovata (or ovatta) out of the French ouest and ouate, where the principle is the same, though the French ou has become an o, and the carried-on sound of w a v. And indeed in these two French words themselves the ou does not correspond exactly to our w, but there is a slight sound of ou (=our oo in fool) before the w.

What I have said of w applies equally to y, which is heard when an i is followed by another vowel and the accent is upon the second vowel. It is not very easy to find examples, but comp. the Lat. Johannes (pronounced no doubt yohannes) with the Greek 'Iwávvns, whether this was pronounced ee-oannes or yoannes.* F. CHANCE. Sydenham Hill.

*It is curious that some Greek words beginning with correspond to Latin words beginning with v (=a digamma), where from what I have said above we should rather expect aja y. Thus we have ior and viola (where we might have expected jola or ijola), iç and vis, and comp. also air with avum. It seems, however, that in Hesychius forms of iov and is are found beginning with a y. And it is probably with these forms yiov and yis (see Curtius, p. 362) that the Latin words are connected, for there is a known connexion between g and e at the beginning of words (see my notes, 4th S. xi. 480; 5th S. vi. 309). With regard to aiúv and avum, it is interesting to find (Curtius, p. 359) that, in addition to the Sansk. évas (aivas), which corresponds to avum, there is also the Sansk. ayus (=life), exactly corresponding to alov, which, according to my view, would be pronounced a-yon or ê-yon, and would correspond to a Latin form æjum (=œyum). Curtius is puzzled by these two forms ayus and evas, and wonders as to the connexion between them, but it does not seem to strike him that there is just the same difference between aiwy and ævum.

I'll believe as soon

Act iii. sc. 2,"Hermia. This whole earth may be bor'd; and that the moon May through the centre creep, and so displease Her brother's noontide with the Antipodes." Hanmer suggests disease for displease. Wilson's far apter reading is displace; I should say certainly the true one.

But Prof.

Your heraldic critics can judge of the next specimen which I produce. The passage has been a puzzle to the critics :"Helena.

So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest." Here Prof. Wilson simply restores the original reading of the folios, with a slight change in the punctuation, thus :

"Two of the first life: coats in heraldry Due but to one," &c.

Must be so too, if-heed me,-which to do 't
Rebels thee o'er."

tion in Act iii. sc. 1 :-
Prof. Wilson has also dealt with the vexed ques-

"But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours Most busy lest, when I do it." Here I must crave room for his argument "Query,

'Do even refresh my labour Most baseless when I do it.'

Some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone.' Act v. sc. 1,"Alonso.

You the like loss?

Prospero. As great to me as late; and supportable To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker Than you may call to comfort you." On this passage Prof. Wilson says :—

"Query, reparable. Prospero is replying to Alonso's exclamation,Irreparable is the loss. Supportable is unmusical, and mars the rhythm."

These are specimens. Other and even better readings are maintained by lengthened criticisms and discussions, so I must refer to the author any one who may be tempted by the samples I have selected. W. R.

Then, "Enter a Messenger," who says to Albany: "Oh my good Lord, the Duke of Cornwal's dead."

Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his introduction to the fac-simile reprint from the first folio, says this," King Lear. Edited from a playhouse transcript, certainly not from the author's manuscript." Still, the learned editors of the Cambridge and the Globe editions must have felt themselves justified in the additions they have adopted (from the quartos, I imagine) in Act iv. sc. 2, of King Lear; the lines not in the first folio are many. And as regards the first line quoted by your Berlin correspondent, "With plumed helm," &c., the editors in the Globe edition have marked the line with an obelus, as an admission that the meaning is inexplicable to them. I only wish by these observations to point out the material discrepancy there is between the text of the first folio and

[Another correspondent, R. V., suggesting the same reading, adds that Ferdinand's "sweet mistress ". says "such baseness had ne'er like executor."]

THE FOLK-SPEECH OF FLOWERS (DORSET.). Now that compulsory education may be expected before long to show its effect in going far to eradicate those germs of popular superstitions and quaint customs of the country people that are so dear to the antiquary and so humbling to our common sense, it would not be amiss perhaps to enshrine in that storehouse of folk-lore, the pages of " N. & Q.," ere too late, the various names by which flowers (for instance) are recognized in the folk-speech of our different counties.

In the furtherance of this object I offer a few such names from a Dorsetshire source, mostly culled from Barnes's glossary of that dialect, and shall be pleased at some future time (with the kind permission of Mr. Editor) to furnish a similar list appertaining to birds, insects, &c. :—

Beacon-weed. The plant goose-foot.

Bloody warriors.-The garden wall-flower, so called from the blood-like tinges on its corolla. Boy's-love.-The herb southernwood.

Butter and eggs.-The yellow toad-flax, so called from the yellow and white of its corolla. Butter-daisy-The great white ox-eye. Cammick. The plant restharrow. Cheat. The bearded darnel. Clote. The yellow water-lily. Cockle.

The burr of the burdock.

Conker. The ripe fruit of the wild rose.

Cows and calves.-Lords and ladies. The barren and fertile flowers of the arum.

Crewel. The cowslip.

Cucko'.-The wild burr.

Cuckoo flower.-The Cardamine pratensis, on which cuckoo spittle is often found.

Devil's snuff box.-The puff-ball.

Eltrot. The stalk and umbel of the wild parsley.
Evergrass.-A species of grass; rye-grass.
Frith.-Brushwood.

Giddygander. The early purple orchis, and the greenwinged meadow orchis, and other common species of

orchis, are so called in the Vale of Blackmore.
like gloss of its petals.
Gillycup.-The buttercup, so called from the gold-

Golden-chain.-The laburnum.
Grammer-greygle.-The bluebell.

Hay-maiden.-A wild flower of the mint tribe; ground