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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

E. Cobham Brewer From The Edition Of 1894

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H

This letter represents a style or hedge. It is called in Hebrew heth or cheth (a hedge).

H.B.

(Mr. Doyle, father of Mr. Richard Doyle, connected with Punch). This political caricaturist died 1868.

H.M.S.

His or Her Majesty's service or ship, as H.M.S. Wellington.

H.U.

Hard up.

Habeas Corpus

The “Habeas Corpus Act” was passed in the reign of Charles II., and defined a provision of similar character in Magna Charta, to which also it added certain details. The Act provides (1) That any man taken to prison can insist that the person who charges him with crime shall bring him bodily before a judge, and state the why and wherefore of his detention. As soon as this is done, the judge is to decide whether or not the accused is to be admitted to bail. [No one, therefore, can be imprisoned on mere suspicion, and no one can be left in prison any indefinite time at the caprice of the powers that be. Imprisonment, in fact, must be either for punishment after conviction, or for safe custody till the time of trial.]

(2) It provides that every person accused of crime shall have the question of his guilt decided by a jury of twelve men, and not by a Government agent or nominee.

(3) No prisoner can be tried a second time on the same charge.

(4) Every prisoner may insist on being examined within twenty days of his arrest, and tried by jury the next session.

(5) No defendant is to be sent to prison beyond the seas, either within or without the British dominions.

The exact meaning of the words Habeas Corpus is this: “You are to produce the body.” That is, You, the accuser, are to bring before the judge the body of the accused, that he may be tried and receive the award of the court, and you (the accused) are to abide by the award of the judge.

Suspension of Habeas Corpus. When the Habeas Corpus Act is suspended, the Crown can imprison persons on suspicion, without giving any reason for so doing; the person so arrested cannot insist on being brought before a judge to decide whether or not he can be admitted to bail; it is not needful to try the prisoner at the following assize; and the prisoner may be confined in any prison the Crown chooses to select for the purpose.

Haberdasher

from hapertas, a cloth the width of which was settled by Magna Charta. A “hapertas—er” is the seller of hapertas—erie.

“To match this saint there was another,

As busy and perverse a brother,

An haberdasher of small wares

In politics and state affairs.”

Butler: Hudibras, iii. 2.

Habit is Second Nature

The wise saw of Diogenes, the cynic. (B.C. 412—323.) Shakespeare: “Use almost can change the stamp of nature” (Hamlet, iii. 4). French: “L'habitude est une seconde nature.”

Latin: “Usus est optimus magister” (Columella). Italian: “L'abito è una seconda natura.”

Habsburg

is a contraction of Habichts — burg (Hawk's Tower); so called from the castle on the right bank of the Aar, built in the eleventh century by Werner, Bishop of Strasburg, whose nephew (Werner II.) was the first to assume the title of “Count of Habsburg.” His great—grandson, Albrecht II., assumed the title of

“Landgraf of Sundgau.” His grandson, Albrecht IV., in the thirteenth century, laid the foundation of the greatness of the House of Habsburg, of which the imperial family of Austria are the representatives.

Hackell's Coit

A vast stone near Stantin Drew, in Somersetshire; so called from a tradition that it was a coit thrown by Sir John Hautville. In Wiltshire three huge stones near Kennet are called the Devil's coits.

Hackney Horses

Not thoroughbred, but nearly so. They make the best roadsters, hunters and carriage horses; their action is showy, and their pace good. A first—class roadster will trot a mile in 2 minutes. Some American trotters will even exceed this record. The best hackneys are produced from thoroughbred sires mated with halfbred mares. (French, haguenée; the Romance word haque =the Latin equus; Spanish, hacanéa.)

In ordinary parlance, a hackney, hackney—horse, or hack, means a horse “hacked out” for hire. These horses are sometimes vicious private horses sold for “hacks” or worn—out coach—horses, and cheap animals with broken wind, broken knees, or some other defect.

“The knights are well horsed and the common people and others on litell hukeneys hackneys and geldynges.” — Froissart.

Hackum

(Captain). A thick—headed bully of Alsatia, impudent but cowardly. He was once a sergeant in Flanders, but ran from his colours, and took refuge in Alsatia, where he was dubbed captain. (Shadwell: Squire of Alsatia.)

Haco I His sword was called Quern—Biter [foot—breadth ]. (See Sword.)

Haddock

According to tradition, it was a haddock in whose mouth St. Peter found the stater (or piece of money), and the two marks on the fish's neck are said to be the impressions of the apostle's finger and thumb. It is a pity that the person who invented this pretty story forgot that salt—water haddocks cannot live in the fresh water of the Lake Gennesaret. (See John Dory and Christian Traditions.)

“O superstitious dainty, Peter's fish,

How comst thou here to make so goodly dish?” Metellus: Dialogues (1603).

Hades

(2 syl.). The places of the departed spirit till the resurrection. It may be either Paradise or “Tartarus.” It is a great pity that it has been translated “hell” nine or ten times in the common version of the New Testament, as “hell” in theology means the inferno. The Hebrew sheol is about equal to the Greek haides, that is, a, privative, and idein, to see.

Hadith

[a legend ]. The traditions about the prophet Mahomet's sayings and doings. This compilation forms a supplement to the Koran, as the Talmud to the Jewish Scriptures. Like the Jewish Gemara, the Hadith was not allowed originally to be committed to writing, but the danger of the traditions being perverted or forgotten led to their being placed on record.

Hadj

The pilgrimage to Kaaba (temple of Mecca), which every Mahometan feels bound to make once at least before death. Those who neglect to do so “might as well die Jews or Christians.” These pilgrimages are made by caravans well supplied with water, and escorted by 1,400 armed men for defence against brigands.

(Hebrew, hag, the festival of Jewish pilgrimages to Jerusalem.)

“The green turban of the Mussulman distinguishes the devout hadji who has been to Mecca.” — Stephens: Egypt, vol. i. chap. xvii. p. 240.

Hadji

A pilgrim, a Mahometan who has made the Hadj or pilgrimage to the Prophet's tomb at Mecca. Every Hadji is entitled to wear a green turban.

Hæmony

Milton, in his Comus, says hæmony is of “sovereign use 'gainst all enchantments, mildew, blast, or damp.” Coleridge says the word is hæma—oinos (blood—wine), and refers to the blood of Jesus Christ, which destroys all evil. The leaf, says Milton, “had prickles on it,” but “it bore a bright golden flower.” The prickles are the crown of thorns, the flower the fruits of salvation.

This interpretation is so in accordance with the spirit of Milton, that it is far preferable to the suggestions that the plant agrimony or alyssum was intended, for why should Milton have changed the name? (Greek, haima, blood.) (See Comus, 648—668.)

Dioscorides ascribes similar powers to the herb alyssum, which, as he says, “keepeth man and beast from enchantments and witching.”

Hæmos

A range of mountains separating Thrace and Mœsia, called by the classic writers Cold Hœmos. (Greek, cheimon, winter; Latin, hiems; Sanskrit, hima.)

“O'er high Pieria thence her course she bore,

O'er fair Emathia's ever—pleasing shore;

O'er Hæmus' hills with snows eternal crown'd,

Nor once her flying foot approached the ground.” Pope: Homer's Iliad, xiv.

Hafed A Gheber or Fire—worshipper, in love with Hinda, the Arabian emir's daughter, whom he first saw when he entered the palace under the hope of being able to slay her father, the tyrant usurper of Persia. He was the leader of a band sworn to free their country or die, and his name was a terror to the Arab, who looked upon him as superhuman. His rendezvous was betrayed by a traitor comrade, but when the Moslem army came to take him he threw himself into the sacred fire, and was burnt to death. (Thomas Moore.)

Hafiz

The great Persian lyrist, called the “Persian Anacreon" (fourteenth century). His odes are called ghazels, and are both sweet and graceful. The word hafiz (retainer) is a degree given to those who know by heart the Koran and Hadith (traditions).

Hag

A witch or sorceress. (Anglo—Saxon, hægtesse, a witch or hag.)

“How now you secret, black, and midnight hags?” Shakespeare: Macbeth, iv. I.

Hagan of Trony

or Haco of Norway, son of Aldrian, liegeman of Günther, King of Burgundy. Günther invited Siegfried to a hunt of wild beasts, but while the king of Netherland stooped to drink from a brook, Hagan stabbed him between the shoulders, the only vulnerable point in his whole body. He then deposited the dead body at the door of Kriemhild's chamber, that she might stumble on it when she went to matins, and suppose that he had been murdered by assassins. When Kriemhild sent to Worms for the “Nibelung Hoard,” Hagan seized it, and buried it secretly somewhere beneath the Rhine, intending himself to enjoy it. Kriemhild, with a view of vengeance, married Etzel, King of the Huns, and after the lapse of seven years, invited the king of Burgundy, with Hagan and many others, to the court of her husband, but the invitation was a mere snare. A terrible broil was stirred up in the banquet hall, which ended in the slaughter of all the Burgundians but two

(Günther and Hagan), who were taken prisoners and given to Kriemhild, who cut off both their heads. Hagan lost an eye when he fell upon Walter of Spain. He was dining on the chine of a wild boar when Walter pelted him with the bones, one of which struck him in the eye. Hagan's person is thus described in the great German epic: —

“Well—grown and well—compacted was that redoubted guest;

Long were his legs and sinewy, and deep and broad his chest; His hair, that once was sable, with grey was dashed of late; Most terrible his visage, and lordly was his gait.”

The Nibelungen—Lied, stanza 1780.

Hagarenes

(3 syl.). The Moors are so called, being the supposed descendants of Hagar, Abraham's bondwoman.

“San Diego ... hath often been seen conquering ... the Hagarene squadrons.” — Cervantes: Don Quixote, part ii. book iv. 6.

Haggadah

(plur. haggadoth). The free rabbinical interpretation of Scripture. (Hebrew, hagged, to relate.) (See Farrar: Life of Christ, vol. ii. chap. lviii. p. 333.)

Hagi

(See Hadj .)

Hag—knots

Tangles in the manes of wild ponies, supposed to be used by witches for stirrups. The term is common in the New Forest. Seamen use the word hag's—teeth to express those parts of a matting, etc., which spoil its general uniformity.

Hagring

The Fata Morgana. (Scandinavian.)

Ha—ha (A). A ditch serving the purpose of a hedge without breaking the prospect. (Anglo—Saxon, hœh, a hole.)

Hahnemann

(Samuel). A German physician, who set forth in his Organon of Medicine the system which he called “homœopathy” the principles of which are these: (1) that diseases are cured by those medicines which would produce the disease in healthy bodies; (2) that medicines are to be simple and not compounded; (3) that doses are to be exceedingly minute. (1755—1843).

Haidee

(2 syl.). A beautiful Greek girl, who found Don Juan when he was cast ashore, and restored him to animation. “Her hair was auburn, and her eyes were black as death.” Her mother, a Moorish woman from Fez, was dead, and her father, Lambro, a rich Greek pirate, was living on one of the Cyclades. She and Juan fell in love with each other during the absence of Lambro from the island. On his return Juan was arrested, placed in a galliot, and sent from the island. Haidee went mad and, after a lingering illness, died. (Byron: Don Juan, cantos ii. iii. iv.)

Hail

Health, an exclamation of welcome, like the Latin Salve (Anglo—Saxon, hél, health; but hail=frozen rain is the Anglo—Saxon hægl.)

“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of

Glamis.” Shakespeare: Macbeth, i. 3.

Hail

To call to.

To hail a ship or an omnibus. To call to those on board.

Hail—fellow—well—met

(A). One on easy, familiar terms. (See Jockey .)

“Hail fellow well met, all dirty and wet;

Find out, if you can, who's master, who's man.” Swift: My Lady's Lamentation.

Hair

One single tuft is left on the shaven crown of a Mussulman, for Mahomet to grasp hold of when drawing the deceased to Paradise.

“And each scalp had a single long tuft of hair.”

Byron: Siege of Corinth.

The scalp—lock of the North American Indians, left on the otherwise bald head, is for a conquering enemy to seize when he tears off the scalp.

Hair (Absalom's) (2 Sam. xiv. 25). Absalom used to cut his hair once a year, and the clippings “weighed 200 shekels after the king's weight,” i.e. 100 oz. avoirdupois. It would be a fine head of hair which weighed five ounces, but the mere clippings of Absalom's hair weighed 43,800 grains (more than 100 oz.). Paul says (1 Cor. xi. 14), “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?”

Mrs. Astley, the actress, could stand upright and cover her feet with her flaxen hair.

Hair, Hairs

(Anglo—Saxon, har.)

The greatest events are often drawn by hairs . Events of great pith and moment are often brought about by causes of apparently no importance.

— Sir John Hawkins's History of Music, a work of sixteen years labour, was plunged into long oblivion by a pun.

The magnificent discovery of gravitation by Newton is ascribed to the fall of an apple from a tree under which he was musing.

The dog Diamond, upsetting a lamp, destroyed the papers of Sir Isaac Newton, which had been the toil of his life. (See page 350).

A spark from a candle falling on a cottage floor was the cause of the Great Fire of London. A ballad chanted by a fille—de—chambre undermined the colossal power of Albereni.

A jest of the French king was the death of William the Conqueror. The destruction of Athens was brought about by a jest on Sulla. Some witty Athenian, struck with his pimply face, called him a “mulberry pudding.”

Rome was saved from capture by the Gauls by the cackling of some sacred geese. Benson in his Sketches of Corsica, says that Napoleon's love for war was planted in his boyhood by the present of a small brass cannon.

The life of Napoleon was saved from the “Infernal Machine” because General Rapp detained Josephine a minute or two to arrange her shawl after the manner of Egyptian women.

The famous “Rye—house Plot” miscarried from the merest accident. The house in which Charles II. was staying happened to catch fire, and the king was obliged to leave for Newmarket a little sooner than he had intended.

Lafitte, the great banker, was a pauper, and he always ascribed his rise in life to his picking up a pin in the streets of Paris.

A single line of Frederick II., reflecting not on politics but on the poetry of a French minister, plunged France into the Seven Years' War.

The invention of glass is ascribed to some Phœnician merchants lighting a fire on the sands of the seashore.

The three hairs. When Reynard wanted to get talked about, he told Miss Magpie, under the promise of secrecy, that “the lion king had given him three hairs from the fifth leg of the amoronthologosphorus, ... a beast that lives on the other side of the river Cylinx; it has five legs, and on the fifth leg there are three hairs, and whoever has these three hairs will be young and beautiful for ever.” They had effect only on the fair sex, and could be given only to the lady whom the donor married. (Sir E. B. Lytton: Pilgrims of the Rhine, xii.)

To a hair or To the turn of a hair. To a nicety. A hairbreadth is the forty—eight part of an inch. To comb one's hair the wrong way. To cross or vex one by running counter to one's prejudices, opinions, or habits.

Without turning a hair. Without indicating any sign of fatigue or distress. A horse will run a certain distance at a given rate without turning a hair.

Against the hair. Against the grain, contrary to its nature.

“If you should fight, you go against the hair of your professions.” — Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 3.

Hair—brained

(See Air—Brained .)

Hair—breadth 'Scape A very narrow escape from some evil. In measurement the forty—eighth part of an inch is called a “hair—breadth.”

“Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,

Of moving accidents by flood and field,

Of hair—breadth 'scapes i' th' imminent deadly reach.' Shakespeare: Othello, i. 3.

Hair Eels

These filiform worms belong to the species Gordius aquaticus, found in stagnant pools. Their resemblance to wriggling hairs has given rise to the not uncommon belief that a hair, if left in water for nine days, will turn into an cel.

Hair—Splitting

Cavilling about very minute differences. (See Hair—Breadth .)

“Nothing is more fatal to eloquence than attention to fine hair—splitting distinctions.” — Mathews: Oratory and Orators, chap. ii. p. 36.

Hair Stane

(Celtic) means boundary stone; a monolith sometimes, but erroneously, termed a Druidical stone. (Scotland.)

Hair by Hair

Hair by hair you will pull out the horse's tail. Plutarch says that Sertorius, in order to teach his soldiers that perseverance and wit are better than brute force, had two horses brought before them, and set two men to pull out their tails. One of the men was a burly Hercules, who tugged and tugged, but all to no purpose; the other was a sharp, weasen—faced tailor, who plucked one hair at a time, amidst roars of laughter, and soon left the tail quite bare.

Hair devoted to Proserpine

Till a lock of hair is devoted to Proserpine, she refuses to release the soul from the dying body. When Dido mounted the funeral pile, she lingered in suffering till Juno sent Iris to cut off a lock of her hair. Thanatos did the same for Alcestis, when she gave her life for her husband. And in all sacrifices a forelock was first cut off from the head of the victim as an offering to the black queen.

“Hunc ego Diti

Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo.' Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat ...

... atque in ventos vita recessit.

Virgil: Æneid, iv. 702—5.

Hair of a Dissembling Colour

Red hair is so—called, from the notion that Judas had red hair.

“Rosalind. His very hair is of the dissembling colour [red ].

Celia. Somewhat browner than Judas's.” —

Shakespeare: As You Like It, iii. 4.

Hair of the Dog that Bit You

(A). Similia similibus curantur. In Scotland it is a popular belief that a few hairs of the dog that bit you applied to the wound will prevent evil consequences. Applied to drinks, it means, if overnight you have indulged too freely, take a glass of the same wine next morning to soothe the nerves. “If this dog do you bite, soon as out of your bed, take a hair of the tail in the morning.”

“Take the hair, it's well written,

Of the dog by which you're bitten;

Work off one wine by his brother,

And one labour with another ...

Cook with cook, and strife with strife:

Business with business, wife with wife.”

Athenæus (ascribed to Aristophanes).

“There was a man, and he was wise,

Who fell into a bramble—bush

And scratched out both his eyes;

And when his eyes were out, he then

Jumped into the bramble—bush

And scratched them in again.”

Hair stand on End

Indicative of intense mental distress and astonishment. Dr. Andrews, of Beresford chapel, Walworth, who attended Probert under sentence of death, says: “When the executioner put the cords on his wrists, his hair, though long and lanky, of a weak iron—grey, rose gradually and stood perfectly upright, and so remained for some time, and then fell gradually down again.”

“Fear came upon me and trembling, ... [and] the hair of my flesh stood up.” — Job iv. 14, 15.

Hake

We lose in hake, but gain in herring. Lose one way, but gain in another. Herrings are persecuted by the hakes, which are therefore driven away from a herring fishery.

Hal

A familiar contraction of Harry (for Henry). Similarly, Dol is a contraction of Dorothy; Mol, of Mary, etc.

The substitution of P for M as the initial letter of proper names is seen in such examples as Polly for Molly, Patty for Martha, Peggy for Margy (i.e. Margaret), etc. (See Elizabeth.)

Halacha

[rule ]. The Jewish oral law. (See Gemara, Mishna .)

“The halachah ... had even greater authority than the Scriptures of the Old Testament, since it explained and applied them.”— Edersheim Life of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i. book i. chap.i.

Halberjects or Haubergets

A coarse thick cloth used for the habits of monks. Thomson says it is the German al—bergen (cover—all) or Hals—bergen (neck—cover). (Essay on Magna Charta.)

Halcyon Days

A time of happiness and prosperity. Halcyon is the Greek for a kingfisher, compounded of hals (the sea) and kuo (to brood on). The ancient Sicilians believed that the kingfisher laid its eggs and incubated for fourteen days, before the winter solstice, on the surface of the sea, during which time the waves of the sea were always unruffled.

“Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be

As halcyon brooding on a winter's sea.”

Dryden.

“The peaceful kingfishers are met together

About the deck, and prophesie calm weather.” Wild: Iter Borealë

Half

Half is more than the whole.. (Pleou hmiou pantoz)This is what Hesiod said to his brother Perseus, when he wished him to settle a dispute without going to law. He meant “half of the estate without the expense of law will be better than the whole after the lawyers have had their pickings.” The remark, however, has a very wide signification. Thus an embarras de richesse is far less profitable than a sufficiency. A large estate to one who cannot manage it is impoverishing. A man of small income will be poorer with a large house and garden to keep up than if he lived in a smaller tenement. Increase of wealth, if expenditure is more in proportion, tendeth to poverty.

“Unhappy they to whom God has not revealed,

By a strong light which must their sense control, That half a great estate's more than the whole.” Cowley: Essays in Verse and Prose, No. iv.

Half

My better half. (See Better .)

Half—baked

He is only half—baked. He is a soft, a noodle. The allusion is to bread, piecrust, etc., only half—cooked.

Half—deck

The sanctum of the second mate, carpenters, coopers, boatswain, and all secondary officers.

Quarter—deck, the sanctum of the captain and superior officers. In a gun—decked ship, it is the deck below the spar—deck, extending from the mainmast to the cabin bulk—heads.

Half—done

Half—done, as Elgin was burnt. In the wars between James II. of Scotland and the Douglases in 1452, the Earl of Huntly burnt one—half of the town of Elgin, being the side which belonged to the Douglases, but left the other side standing because it belonged to his own family. (Sir Walter Scott: Tales of a Grandfather, xxi.)

Half—faced Groat (You). You worthless fellow. The debased groats issued in the reign of Henry VIII. had the king's head in profile, but those in the reign of Henry VII. had the king's head with the full face. (See King John, i. 1; and 2 Henry IV., iii. 1.)

“Thou half—faced groat! You thick—cheeked chitty—face!”

Munday: The Downfal of Robert, Earle of Huntingdon (1601).

Half—seas Over

Almost up with one. Now applied to a person almost dead drunk. The phrase seems to be a corruption of the Dutch op—zee zober, “over—sea beer,” a strong, heady beverage introduced into Holland from England (Gifford). “Up—zee Freese” is Friezeland beer. The Dutch, half seeunst's over, more than half—sick. (C. K. Steerman.)

“I am half—seas o'er to death.”

Dryden.

“I do not like the dulness of your eye,

It hath a heavy cast, `tis upsee Dutch.”

Ben Jonson: Alchemist, iv. 2.

Halfpenny

I am come back again, like a bad ha'penny. A facetious way of saying “More free than welcome.” As a bad hapenny is returned to its owner, so have I returned to you, and you cannot get rid of me.

Halgaver

Summoned before the mayor of Halgaver. The mayor of Halgaver is an imaginary person, and the threat is given to those who have committed no offence against the laws, but are simply untidy and slovenly. Halgaver is a moor in Cornwall, near Bodmin, famous for an annual carnival held there in the middle of July. Charles II. was so pleased with the diversions when he passed through the place on his way to Scilly that he became a member of the “self—constituted" corporation. The mayor of Garratt. (q.v.) is a similar “magnate.”

Halifax

That is, halig fax or holy hair. Its previous name was Horton. The story is that a certain clerk of Horton, being jilted, murdered his quondam sweetheart by cutting off her head, which he hung in a yew—tree. The head was looked on with reverence, and came to be regarded as a holy relic. In time it rotted away, leaving little filaments or veins spreading out between the bark and body of the tree like fine threads. These filaments were regarded as the fax or hair of the murdered maiden. (See Hull.

Halifax

(in Nova Scotia). So called by the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, the governor, in compliment to his patron, the Earl of Halifax (1749).

Halifax Law

By this law, whoever commits theft in the liberty of Halifax is to be executed on the Halifax gibbet, a kind of guillotine.

“At Hallifax the law so sharpe doth deale,

That whoso more than thirteen pence doth steale, They have a jyn that wondrous quick and well Sends thieves all headless into heaven or hell.” Taylor (the Water Poet): Works, ii. (1630).

Hall Mark

The mark on gold or silver articles after they have been assayed. Every article in gold is compared with a given standard of pure gold. This standard is supposed to be divided into twenty—four parts called carats; gold equal to the standard is said to be twenty—four carats fine. Manufactured articles are never made of pure gold, but the quantity of alloy used is restricted. Thus sovereigns and wedding—rings contain two parts of alloy to every twenty—two of gold, and are said to be twenty—two carats fine. The best gold watch—cases

contain six parts of silver or copper to eighteen of gold, and are therefore eighteen carats fine. Other gold watch cases and gold articles may contain nine, twelve, or fifteen parts of alloy, and only fifteen, twelve, or nine of gold. The Mint price of standard gold is £3 17s. 10½d. per ounce, or £46 14s. 6d. per pound.

Standard silver consists of thirty—seven parts of pure silver and three of copper. The Mint price is 5s. 6d. an ounce, but silver to be melted or manufactured into “plate” varies in value according to the silver market. To—day (Oct. 20th, 1894) it is 291/2d. per ounce.

Suppose the article to be marked is taken to the assay office for the hall mark. It will receive a leopard's head for London; an anchor for Birmingham; three wheat sheaves or a dagger for Chester; a castle with two wings for Exeter; five lions and a cross for York; a crown for Sheffield; three castles for Newcastle—on—Tyne; a thistle or castle and lion for Edinburgh; a tree and a salmon with a ring in its mouth for Glasgow; a harp or Hibernia for Dublin, etc. The specific mark shows at once where the article was assayed.

Besides the hall mark, there is also the standard mark, which for England is a lion passant; for Edinburgh a thistle; for Glasgow a lion rampant; and for Ireland a crowned harp. If the article stamped contains less pure metal than the standard coin of the realm, the number of carats is marked on it, as eighteen, fifteen, twelve, or nine carats fine.

Besides the hall mark, the standard mark, and the figure, there is a letter called the date mark. Only twenty letters are used, beginning with A, omitting J, and ending with V; one year they are in Roman characters, another year in Italian, another in Gothic, another in Old English; sometimes they are all capitals, sometimes all small letters; so, by seeing the letter and referring to a table, the exact year of the mark can be discovered. Lastly, the head of the reigning sovereign completes the marks.

Hall Sunday

The Sunday preceding Shrove Tuesday; the next day is called Hall' Monday, and Shrove Tuesday eve is called Hall' Night. The Tuesday is also called Pancake Day, and the day preceding Callop Monday, from the special foods popularly prepared for those days. All three were days of merrymaking. Hall' or Halle is a contraction of Hallow or Haloghe, meaning holy or festival.

Hall of Odin

The rocks, such as Halleberg and Hunneberg, from which the Hyperboreans, when tired of life, used to cast themselves into the sea; so called because they were the vestibule of the Scandinavian Elysium.

Hallam's Greek

Byron, in his English Bards, etc., speaks of “classic Hallam, much renowned for Greek,” referring to “Hallam's severe critique on Payne Knight's Taste, in which were some Greek verses most mercilessly lashed. The verses, however, turned out to be a quotation from Pindar.”

It appears that Dr. Allen, not Hallam, was the luckless critic. (See Crabb Robinson: Diary, i. 277.)

Hallel

There were two series of psalms so called. Jahn tells us in the Feast of Tabernacles the series consisted of Psalms cxiii. to cxviii. both included (Archæologica Biblica, p. 416). Psalm cxxxvi. was called the Great Hallel. And sometimes the songs of degrees sung standing on the fifteen steps of the inner court seem to be so called ( i.e. cxx. to cxxxvii. both included).

“Along this [path] Jesus advanced, preceded and followed by multitudes with loud cries of rejoicing, as at the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Great Hallel was daily sung in their processions.” — Geikie: Life of Christ, vol. ii. chap. 55, p. 397.

In the following quotation the Songs of Degrees are called the Great Hallel.

“Eldad would gladly have joined in praying the Great Hallel, as they call the series of Psams from the cxx. to the cxxxvi., after which it was customary to send round the [paschal] cup a fifth time, but midnight was already too near.” — Eldad the Pilgrim, chap. ix.

Hallelujah

is the Hebrew halelu—Jah, “Praise ye Jehovah.”

Hallelujah Lass

(A). A young woman who wanders about with what is called “The Salvation Army.”

Hallelujah Victory

A victory gained by some newly—baptised Bretons, led by Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre (A.D. 429). The conquerors commenced the battle with loud shouts of “Hallelujah!”

Halloo when out of the Wood

or Never halloo till you are out of the wood. Never think you are safe from the attacks of robbers till you are out of the forest. “Call no man happy till he is dead.” “Many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.”

Halloween

(October 31st), according to Scotch superstition, is the time when witches, devils, fairies, and other imps of earth and air hold annual holiday. (See Halloween, a poem by Robert Burns.)

Halter

A Bridport dagger (q.v.). St. Johnstone's tippet.

Halter

or rather Halster. A rope for the neck or halse, as a horse's halter. (Anglo—Saxon, hals, the neck; but there is also the word hælfter, a halter.)

“A thievisher knave is not on live, more filching, no more false;

Many a truer man than he has hanged up by the halse [neck].” Gammer Gurton.

Haltios

In Laplandic mythology, the guardian spirits of Mount Niemi.

“From this height [Niemi, in Lapland] we had opportunity several times to see those vapours rise from the lake, which the people of the country call Haltios, and which they deem to be the guardian spirits of the mountain.” — M. de Maupertuis.

Ham

and Heyd. Storm demons or weather—sprites. (Scandinavian mythology.)

“Though valour never should be scorned.

Yet now the storm rules wide;

By now again to live returned

I'll wager Ham and Heyd.”

Frithiof Saga, lay xi.

Hamadryads

Nymphs of trees supposed to live in forest—trees, and die when the tree dies. (Greek, hama, together with drus, a forest—tree.)

The nymphs of fruit—trees were called “Melides” or “Hamamelids.”

Hameh

In Arabian mythology, a bird formed from the blood near the brains of a murdered man. This bird cries “Iskoonee!” (Give me drink!), meaning drink of the murderer's blood; and this it cries incessantly till the death is avenged, when it flies away.

Hamet

The Cid Hamet Benengeli. The hypothetical Moorish chronicler from whom Cervantës professes to derive his adventures of Don Quixote.

“Of the two bad cassocks I am worth ... I would have given the latter of them as freely as even Cid Hamet offered his ... to have stood by.” — Sterne.

Hamilton

The reek of Mr. Patrick Hamilton has infected as many as it did blow upon, i.e. Patrick Hamilton was burnt to death by Cardinal Beaton, and the horror of the deed contributed not a little to the Reformation. As the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, so the smoke or reek of Hamilton's fire diffused the principles for which he suffered (1504—1528).

Latimer, at the stake, said: “We shall this day light up such a candle in England as shall never be put out.”

Hamiltonian System

A method of teaching foreign languages by inter—linear translations, suggested by James Hamilton, a merchant (1769—1831).

Hamlet

A daft person (Icelandic, amlod'), one who is irresolute, and can do nothing fully. Shakespeare's play is based on the Danish story of Amleth' recorded in Saxo—Grammaticus.

Hammel

(Scotch). A cattle—shed, a hovel. (Hame = home, with a diminutive affix. Anglo—Saxon, ham, home. Compare hamlet. )

Hammer

(Anglo—Saxon, hamer.) (1) Pierre d'Ailly, Le Marteau des Hérétiques, president of the council that condemned John Huss. (1350—1425.)

(2) Judas Asmonæus, surnamed Maccabæus, “the hammer.” (B.C. 166—136.)

(3) St. Augustine is called by Hakewell “That renowned pillar of truth and hammer of heresies.” (B.C. 395—430.)

(4) John Faber, surnamed Malleus Hereticorum, from the title of one of his works. (1470—1541.)

(5) St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Malleus Arianorum. (350—367.)

(6) Charles Martel. (689—741.)

“On prétend qu'on lui donna le surnom de Martel, parcequ'il avait écrasé comme avec un marteau les Sarrasins, qui, sous la conduite d'Abdérame, avaient envahi la France.” — Bouillet. Dictionnaire Universel, etc.

Hammer

PHRASES AND PROVERBS.

Gone to the hammer. Applied to goods sent to a sale by auction; the auctioneer giving a rap with a small hammer when a lot is sold, to intimate that there is an end to the bidding.

They live hammer and tongs. Are always quarrelling. They beat each other like hammers, and are as “cross as the tongs.”

“Both parties went at it hammer and tongs; and hit one another anywhere and with anything.” — James Payn.

To sell under the hammer. To sell by auction. (See above.)

Hammer of the Scotch

Edward I. On his tomb in Westminster Abbey is the inscription “Edwardus longus Scotorum Malleus hic est ” (Here is long Edward, the hammer of the Scots).

Hammercloth

The cloth that covers the coach—box, in which hammer, nails, bolts, etc., used to be carried in case of accident. Another etymology is from the Icelandic hamr (a skin), skin being used for the purpose. A third suggestion is that the word hammer is a corruption of “hammock,” the seat which the cloth covers being formed of straps or webbing stretched between two crutches like a sailor's hammock. Still another conjecture is that the word is a corruption of “hamper cloth,” the hamper being used for sundry articles required, and forming the coachman's box. The word box seems to favour this suggestion.

Hampton Court Conference

A conference held at Hampton Court in January, 1604, to settle the disputes between the Church party and the Puritans. It lasted three days, and its result was a few slight alterations in the Book of Common Prayer.

Hamshackle

To hamshackle a horse is to tie his head to one of his fore—legs.

Hamstring

To disable by severing the tendons of the ham.

Han

Sons of Hân. The Chinese are so called from Hân the founder of the twenty—sixth dynasty, with which modern history commences. (206—220.)

Hanap

A costly goblet used at one time on state occasions. Sometimes the cup used by our Lord at the Last Supper is so called. (Old High German, hnapp, a cup.)

“He had, indeed, four silver hanaps of his own, which had been left him by his grandmother.” —“Sir W. Scott: Quentin Durward, chap. iv. p. 71.

Hanaper

Exchequer. “Hanaper office,” an office where all writs relating to the public were formerly kept in a hamper (in hanaperio). Hanaper is a cover for a hanap.

Hand

A measure of length = four inches. Horses are measured up the fore leg to the shoulder, and are called 14, 15, 16 (as it may be), hands high.

i. Hand (A). A symbol of fortitude in Egypt, of fidelity in Rome. Two hands symbolise concord; and a hand laid on the head of a person indicates the right of property. Thus if a person laid claim to a slave, he laid his hand upon him in the presence of the prætor. (Aulus Gellius, xx. 19.) By a closed hand Zeno represented dialectics, and by an open hand eloquence.

Previous to the twelfth century the Supreme Being was represented by a hand extended from the clouds; sometimes the hand is open, with rays issuing from the fingers, but generally it is in the act of benediction, i.e. with two fingers raised.

ii. Hand. (The final word.)

BEAR A HAND. Come and help. Bend to your work immediately. CAP IN HAND. Suppliantly, humbly; as, “To come cap in hand.”

DEAD MAN'S HAND. It is said that carrying a dead man's hand will produce a dead sleep. Another superstition is that a lighted candle placed in the hand of a dead man gives no light to anyone but him who carries the hand. Hence burglars, even to the present day in some parts of Ireland, employ this method of concealment.

EMPTY HAND. An empty hand is no lure for a hawk. You must not expect to receive anything without giving a return. The Germans say, Wer schmiert der fährt. The Latin proverb is Da, si vis accipere, or Pro nihilo, nihil fit.

HEAVY HAND, as “To rule with a heavy hand,” severely, with oppression. OLD HAND (An). One experienced.

POOR HAND (A). An unskilful one. “He is but a poor hand at it,” i.e. he is not skilful at the work. RED HAND, or bloody hand, in coat armour is generally connected with some traditional tale of blood, and the badge was never to be expunged till the bearer had passed, by way of penance, seven years in a cave, without companion, without shaving, and without uttering a single word.

In Aston church, near Birmingham, is a coat—armorial of the Holts. the “bloody hand” of which is thus accounted for: — It is said that Sir Thomas Holt, some two hundred years ago, murdered his cook in a cellar with a spit, and, when pardoned for the offence, the king enjoined him, by way of penalty, to wear ever after a “bloody hand” in his family coat.

In the church of Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, there is a red hand upon a monument, the legend of which is, that a gentleman shooting with a friend was so mortified at meeting with no game that he swore he would shoot the first live thing he met. A miller was the victim of this rash vow, and the “bloody hand” was placed in his family coat to keep up a perpetual memorial of the crime.

Similar legends are told of the red hand in Wateringbury church, Kent; of the red hand on a table in the hall of Church—Gresly, in Derbyshire; and of many others.

The open red hand, forming part of the arms of the province of Ulster, commemorates the daring of O'Neile, a bold adventurer, who vowed to be first to touch the shore of Ireland. Finding the boat in which he was rowed outstripped by others, he cut off his hand and flung it to the shore, to touch it before those in advance could land.

The open red hand in the armorial coat of baronets arose thus: — James I. in 1611 created two hundred baronets on the payment of £1,000 each, ostensibly “for the amelioration of Ulster,” and from this connection with Ulster they were allowed to place on their coat armour the “open red hand,” up to that time borne by the O'Neiles. The O'Neile whose estates were made forfeit by King James was surnamed Lamb—derig Eirin (red—hand of Erin).

RIGHT HAND. He is my right hand. In France, C'est mon bras droit, my best man. SECOND—HAND. (See Second.)

UPPER HAND. To get the upper hand. To obtain the mastery.

YOUNG HAND (A). A young and inexperienced workman.

iii. Hand. (Phrases beginning with “To.”)

COME TO HAND. To arrive; to have been delivered.

To come to one's hand. It is easy to do.

GET ONE'S HAND IN. To become familiar with the work in hand. HAVE A HAND IN THE MATTER. To have a finger in the pie. In French, “Mettre la main á quelque chose. ' KISS THE HAND (Job xxxi. 27) To worship false gods. Cicero (In Yerrem, lib. iv. 43) speaks of a statue of Hercules, the chin and lips of which were considerably worn by the kisses of his worshippers. Hosea (xiii. 2) says, “Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.” (See Adore.)

“I have left me seven thousand in Israel ... which have not bowed unto Baal, and ... which [have] not kissed [their hand to] him.” — 1 Kings xix. 18.

LEND A HAND. To help. In French, “ Prêtez moi la main. '

LIVE FROM HAND TO MOUTH. To live without any provision for the morrow. TAKE IN HAND. To undertake to do something; to take the charge of.

iv. Hand (preceded by a preposition).

AT HAND. Conveniently near. “Near at hand,” quite close by. In French, “A la main. ' BEFOREHAND. Sooner, before it happened.

BEHINDHAND. Not in time, not up to date.

BY THE HAND OF GOD. “Accidit divinitus. ' FROM HAND TO HAND. From one person to another. IN HAND. Under control, in possession; under progress, as “Avoir la main á l'oeuvre. '

“Keep him well in hand.”

“I have some in hand, and more in expectation.” “I have a new book or picture in hand.”

A bird in the hand. (See BIRD.)

OFF HAND. At once; without stopping.

Off one's hands. No longer under one's responsibilities; able to maintain oneself. OUT OF HAND. At once, over.

“We will proclaim you out of hand.”

Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI., iv. 7.

“And, were these inward wars once out of hand,

We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land.” Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV., iii. 1.

WITH A HIGH HAND. Imperiously, arrogantly. In French, “Faire quelque chose haut la main. ' v. Hand. (Miscellaneous articles.)

LAYING ON OF HANDS. The laying on of a bishop's hands in confirmation or ordination. PUTTING THE HAND UNDER THE THIGH. An ancient ceremony used in swearing.

“And A braham said unto his eldest servant ... Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: and I will make thee swear ... that thon shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaauites.” — Genesis xxiv. 2, 3.

Hands

Persons employed in a factory. We say so many head of cattle: horse—dealers count noses. Races are won by the nose, and factory work by the hand, but cattle have the place of honour.

Hands

ALL. It is believed on all hands. It is generally (or universally) believed. CHANGE. To change hands. To pass from a possessor to someone else.

CLEAN. He has clean hands. In French, “It a les mains nettes. ' That is, he is incorruptible, or he has never taken a bribe.

FULL. My hands are full. I am fully occupied; I have as much work to do as I can manage. A “handful” has the plural “handfuls,” as “two handfuls,” same as “two barrow—loads,” “two cart—loads,” etc.

GOOD. I have it from very good hands. I have received my information on good authority. LAY. To lay hands on. To apprehend; to lay hold of. (See No. v.)

“Lay hands on the villain.”

Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, v. 1.

LONG. Kings have long hands. In French, “Les rois ont les mains longues. ' That is, it is hard to escape from the vengeance of a king, for his hands or agents extend over the whole of his kingdom.

SHAKE. To shake hands. To salute by giving a hand received into your own a shake.

To strike hands. (Prov. xvii. 18). To make a contract, to become surety for another. (See also Prov. vii. I and

xxii. 26.) The English custom of shaking hands in confirmation of a bargain has been common to all nations and all ages. In feudal times the vassal put his hands in the hands of his overlord on taking the oath of fidelity and homage.

SHOP “Hands, ' etc. Men and women employed in a shop.

TAKE OFF. To take off one's hands. To relieve one of something troublesome, as “Will no one take this [task] off my hands?”

WASH. To wash one's hands of a thing. In French, “Se lever les mains d'une chose ' or “Je m'en lave les mains. ' I will have nothing to do with it; I will abandon it entirely. The allusion is to Pilate's washing his hands at the trial of Jesus.

“When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying. I am innocent of the blood of this just person see ye to it.” — Matt. xxvii. 24.

Hand—book

Spelman says that King Alfred used to carry in his bosom memorandum leaves, in which he made observations, and took so much pleasure therein that he called it his hand—book, because it was always in his hand.

Hand—gallop

A slow and easy gallop, in which the horse is kept well in hand.

Hand Paper

A particular sort of paper well known in the Record Office, and so called from its water—mark, which goes back to the fifteenth century.

Hand—post (A). A direction—post to direct travellers the way to different places.

Hand Round

(To). To pass from one person to another in a regular series.

Hand and Glove

(They are). Inseparable companions, of like tastes and like affections. They fit each other like hand and glove.

Hand and Seal

When writing was limited to a few clerks, documents were authenticated by the impression of the hand dipped in ink, and then the seal was duly appended. As dipping the hand in ink was dirty, the impression of the thumb was substituted. We are informed that “scores of old English and French deeds still exist in which such `signatures' appear.” Subsequently the name was written, and this writing was called “the hand.”

“Hubert: Here is your hand and seal for what I did.

King John: Oh, when the last account `twixt heaven and earth

Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal

Witness against us to damnation.”

Shakespeare: King John, vi. 2.

Hand—in—Hand

In a familiar or kindly manner, as when persons go hand—in—hand.

“Now we maun totter down, John,

But hand in hand we'll go.”

John Anderson, my Jo.

Hand of Cards

The whole deal of cards given to a single player. The cards which he holds in his hand.

“A saint in heaven would griere to see such `hand'

Cut up by one who will not understand.”

Crabbe: Borough.

Hand of Justice

The allusion is to the sceptre or báton anciently used by kings, which had an ivory hand at the top of it.

Hand over Hand

To go or to come up hand over hand, is to travel with great rapidity, as climbing a rope or a ladder, or as one vessel overtakes another. Sailors in hauling a rope put one hand over the other alternately as fast as they can. In French, “Main sur main. '

“Commandment fait aux matelots qul halent sur une manoeuvre pour qu'ils passent alternativement une main sur l'autre sans interruption, et pour que le travil se fasse plus promptement.” — Royal Dictionnaire.

Hand the Sail

i.e. furl it.

Hand Down to Posterity

(To). To leave for future generations.

Handfasting

A sort of marriage. A fair was at one time held in Dumfriesshire, at which a young man was allowed to pick out a female companion to live with him. They lived, together for twelve months, and if they both liked the arrangement were man and wife. This was called hand—fasting or hand—fastening.

This sort of contract was common among the Romans and Jews, and is not unusual in the East even now.

“ `Knowest thou not that rite, holy man?' said A venel ...;`then I will tell thee. We bordermen

... take our wives for a year and a day; that space gone by, each may choose another mate, or, at their pleasure, [they] may call the priest to marry them for life, and this we call handfasting.' ” — Sir W. Scott: The Monastery, chap. xxv.

Handicap

A game at cards not unlike loo, but with this difference — the winner of one trick has to put in a double stake, the winner of two tricks a triple stake, and so on. Thus: if six persons are playing, and the general stake is ls., and A gains three tricks, he gains 6s., and has to “hand i' the cap” or pool 3s. for the next deal. Suppose A gains two tricks and B one, then A gains 4s. and B 2s., and A has to stake 3s. and B 2s. for the next deal.

“To the `Mitre Tavern' in Wood Street, a house of the greatest note in London. Here some of us fell to handicap, a sport I never knew before, which was very good.” — Pepys: His Diary, Sept. 18th, 1680.

Handicap, in racing, is the adjudging of various weights to horses differing in age, power, or speed, in order to place them all, as far as possible, on an equality. If two unequal players challenge each other at chess, the superior gives up a piece, and this is his handicap. So called from the ancient game referred to by Pepys. (See Sweepstakes, Plate—Race, etc.)

The Winner's Handicap. The winning horses of previous races being pitted together in a race royal are first handicapped according to their respective merits: the horse that has won three races has to carry a greater weight than the horse that has won only two, and this latter more than its competitor who is winner of a single race only.

Handkerchief

“The committee was at a loss to know whom next to throw the handkerchief to ” (The Times). The meaning is that the committee did not know whom they were to ask next to make a speech for them: and the allusion is to the game called in Norfolk “Stir up the dumplings,” and by girls “Kiss in the ring.”

Handkerchief and Sword

With handkerchief in one hand and sword in the other. Pretending to be sorry at a calamity, but prepared to make capital out of it.

“Abbé George ... mentions in [a letter] that `Maria Theresa stands with the handkerchief in one hand, weeping for the woes of Poland, but with the sword in the other hand, ready to cut Poland in sections, and take her share.' ” — Carlyle: The Diamond Necklace, chap. iv.

Handle

He has a handle to his name. Some title, as “lord,” “sir,” “doctor.” The French say Monsicur sans queue, a man without a tail (handle to his name).

To give a handle to ... To give grounds for suspicion; as, “He certainly gave a handle to the rumour.”

“He gave a handle to his enemies, and threw stumbling—blocks in the way of his friends.” — Hazlitt: Spirit of the Age (James Macintosh), p. 139.

Handsome

= liberal. To do the thing that is handsome; to act handsomely; to do handsome towards one.

Handwriting on the Wall

(The). An announcement of some coming calamity. The allusion is to the handwriting on Belshazzar's palace—wall announcing the loss of his kingdom. (Dan. v. 5—31.)

Handycuffs

Cuffs or blows given by the hand. “Fisticuffs” is now more common.

Hang Back

(To). To hesitate to proceed.

Hang Fire

(To). To fail in an expected result. The allusion is to a gun or pistol which fails to go off.

Hang On

(To). To cling to; to persevere; to be dependent on.

Hang Out

Where do you hang out? Where are you living, or lodging? The allusion is to the custom, now restricted to public—houses, but once very general, of hanging before one's shop a sign indicating the nature of the business carried on within. Druggists often still place coloured bottles in their windows, and some tobacconists place near their shop door the statue of a Scotchman. (See Dickens: Pickwick Papers, chap. xxx.)

Hangdog Look

(A). A guilty, shamefaced look.

“Look a little brisker, man, and not so hangdog—like.” —Dickens.

Hang by a Thread

(To). To be in a very precarious position. The allusion is to the sword of Damocles. (See Damocles Sword.)

Hang in the Bell Ropes

(To). to be asked at church, and then defer the marriage so that the bells hang fire.

Hanged

or Strangled. Examples from the ancient classic writers: — (1) AC'HIUS, King of Lydia, endeavoured to raise a new tribute from his subjects and was hanged by the enraged populace, who threw the dead body into the river Pactolus.

(2) AMA'TA, wife of King Latinus, promised her daughter Lavinia to King Turnus; when, however, she was given in marriage to AEneas, Amata Uanged herself that she might not see the hated stranger. (Virgil: Æncid,

vii.) (3) ARACH'NE, the most skilful of needle—women, hanged herself because she was outdone in a trial of skill by Minerva. (Ovid: Metamorphoses, vi. fab. 1.)

(4) AUTOL'YCA, mother of Ulysses, hanged herself in despair on receiving false news of her son's death.

(5) BONO'SUS, a Spaniard by birth, was strangled by the Emperor Probus for assuming the imperial parple in Gaul. (A.D. 280.)

(6) IPHIS, a beautiful youth of Salamis, of mean birth, hanged himself because h s addresses were rejected by Anaxarele a girl of Salamis of similar rank in life. (Ovid: Metamorphoses, xiv. 708, etc.)

(7) LATI'NUS, wife of. (See Amata,ábove.) (8) LYCAM'BES, father of Neobula, who hétrothed her to Archilochos, the poet. He broke his promise, and gave her in marriage to a wealthier man. Archilochos so scourged them by his satires that both father and daughter banged themselves.

(9) NEOBU'LA. (See above.)

(10) PHYLLIS, Queen of Thrace, the accepted of Demoph'oön, who stopped on her coasts on his return from Troy. Demophoön was called away to Athens, and promised to return; but, failing so to do, Phyllis hanged herself.

Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered

Hanged, drawn, and quartered, or Drawn, hanged, and quartered. The question turns on the meaning of drawn. The evidence seems to be that traitors were drawn to the place of execution, then hanged, then

“drawn” or disembowelled, and then quartered. Thus the sentence on Sir William Wallace was that he should be drawn (detrahatur) from the Palace of Westminster to the Tower, etc., then hanged (suspendatur), then disembowelled or drawn (devaletur), then beheaded and quartered (decolletur et decapitetur). (See Notes and Queries, August 15th, 1891.)

If by “drawn” is meant conveyed to the place of execution, the phrase should be “Drawn, hanged, and quartered;” but if the word is used as a synonym of disembowelled, the phrase should be “Hanged, drawn, and quartered.”

“Lord Ellenborough used to say to those condemned. `You are drawn on hurdles to the place of execution, where you are to be hanged, but not till you are dead; for, while still living, your body is to be taken down, your bowels torn out and burnt before your face; your head is then cut off, and your body divided into four quarters.” — Gentleman's Magazine, 1803, part i. pp. 177,275.

Drawn Battle A battle in which the troops on both sides are drawn off, neither combatants claiming the victory.

Hanger

(A). Properly the fringed loop or strap hung to the girdle by which the dagger was suspended, but applied by a common figure of speech to the sword or dagger itself.

“Men's swords in hangers hang fast by their side.” — J.Taylor (1630).

Hanging

Hanging and wiving go by destiny. “If a man is doomed to be hanged, he will never be drowned.” And “marriages are made in heaven,” we are told.

“If matrimony and hanging go

By destny, why not whipping too?

What medcine else can cure the fits

Of lovers when they lose their wits?

Love is a boy, by poets styled.

Then spare the rod and spoil the child.”

Butler: Hudibras, part ii. canto i. 839—844.

Hanging Gale

(The). The custom of taking six months' grace in the payment of rent which prevailed in Ireland.

“We went to collect the rents due the 25th March, but which, owing to the custom which prevails in Ireland known as `the hanging gale,' are never demanded till the 29th September.” — The Times, November, 1885.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Four acres of garden raised on a base supported by pillars, and towering in terraces one above another 300 feet in height. At a distance they looked like a vast pyramid covered with trees. This mound was constructed by Nebuchadnezzar to gratify his wife Amytis, who felt weary of the flat plains of Babylon, and longed for something to remind her of her native Median hills. One of the “seven wonders of the world.”

Hangman's Acre, Gains, and Gain's Alley

(London), in the liberty of St. Catherine. Strype says it is a corruption of “Hammes and Guynes,” so called because refugees from those places were allowed to lodge there in the reign of Queen Mary after the loss of Calais. (See also Stow: History, vol. ii.; list of streets.)

Hangman's Wages

131/2d. The fee given to the executioner at Tyburn, with 1 1/2d. for the rope. This was the value of a Scotch merk, and therefore points to the reign of James, who decreed that “the coin of silver called the mark—piece shall be current within the kingdom at the value of 13 1/2d.” Noblemen who were to be beheaded were expected to give the executioner from 7 to 10 for cutting off their head.

“For half of thirteen—pence ha'penny wages

I would have cleared all the town cages,

And you should have been rid of all the stages I and my gallows groan.”

The Hangman's Last Will and Testament. (Rump Songe.

The present price (1894) is about 40. Calcraft's charge was 33 14s., plus assistant 5 5s., other fees 1 1s., to which he added “expenses for erecting the scaffold.”

Hangmen

and Executioners. (1) BULL is the earliest hangman whose name survives (about 1593). (2) JOCK SUTHERLAND.

(3) DERRICK, who cut off the head of Essex in 1601.

(4) GREGORY. Father and son, mentioned by Sir Walter Scott (1647). (5) GREGORY BRANDON, (about 1648).

(6) RICHARD BRANDON, his son, who executed Charles I.

(7) SQUIRE DUN, mentioned by Hudibras (part iii. c. 2).

(8) JACK KETCH (1678) executed Lord Russell and the Duke of Monmouth. (9) ROSE, the butcher (1686): but Jack Ketch was restored to office the same year. (10) EDWARD DENNIS (1780), introduced as a character in Dickens's Barnaby Rudge. (11) THOMAS CHESHIRE, nicknamed “Old Cheese.”

(12) JOHN CALCRAFT; MARWOOD; BERRY; etc.

(13) Of foreign executioners, the most celebrated are Little John; Capeluche, headsman of Paris during the terrible days of the Armagnacs and Burgundians; and the two brothers Sanson, who were executioners during the first French Revolution.

Hudibras, under the name of Dun, “personates” Sir Arthur Hazelrig, “the activest” of the five members impeached by King Charles I. The other four were Monk, Walton, Morley, and Alured.

Hankey Pankey

Jugglery; fraud.

Hanoverian Shield

This escutcheon used to be added to the arms of England; it was placed in the centre of the shield to show that the House of Hanover came to the crown by election, and not by conquest. Conquerors strike out arms of a conquered country, and place their own in lieu.

Hans von Rippach

[rip—pak ]. Jack of Rippach, a Monsieur Nong—tong—pas — i.e. someone asked for who does not exist. A gay German spark calls at a house and asks for Herr Hans von Rippach. Rippach is a village near Leipsic.

Hansards

The printed records of Bills before Parliament, the reports of committees, parliamentary debates, and some of the national accounts. Till the business was made into a company the reports commanded a good respect, but in 1892 the company was wound up. Luke Hansard, the founder of the business came from Norwich, and was born in 1752.

Other parliamentary business was printed by other firms.

Hanse Towns

The maritime cities of Germany, which belonged to the Hanseatic League (q.v.).

“The Hanse towns of Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg are commonwealths even now (1877).” — Freeman: General Sketch, chap.x. p. 174.

Hanseatic League

The first trade union; it was established in the twelfth century by certain cities of Northern Germany for their mutual prosperity and protection. The diet which used to be held every three years was called the Hansa, and the members of it Hansards. The league in its prosperity comprised eighty—five towns; it declined rapidly in the Thirty Years' War; in 1669 only six cities were represented; and the last three members of the league (Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen) joined the German Customs Unions' in 1889.

(German, am—see, on the sea; and the league was originally called the Am—sec—staaten, free cities on the sea.)

Hansel

A gift or bribe, the first money received in a day. Hence Hansel Monday, the first Monday of the year. To “hansel our swords” is to use them for the first time. In Norfolk we hear of hanselling a coat — i.e. wearing it for the first time. Lemon tells us that superstitious people will spit on the first money taken at market for luck, and Misson says, “Its le baisent en le recevant, craschent dessus, et le mettent dans une poche apart. ” (Travels in England, p. 192.)

Hansel Monday

The Monday after New—Year's Day, when “hansels,” or free gifts, were given in Scotland to servants and children. Our boxing—day is the first weekday after Christmas Day. (Anglo—Saxon, handselen; hand and sellan, to give.)

Hansom (A). A light two—wheeled cab, in which the driver sits behind the vehicle, and communicates with the passenger through a trap—door in the roof. Invented by Aloysius Hansom of York (1803—1882). Hansom was by trade an architect at Birmingham and at Hinckley in Leicestershire.

Hapmouche

(2 syl.). The giant flycatcher. He invented the art of drying and smoking neats' tongues. (Duchat: OEuvres de Rabelavs.)

Happy Arabia

A mistranslation of the Latin Arabia felix, which means simply on the right hand — i.e. to the right hand of Al—Shan (Syria). It was Ptolemy who was the author of the threefold division Arabia Petraea, miscalled “Stony Arabia,” but really so called from its chief city Petra; Arabia Felix (or Yemen), the south—west coast; and as for Arabia deserta (meaning the interior) probably he referred to Nedjaz.

Happy Expression

(A). A wellturned phrase; a word or phrase peculiarly apt. The French also say “Une heureuse expression, ” and “S'exprimer heureusement. “

Happy—go—lucky

(A). One indifferent to his interests; one who looks to good luck to befriend him.

Happy Valley

in Dr. Johnson's tale of Rasselas, is placed in the kingdom of Amhara, and was inaccessible except in one spot through a cave in a rock. It was a Garden of Paradise where resided the princes of Abyssinia.

Happy as a Clam at High Tide

The clam is a bivalve mollusc, dug from its bed of sand only at low tide; at high tide it is quite safe from molestation. (See Close As A Clam.)

Happy as a King

This idea of happiness is wealth, position, freedom, and luxurious living; but Richard II. says a king is “Woe's slave” (iii. 2).

On the happiness of kings, see Shakespeare: Henry V., iv. 1.

Happy the People whose Annals are Tiresome

(Montesquieu.) Of course, wars, rebellions, troubles, make up the most exciting parts of history.

Hapsburg

(See Habsburg .)

Har

The first person of the Scandinavian Trinity, which consists of Har (the Mighty), the Like Mighty, and the Third Person. This Trinity is called “The Mysterious Three,” and they sit on three thrones above the Rainbow. The next in order are the AEsir (q.v.), of which Odin, the chief, lives in Asgard, on the heavenly hills between Earth and the Rainbow. The third order is the Vanir (see Van) — the gods of the ocean, air, and clouds — of which Van Niord is the chief. Har has already passed his ninth incarnation; in his tenth he will take the forms first of a peacock, and then of a horse, when all the followers of Mahomet will be destroyed.

Har

in Indian mythology, is the second person of the Trinity.

Haram

or Harem, means in Arabic forbidden, or not to be violated; a name given by Mahometans to those apartments which are appropriated exclusively to the female members of a family.

Harapha

A descendant of Og and Anak, a giant of Gath, who went to mock Samson in prison, but durst not venture within his reach. The word means the giant. (Milton: Samson Agonistes.)

Harbinger

One who looks out for lodgings, etc.: a courier; hence, a fore—runner, a messenger. (Anglo—Saxon, here, an army; bergan, to lodge.)

“I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful

The hearing of my wife with your approach.” Shakespeare: Macbeth, i. 4.

Harcourt's Round Table

A private conference in the house of Sir William Harcourt, January 14, 1887, with the view of reuniting, if possible, the Liberal party, broken up by Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy.

The phrase “Round Table” is American, meaning what the French call a cercle, or club meetings held at each other's houses.

Hard

meaning difficult, is like the French dur; as, “hard of hearing,” “qui a l'oreille dure; ” “a hard word,” “un terme dur; ” “'tis a hard case,” “c'est une chose bien dure; “ “hard times,” “les temps sont durs; ” so also “hardly earned,” “qu'on gagne bien durement; ” “hard—featured,” “dont les traits sont durs; ” “hard—hearted,” “qui a le coeur dur, ” and many other phrases.

Hard By

Near. Hard means close, pressed close together; hence firm or solid, in close proximity to.

“Hard by a sheltering wood.”

David Mallet: Edwin and Emma.

Hard Lines

Hard terms; “rather rough treatment;” exacting. Lines mean lot or allotment (measured out by a line measure), as, “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage,” i.e. my allotment is excellent. Hard lines = an unfavourable allotment (or task).

“That was hard lines upon me, after I had given up everything.” — G. Eliot.

Hard Up

Short of money. “N'avoir pas de quibus. ” “Up” often = out, as, “used up,” “worn out,” “done up,” etc. “Hard up” = nearly out [of cash]. In these, and all similar examples, “Up” is the Old English ofer, over; Latin, s—uper; Greek

Hard as Nails

Stern, hard—hearted, unsympathetic; able to stand hard blows like nails. Religious bigotry, straitlacedness, rigid puritanical pharisaism, make men and women “hard as nails.”

“I know I'm as hard as nails already; I don't want to get more so.” — Edna Lyall: Donovan. chap. xxiii.

Hard as a Stone

“hard as iron,” “hard as brawn,” “hard as ice,” “hard as adamant,” etc. (See Similes.)

Hard as the Nether Millstone

Unfeeling, obdurate. The lower or “nether” of the two millstones is firmly fixed and very hard; the upper stone revolves round it on a shaft, and the corn, running down a tube inserted in the upper stone, is ground by the motion of the upper stone round the lower one. Of course, the upper wheel is made to revolve by some power acting on it, as wind, water, or some other mechanical force.

Hardouin

(2 syl.). E'on Hardouin would not object. Said in apology of an historical or chronological incident introduced into a treatise against which some captious persons take exception. Jean Hardouin, the learned Jesuit, was librarian to Louis le Grand. He was so fastidious that he doubted the truth of all received history, denied the authenticity of the Æneid of Virgil, the Odes of Horace, etc.; placed no faith in medals and coins, regarded all councils before that of Trent as chimerical, and looked on Descartes, Malebranche, Pascal, and all Jansenists as infidels. (1646—1729).

“Even Père Hardouin would not enter his pro test against such a collection.” — Dr. A. Clarke: Essay.

Hardy

(Letitia). Heroine of the Belle's Stratagem, by Mrs. Cowley. She is a young lady of fortune destined to marry Doricourt. She first assumes the air of a raw country hoyden and disgusts the fastidious man of fashion; then she appears at a masquerade and wins him. The marriage is performed at midnight, and Doricourt does not know that the masquerader and hoyden are the same Miss Hardy till after the ceremony is over.

HARDY (The, i.e. brave or daring, hence the phrase, “hardi comme un lion. ' (1) William Douglas, defender of Berwick (died 1302).

(2) Philippe III. of France, le Hardi (1245, 1270—1285).

(3) Philippe II., Duc de Bourgogne, le Hardi (1342, 1363—1382).

Hare

It is unlucky for a hare to cross your path, because witches were said to transform themselves into hares.

“Nor did we meet, with nimble feet,

One little fearful lepus;

That certain sign, as some diyine,

Of fortune bad to keep us.”

Ellison: Trip to Benwell, Ix.

In the Flamborough Village and Headland, we are told, “if a fisherman on his way to the boats happens to meet a woman, parson, or hare, he will turn back, being convinced that he will have no luck that day.”

Antipathy to hares. Tycho Brahe (2 syl.) would faint at the sight of a hare; the Duc d'Epernon at the sight of a leveret; Marshal de Brééat sight of a rabbit; and Henri III., the Duke of Schomberg, and the chamberlain of the emperor Ferdinand, at the sight of a cat. (See Antipathy.)

First catch your hare. (See Catch.)

Hold with the hare and run with the hounds. To play a double and deceitful game, to be a traitor in the camp. To run with the hounds as if intent to catch the hare, but all the while being the secret friend of poor Wat. In the American war these double—dealers were called Copperheads (q.v.).

Mad as a March hare. Hares are unusually shy and wild in March, which is their rutting season . Erasmus says “Mad as a marsh hare,” and adds, “hares are wilder in marshes from the absence of hedges

and cover.” (Aphorisms, p. 266; 1542.)

Melancholy as a hare (Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., i. 2). According to mediaeval quackery, the flesh of hare was supposed to generate melancholy; and all foods imparted their own speciality.

The quaking hare, in Dryden's Hind and Panther, means the Quakers.

“Among the timorous kind, the quaking hare

Professed neutrality, but would not swear.”

Part i. 37, 38.

Hare—brained

or Hair—brained. Mad as a March hare, giddy, foolhardy.

“Let's leave this town; for they [the English] are hair—brained slaves,

And hunger will enforce them to be more eager.” Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI., i. 2.

Harefoot

Swift of foot as a hare. The surname given to Harold I., youngest son of Canute (1035—1040).

To kiss the hare's foot. To be too late for anything, to be a day after the fair. The hare has gone by, and left its foot—print for you to salute. A similar phrase is To kiss the post.

Hare—lip

A cleft lip; so called from its resemblance to the upper lip of a hare. It was said to be the mischievous act of an elf or malicious fairy.

“This is the foul flend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock. He ... squints the eye and makes the hare—lip.” — Shakespeare: King Lear, iii. 4.

Hare—stone

Hour—stone Boundary stone in the parish of Sancred (Cornwall), with a heap of stones round it. It is thought that these stones were set up for a similar purpose as the column set up by Laban (Genesis xxxi. 51, 52). “Behold this heap, and behold this pillar,” said Laban to Jacob, “which I have cast betwixt me and thee. This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap unto me, for harm.” (Anglo—Saxon, hora, or horu stan.) (See Harold's stones.)

Hare and the Tortoise

(The). Everyone knows the fable of the race between the hare and the tortoise, won by the latter; and the moral, “Slow and steady wins the race.” The French equivalent is “Pas à pas le boeuf prend le lièvre. '

Hares shift their Sex

It was once thought that hares are sexless, or that they change their sex every year.

“Lepores omnes utrumque sexum habent.

Munsterus.

“Snakes that cast their coats for new,

Cameleons that alter hue,

Hares that yearly sexes change.”

Fletcher: Faithful Shepherd, iii. 1.

Haricot Mutton

A ragout made with hashed mutton and turnips. In old French harigot, harligot, and haligote are found meaning a “morsel,” a “piece.”

“Et li chevalier tuit monté,

Detaillie et dehaligoté.”

Chauvenci: Les Tournois, p. 138.

Harikiri

[Happy despatch. ] A method of enforcing suicide by disembowelling among Japanese officials when government considered them worthy of death.

Hark Back

(To). To return to the subject. “Revenons à nos moutons ” (q.v.). A call to the dogs in

fox—hunting, when they have overrun the scent, “Hark [dogs] come back”; so “Hark forards!” “Hark away!” etc.

Harlequin

means a species of drama in two parts, the introduction and the harlequinade, acted in dumb show. The prototype is the Roman atellanæ but our Christmas pantomime or harlequinade is essentially a British entertainment, first introduced by Mr. Weaver, a dancing—master of Shrewsbury, in 1702. (See below.)

“What Momus was of old to Jove,

The same a harlequin is now.

The former was buffoon above,

The latter is a Punch below.”

Swift: The Puppet Show.

The Roman mime did not at all correspond with our harlequinade. The Roman mimus is described as having a shorn head, a sooty face, flat unshod feet, and a patched parti—coloured cloak.

Harlequin, in the British pantomime, is a sprite supposed to be invisible to all eyes but those of his faithful Columbine. His office is to dance through the world and frustrate all the knavish tricks of the Clown, who is supposed to be in love with Columbine. In Armoric, Harlequin means “a juggler,” and Harlequin metamorphoses everything he touches with his magic wand.

The prince of Harlequins was John Rich (1681—1761).

Harlequin. So Charles Quint was called by Francois I. of France.

Harlot

is said to be derived from Harlotta, the mother of William the Conqueror, but it is more likely to be a corruption of horlet (a little hireling), “hore” being the past participle of hyran (to hire). It was once applied to males as well as females. Hence Chaucer speaks of “a sturdy harlot ... that was her hostes man.” The word varlet is another form of it.

“He was gentil harlot, and a kinde;

A bettre felaw shulde man no wher finde

Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, prol. 649.

“The harlot king is quite beyond mine arm.”

Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, ii. 3.

Proverbial names for a harlot are Aholibah and Aholah (Ezek. xxiii. 4), probably symbolic characters; Petrowna (of Russia), and Messalina (of Rome).

Harlowe

(Clarissa). The heroine of Richardson's novel of that name. In order to avoid a marriage urged upon her by her parents, she casts herself on the protection of a lover, who grossly abuses the confidence thus reposed in him. He subsequently proposes to marry her, but Clarissa rejects the offer, and retires from the world to cover her shame and die.

Harm

Harm set, harm get. Those who lay traps for others get caught themselves. Haman was hanged on his own gallows. Our Lord says, “They that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Matt. xxvi. 52).

Harmless as a Dove (Matt. x. 16.)

Harmonia's Necklace

An unlucky possession, something that brings evil to all who possess it. Harmonia was the daughter of Mars and Venus. On the day of her marriage with King Cadmos, she received a necklace which proved fatal to all who possessed it.

The collar given by Alphesibea (or Arsinoë) to her husband Alcmaeon was a like fatal gift. So were the collar and veil of Eriphyle, wife of Amphiaraos, and the Trojan horse. (See Fatal Gifts.)

Harmonia's Robe

On the marriage of Harmonia, Vulcan, to avenge the infidelity of her mother, made the bride a present of a robe dyed in all sorts of crimes, which infused wickedness and impiety into all her offspring. Both Harmonia and Cadmos, after having suffered many misfortunes, and seen their children a sorrow to them, were changed into serpents. (Pausanias, 9, 10.) (See Nessus.)

Medea, in a fit of jealousy, sent Creusa a wedding robe, which burnt her to death. (Euripides Medea.

Harness

To die in harness. To continue in one's work or occupation till death. The allusion is to soldiers in armour or harness.

“At least we'll die with harness on our back.”

Shakespeare: Macheth, v. 5.

Harness Cask

A large cask or tub with a rim cover, containing a supply of salt, meat for immediate use. Nautical term.

Harness Prize

(University of Cambridge), founded by the Rev. William Harness for the best essay connected with Shakespearian literature. Awarded every third year .

Haro

To cry out haro to anyone. To denounce his misdeeds, to follow him with hue and cry. “Ha rou” was the ancient Norman hue—and—cry, and the exclamation made by those who wanted assistance, their person or property being in danger. It is similar to our cry of “Police!” Probably our halloo is the same word.

In the Channel Isles, Ha! ho! àl'aide, mon prince! is a protest still in vogue when one's property is endangered, or at least was so when I lived in Jersey. It is supposed to be an appeal to Rollo, king of Normandy, to come to the aid of him suffering wrongfully.

Harold the Dauntless

Son of Witikind, the Dane. “He was rocked on a buckler, and fed from a blade.” He became a Christian, like his father, and married Eivir, a Danish maid, who had been his page. (Sir W. Scott: Harold the Dauntless.)

Harold's Stones

at Trelech (Monmouthshire). Three stones, one of which is fourteen feet above the ground, evidently no part of a circle. Probably boundary stones. (See Hare—Stone.)

Haroot

and Maroot. Two angels who, in consequence of their want of compassion to man, are susceptible of human passions, and are sent upon earth to be tempted. They were at one time kings of Babel, and are still the teachers of magic and the black arts.

Haroun al Raschid

Calif of the East, of the Abbasside race. (765—809.) His adventures form a part of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.

Harp

The arms of Ireland. According to tradition, one of the early kings of Ireland was named David, and this king took for arms the harp of Israel's sweet Psalmist. Probably the harp is altogether a blunder, arising from the triangle invented in the reign of John to distinguish his Irish coins from the English. The reason why a triangle was chosen may have been in allusion to St. Patrick's explanation of the Trinity, or more likely to signify that he was king of England, Ireland, and France. Henry VIII. was the first to assume the harp positive as the Irish device, and James I. to place it in the third quarter of the royal achievement of Great Britain.

To harp for ever on the same string. To be for ever teasing one about the same subject. There is a Latin proverb, Eandem cantilenam recinere. I once heard a man with a clarionet play the first half of “In my cottage near a wood” for more than an hour, without cessation or change. It was in a crowded market—place, and the annoyance became at last so unbearable that he collected a rich harvest to move on.

“Still harping on my daughter.” — Shakespeare: Hamlet, ii. 1.

Harpagon (A). A miser. Harpagon is the name of the miser in Molière's comedy called L'Avare.

Harpalice

(4 syl.). A Thracian virago, who liberated her father Harpalicos when he was taken prisoner by the Getae.

“With such array Harpalice bestrode”

Her Thracian courser.” Dryden.

Harpe

(2 syl.). The cutlass with which Mercury killed Argus; and with which Perseus subsequently cut off the head of Medusa.

Harpies

(2 syl.). Vultures with the head and breasts of a woman, very fierce and loathsome, living in an atmosphere of filth and stench, and contaminating everything which they came near. Homer mentions but one harpy. Hesiod gives two, and later writers three. The names indicate that these monsters were personifications of whirlwinds and storms. Their names were Ocypeta (rapid), Celeno (blackness), and Aëll'o (storm). (Greek harpuiai, verb harpazo, to seize; Latin harpyia. See Virgil: Æneid, iii. 219, etc.).

He is a regular harpy. One who wants to appropriate everything; one who sponges on another without mercy.

“I will ... do you any embassage ... rather than hold three words conference with this harpy.” — Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 1.

Harpocrates

(4 syl.). The Greek form of the Egyptian god Har—pi—kruti (Horus the Child), made by the Greeks and Romans the god of silence. This arose from a pure misapprehension. It is an Egyptian god, and was represented with its “finger on its mouth,” to indicate youth, but the Greeks thought it was a symbol of silence.

“I assured my mistress she might make herself perfectly easy on that score [his mentioning a certain matter to anyone], for I was the Harpocrates of trusty valets.” — Gil Blas, iv. 2 (1715).

Harridan

A haggard old beldame. So called from the French haridelle, a worn—out jade of a horse.

Harrier

(3 syl.). A dog for hare—hunting, whence the name.

Harrington

A farthing. So called from Lord Harrington, to whom James I. granted a patent for making them of brass. Drunken Barnaby says —

“Thence to Harrington be it spoken,

For name—sake I gave a token

To a beggar that did crave it.”

Drunken Barnaby's Journal.'

“I will not bate a Harrington of the sum.”

Ben Jonson: The Devil is an Ass, ii. 1.

Harris

Mrs. Harris. An hypothetical lady, to whom Sarah Gamp referred for the corroboration of all her statements, and the bank on which she might draw to any extent for self—praise. (Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit.) (See Brooks Of Sheffield.)

“Not Mrs. Harris in the immortal narrative was more quoted and more mythical.” — Lord Lytton.

Harry (To) = to harass. Facetiously said to be derived from Harry VIII. of England, who no doubt played up old Harry with church property. Of course, the real derivation is the Anglo—Saxon herian, to plunder, from hare (2 syl.), an army.

Harry

Old Harry. Old Scratch. To harry (Saxon) is to tear in pieces, whence our harrow. There is an ancient pamphlet entitled The Harrowing of Hell. I do not think it is a corruption of “Old Hairy,” although the Hebrew Seirim (hairy ones) is translated devils in Lev. xvii. 7, and no doubt alludes to the he—goat, an object of worship with the Egyptians. Moses says the children of Israel are no longer to sacrifice to devils (seirim), as they did in Egypt. There is a Scandinavian Hari = Baal or Bel.

Harry Soph

A student at Cambridge who has “declared” for Law or Physic, and wears a full—sleeve gown. The word is a corruption of the Greek Heri—sophos (more than a Soph or common second—year student).

(Cambridge Calendar.)

The tale goes that at the destruction of the monasteries, in the reign of Henry VIII., certain students waited to see how matters would turn out before they committed themselves by taking a clerical degree, and that these men were thence called Sophistæ Henriciani, or “Henry Sophisters.”

Hart

In Christian art, the emblem of solitude and purity of life. It was the attribute of St. Hubert, St. Julian, and St. Eustace. It was also the type of piety and religious aspiration. (Psalm xlii. 1.) (See Hind.)

The White Hart, or hind, with a golden chain, in public—house signs, is the badge of Richard II., which was worn by all his courtiers and adherents. It was adopted from his mother, whose cognisance was a white hind.

Hart Royal

A male red deer, when the crown of the antler has made its appearance, and the creature has been hunted by a king.

Hart of Grease

(A). A hunter's phrase for a fat venison; a stag full of the pasture, called by Jaques “a fat and greasy citizen.” (As You Like It, i. 1.) (See Heart Of Grace.)

“It is a hart of grease, too, in full season, with three inches of fat on the brisket.” — Sir W. Scott: The Monastery, chap. xvii.

Harts

There are four harts in the tree Yggdrasil', an eagle and a squirrel; and a serpent gnaws its root.

Hartnet

The daughter of Rukenaw (the ape's wife) in the tale of Reynard the Fox. The word in old German means hard or strong strife.

Harum Scarum

A hare—brained person who scares quiet folk. Some derive it from the French clameur de Haro (hue and cry), as if the madcap was one against whom the hue—and—cry is raised; but probably it is simply a jingle word having allusion to the “madness of a March hare, ” and the “scaring” of honest folks from their proprieties.

“Who's there? I s'pose young harum—scarum.”

Cambridge Facetiæ Collegian and Porter

Haruspex

(pl. harus' pices). Persons who interpreted the will of the gods by inspecting the entrails of animals offered in sacrifice (old Latin, haruga, a victim; specio, I inspect). Cato said, “I wonder how one haruspex can keep from laughing when he sees another.”

Harvard College

in the United States, endowed by the Rev. John Harvard in 1639. Founded 1636.

Harvest Goose

A corruption of Arvyst Gos (a stubble goose). (See Wayz—Goose.)

“A young wife and an arvyst gos,

Moche gagil [clatter] with both.”

BeliquioeAntiquoe ii.113

Harvest Moon

The full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. The peculiarity of this moon is that it rises for several days nearly at sunset, and about the same time.

Hash

(A). A mess, a muddle; as, “a pretty hash he made of it.” A hash is a mess, and a mess is a muddle.

I'll soon settle his hash for him. I will soon smash him up; ruin his schemes; “give him his gruel”; `cook his goose”; “put my finger in his pie”; “make mince—meat of him.” (See Cooking.)

Hassan

Caliph of the Ottoman empire; noted for his hospitality and splendour. His palace was daily thronged with guests, and in his seraglio was a beautiful young slave named Leila (2 syl.), who had formed an unfortunate attachment to a Christian called the Giaour. Leila is put to death by an emir and Hassan is slain by the Giaour near Mount Parnassus. (Byron: The Giaour.)

Al Hassan. The Arabian emir' of Persia, father of Hinda, in Moore's Fire—Worshippers. He was victorious at the battle of Cadessia, and thus became master of Persia.

Hassan—Ben—Sabah

The Old Man of the Mountain, founder of the sect of the Assassins. In Rymer's Foedera are two letters by this sheik.

Hassock

A doss or footstool made of hesg (sedge or rushes).

“Hassocks should be gotten in the fens, and laid at the foot of the said bank ... where need required.” — Dugdale:Imbanking, p. 322.

“The knees and hassocks are well—nigh divorced.” Cowper.

Hat

How Lord Kingsale acquired the right of wearing his hat in the royal presence is this: King John and Philippe II. of France agreed to settle a dispute respecting the duchy of Normandy by single combat. John de Courcy, Earl of Ulster, was the English champion, and no sooner put in his appearance than the French champion put spurs to his horse and fled. The king asked the earl what reward should be given him, and he replied, “Titles and lands I want not, of these I have enough; but in remembrance of this day I beg the boon, for myself and successors, to remain covered in the presence of your highness and all future sovereigns of the realm.”

Lord Forester, it is said, possessed the same right, which was confirmed by Henry VIII. The Somerset Herald wholly denies the right in regard to Lord Kingsale; and probably that of Lord Forester is without foundation. (See Notes and Queries, Dec. 19th, 1885, p. 504.)

On the other hand, the privilege sees at one time to have been not unusual, for Motley informs us that “all the Spanish grandees had the privilege of being covered in the presence of the reigning monarch. Hence, when the Duke of Alva presented himself before Margaret, Duchess of Parma, she bade him to be covered.” (Dutch Republic.

A cockle hat. A pilgrim's hat. So called from the custom of putting cockle—shells upon their hats, to indicate

their intention or performance of a pilgrimage.

“How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle—bat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.”

Shakespeare: Hamlet, iv. 5.

A BROWN HAT. Never wear a brown hat in Friesland. When at Rome do as Rome does. If people have a very strong prejudice, do not run counter to it. Friesland is a province of the Netherlands, where the inhabitants cut their hair short, and cover the head first with a knitted cap, then a high silk skull—cap, then a metal turban, and lastly a huge flaunting bonnet. Four or five dresses always constitute the ordinary head gear. A traveller once passed through the province with a common brown chimney—hat or wide—awake, but was hustled by the workmen, jeered at by the women, pelted by the boys, and sneered at by the magnates as a regular guy. If you would pass quietly through this “enlightened” province never wear there a brown hat.

A STEEPLE—CROWNED HAT. You are only fit to wear a steeple—crowned hat. To be burnt as a heretic. The victims of the Autos—da—Fé of the “Holy” Inquisition were always decorated with such a head—gear.

A white hat. A white hat used to be emblematical of radical proclivities, because Orator Hunt, the great demagogue, used to wear one during the Wellington and Peel administration.

The street arabs of Nottingham—shire used to accost a person wearing a white hat with the question, “Who stole the donkey?” and a companion used to answer, “Him wi' the white bat on.”

Pass round the hat. Gather subscriptions into a hat. To eat one's hat. “Hattes are made of eggs, veal, dates, saffron, salt, and so forth.” (Robina Napier: Boke of Cookry.

The Scotch have the word hattit—kit or hatted—kit, a dish made chiefly of sour cream, new milk, or butter—milk.

To hang up one's hat in a house. To make oneself at home; to become master of a house. Visitors, making a call, carry their hats in their hands.

Hat Money

A small gratuity given to the master of a ship, by passengers, for his care and trouble, originally collected in a hat at the end of a good voyage.

Hats and Caps

Two political factions of Sweden in the eighteenth century, the former favourable to France, and the latter to Russia. Carlyle says the latter were called caps, meaning night—caps, because they were averse to action and war; but the fact is that the French partisans wore a French chapeau as their badge, and the Russian partisans wore a Russian cap.

Hatches

Put on the hatches. Figuratively, shut the door. (Anglo—Saxon, hæc a gate. Compare haca, a bar or bolt.)

Under hatches. Dead and buried. The hatches of a ship are the coverings over the hatchways (or openings in the deck of a vessel) to allow of cargo, etc., being easily discharged.

“And though his soul has gone aloft,

His body's under hatches.”

Hatchet

[Greek axine, Latin ascia, Italian accetta, French hachette, our hatchet and axe.)

To bury the hatchet. (See Bury.)

To throw the hatchet. To tell false—hoods. In allusion to an ancient game where hatchets were thrown at a mark, like quoits. It means the same as drawing the long—bow (q.v.).

Hatchway (Lieutenant Jack). A retired naval officer, the companion of Commodore Trunnion, in Smollett's Peregrine Pickle.

Hatef

[the deadly ]. One of Mahomet's swords, confiscated from the Jews when they were exiled from Medina. (See Swords.)

Hattemists

An ecclesiastical sect in Holland; so called from Pontin von Hattem, of Zealand (seventeenth century). They denied the expiatory sacrifice of Christ, and the corruption of human nature.

Hatteraick

(Dirk). Also called “Jans Janson.” A Dutch smuggler imprisoned with lawyer Glossin for kidnapping Henry Bertrand. During the night Glossin contrived to enter the smuggler's cell, when a quarrel ensued. Hatteraick strangled Glossin, and then hanged himself. (Sir Walter Scott: Guy Mannering.)

Hatto

Archbishop of Mainz, according to tradition, was devoured by mice. The story says that in 970 there was a great famine in Germany, and Hatto, that there might be better store for the rich, assembled the poor in a barn, and burnt them to death, saying, “They are like mice, only good to devour the corn.” By and by an army of mice came against the arch bishop, and the abbot, to escape the plague, removed to a tower on the Rhine, but hither came the mouse—army by hundreds and thousands, and ate the bishop up. The tower is still called Mouse—tower. Southey has a ballad on the subject, but makes the invaders an army of rats. (See Mouse Tower; Pied Piper.)

“And in at the windows, and in at the door,

And through the walls by thousands they pour, And down through the ceiling, and up through the floor, From the right and the left, from behind and before, From within and without, from above and below

And all at once to the bishop they go.

They have wetted their teeth against the stones,

And now they are picking the bishop's bones; They gnawed the flesh from every limb,

For they were sent to do judgment on him.”

Southey: Bishop Hatto.

A very similar legend is told of Count Graaf, a wicked and powerful chief, who raised a tower in the midst of the Rhine for the purpose of exacting tolls. If any boat or barge attempted to evade the exaction, the warders of the tower shot the crew with cross—bows. Amongst other ways of making himself rich was buying up corn. One year a sad famine prevailed, and the count made a harvest of the distress; but an army of rats, pressed by hunger, invaded his tower, and falling on the old baron, worried him to death, and then devoured him. (Legends of the Rhine.)

Widerolf, bishop of Strasburg (in 997), was devoured by mice in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, because he suppressed the convent of Seltzen, on the Rhine.

Bishop Adolf of Cologne was devoured by mice or rats in 1112. Frei herr von Güttengen collected the poor in a great barn, and barnt them to death; and being invaded by rats and mice, ran to his castle of Güttingen. The vermin, however, pursued him and ate him clean to the bones, after which his castle sank to the bottom of the lake, “where it may still be seen.”

A similar tale is recorded in the chronicles of William of Mulsburg, book ii. p. 313 (Bone's edition). Mice or rats. Giraldus Cambrensis says. The larger sort of mice are called rats. (Itinerary, book xi. 2.) On the other hand, many rats are called mice, as mustela Alpina, the mus Indicus, the mus aquaticus, the mus Pharaonis, etc.

Hatton The dancing chancellor. Sir Christopher Hatton was brought up to the law, but became a courtier, and attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth by his very graceful dancing at a masque. The queen took him into favour, and soon made him both chancellor and knight of the garter. (He died in 1591.)

“His bushy beard, and shoestrings green,

His high—crowned hat and satin doublet,

Moved the stout heart of England's queen,

Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it.” Gray.

Hatton Garden

(London). The residence of Sir Christopher Hatton, the dancing chancellor. (See above.)

Haul over the Coals

Take to task. Jamieson thinks it refers to the ordeal by fire, a suggestion which is favoured by the French corresponding phrase, mettre sur la sellette (to put on the culprit's stool).

Haussmannization

The pulling down and building up anew of streets and cities, as Baron Haussmann remodelled Paris. In 1868 he had saddled Paris with a debt of about twenty—eight millions.

Hautboy

(pron. Ho'—ooy). A strawberry; so called either from the haut bois (high woods) of Bohemia whence it was imported, or from its haut—bois (long—stalk). The latter is the more probable, and furnishes the etymology of the musical instrument also, which has a long mouth—reed.

Haute Claire

The sword of Oliver the Dane. (See Sword .)

Hautville Coit

at Stanton Drew, in the manor of Keynsham. The tradition is that this coit was thrown there by the champion giant, Sir John Hautville, from Mary's Knolle Hill, about a mile off, the place of his abode. The stone on the top of the hill, once thirty tons' weight, is said to have been the clearing of the giant's spade.

The same is said of the Gogmagog of Cambridge.

Have a Care!

“Prenez garde! ” Shakespeare has the expression “Have mind upon your health!” (Julius Caesar, iv. 3.)

Have a Mind for it

(To). To desire to possess it; to wish for it. Mind = desire, intention, is by no means uncommon: “I mind to tell him plainly what I think.” (2 Henry VI., act iv. 1.) “I shortly mind to leave you.” (2 Henry VI., act iv. 1.)

Have at You

To be about to aim a blow at another; to attack another.

“Have at thee with a downright blow.”

Shakespeare.

Have it Out

(To). To settle the dispute by blows or arguments.

Havelok

(3 syl.), the orphan son of Birkabegn, King of Denmark, was exposed at sea through the treachery of his guardians, and the raft drifted to the coast of Lincolnshire. Here a fisherman named Grim found the young Prince, and brought him up as his own son. In time it so happened that an English princess stood in the way of certain ambitious nobles, who resolved to degrade her by uniting her to a peasant, and selected the young foundling for the purpose; but Havelok, having learnt the story of his birth, obtained the aid of the king his father to recover his wife's possessions, and became in due time King of Denmark and part of England.

(“Haveloc the Dane,” by the Trouveurs.)

Haver—Cakes

Oaten cakes (Scandinavian, hafre; German, hafer; Latin, avena, oats).

Haveril

(3 syl.). A simpleton, April—fool. (French, poisson d' Avril; Icelandic, gifr, foolish talk; Scotch, haver, to talk nonsense.)

Havering

(Essex). The legend says that while Edward the Confessor was dwelling in this locality, an old pilgrim asked alms, and the king replied, “I have no money, but I have a ring, ” and, drawing it from his fore—finger, gave it to the beggar. Some time after, certain English pilgrims in Jewry met the same man, who drew the ring from his finger and said, “Give this to your king, and say within six months he shall die.” The request was complied with, and the prediction fulfilled. The shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey gives colour to this legend.

Haversack

Strictly speaking is a bag to carry oats in. (See Haver—Cakes.) It now means a soldier's ration—bag slung from the shoulder; a gunner's leather—case for carrying charges.

Havock

A military cry to general massacre without quarter. This cry was forbidden in the ninth year of Richard II. on pain of death. Probably it was originally used in hunting wild beasts, such as wolves, lions, etc., that fell on sheep—folds, and Shakespeare favours this suggestion in his Julius Caesar, where he says Até shall “cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war.” (Welsh, hafog, devastation; Irish, arvach; compare Anglo—Saxon havoc, a hawk.)

Havre

(France). A contraction of Le havre de notre dame de grace.

Hawk

(1) Different parts of a hawk:

Arms. The legs from the thigh to the foot. Beak. The upper and crooked part of the bill. Beams. The long feathers of the wings. Clap. The nether part of the bill.

Feathers summed. Feathers full grown and complete. Feathers unsummed. Feathers not yet full grown. Flags. The next to the longest feathers or principals. Glut. The slimy substance in the pannel.

Gorge. The crow or crop. Haglurs. The spots on the feathers. Mails. The breast feathers.

Nares. The two little holes on the top of the beak. Pannel. The pipe next to the fundament. Pendent feathers. Those behind the toes.

Petty singles. The toes.

Pounces. The claws. Principal feathers. The two longest.

Sails. The wings.

Sear or sere. The yellow part under the eyes. Train. The tail. (2) Different sorts of hawk:

Gerfalcon. A Tercell of a Gerfalcon is for a king Falcon gentle and a Tercel gentle. For a prince. Falcon of the rock. For a duke.

Fulcon peregrine. For an earl. Bastard hawk. For a baron. Sacre and a Sacrit. For a knight. Lanare and Lanrell. For a squire. Merlyn. For a lady.

Hoby. For a young man. Goshawk. For a yeoman. Tercel. For a poor man. Sparehawk. For a priest. Murkyte. For a holy—water clerk. Kesterel. For a knave or servant. Dame Juliana Barnes.

The “Sore—hawk” is a hawk of the first year, so called from the French, sor or saure, brownish—yellow. The “Spar” or “Sparrow” hawk is a small, ignoble hawk (Saxon, speara; Goth, sparwa; cur spare, spur, spur, spear, spire, sparing, sparse, etc; Latin, sparsus; all referring to mindteness).

(3) The dress of a hawk:

Bewits. The leathers with bells, buttoned to a hawk's legs. The bell itself is called a hawk—bell. Creanse. A packthread or thin twine fastened to the leash in disciplining a hawk.

Hood. A cover for the head, to keep the hawk in the dark. A rufter hood is a wide one, open behind. To hood is to put on the hood. To unhood is to take it off. To unstrike the hood is to draw the strings so that the hood may be in readiness to be dulled off.

Jesses. The little straps by which the leash is fastened to the legs. There is the singular jess. Leash. The leather thong for holding the hawk.

(4) Terms used in falconry:

Casting. Something given to a hawk to cleanse her gorge. Cawking. Treading.

Cowering. When young hawks, in obedience to their elders, quiver and shake their wings. Crabbing. Fighting with each other when they stand too near.

Hack. The place where a hawk's meat is laid. Imping. Placing a feather in a hawk's wing. Inke or Ink. The breast and neck of a bird that a hawk preys on. Intermewing. The time of changing the coat.

Lure. A figure of a fowl made of leather and feathers. Make. An old staunch hawk that sets an example to young ones. Mantling. Stretching first one wing and then the other over the legs. Mew. The place where hawks sit when moulting.

Muting. The dung of hawks.

Pelf or pill. What a hawk leaves of her prey. Pelt. The dead body of a fowl killed by a hawk. Perch. The resting—place of a hawk when off the falconer's wrist. Plumage. Small feathers given to a hawk to make her cast.

Quarry. The fowl or game that a hawk flies at. Rangle. Gravel given to a hawk to bring down her stomach. Sharp set. Hungry.

Tiring. Giving a hawk a leg or wing of a fowl to pull at.

The peregrine when full grown is called a blue—hawk.

The hawk was the avatar of Ra or Horus, the sun—god of the Egyptians.

See Birds (protected by superstitions.)

Hawk and Handsaw

I know a hawk from a handsaw. Handsaw is a corruption of hernshaw (a heron). I know a hawk from a heron, the bird of prey from the game flown at. The proverb means, I know one thing from another. (See Hamlet, ii. 2.)

Hawk nor Buzzard

(Neither). Of doubtful social position — too good for the kitchen, and not good enough for the family. Private governesses and pauperised gentlefolk often hold this unhappy position. They are not hawks to be fondled and petted — the “tasselled gentlemen” of the days of falconry — nor yet buzzards — a dull kind of falcon synonymous with dunce or plebeian. In French, “N'être ni chair ni poisson, ” “Neither fresh, fowl, nor good red herring.”

Hawker's News

or “Piper's News.” News known to all the world. “Le secret de polichinelle. ” (German hoker, a higgler or hawker.)

Hawkubites

(3 syl.). Street bullies in the reign of Queen Anne. It was their delight to molest and ill—treat the old watchmen, women, children, and feeble old men who chanced to be in the streets after sunset. The succession of these London pests after the Restoration was in the following order: The Muns, the Tityré Tus, the Hectors, the Scourers, the Nickers, then the Hawkubites (1711—1714), and then the Mohocks — most dreaded of all. (Hawkubite is the name of an Indian tribe of savages.)

“From Mohock and from Hawkubite,

Good Lord deliver me,

Who wander through the streets at nigh

Committing cruelty.

They slash our sons with bloody knives,

And on our daughters fall;

And, if they murder not our wives,

We have good luck withal.”

Hawse—hole

He has crept through the hawse—hole, or He has come in at the hawse—hole. That is, he entered the service in the lowest grade; he rose from the ranks. A naval phrase. The hawse—hole of a ship is that through which the cable of the anchor runs.

Hawthorn

in florology, means “Good Hope,” because it shows the winter is over and spring is at hand. The Athenian girls used to crown themselves with hawthorn flowers at weddings, and the marriage—torch was made of hawthorn. The Romans considered it a charm against sorcery, and placed leaves of it on the cradles of new—born infants.

The hawthorn was chosen by Henry VII. for his device, because the crown of Richard III. was discovered in a hawthorn bush at Bosworth.

Hay, Hagh

or Haugh. A royal park in “which no man commons”; rich pasture—land; as Bilhagh (Billa—haugh), Beskwood— or Bestwood—hay, Lindeby—hay, Welley—hay or Wel—hay. These five hays were “special reserves” of game for royalty alone.

A bottle of hay. (See Bottle.) Between hay and grass. Too late for one and too soon for the other. Neither hay nor grass. That hobby—de—hoy state when a youth is neither boy nor man. Make hay while the sun shines.

Strike while the iron is hot.

Take time by the forelock.

One to—day is worth two to—morrows. (Franklin.

Hayston

(Frank). The laird of Bucklaw, afterwards laird of Girnington. (Sir Walter Scott: Bride of Lammermoor.)

Hayward

A keeper of the cattle or common herd of a village or parish. The word hay means “hedge,” and this herdsman was so called because he had “ward” of the “hedges” also. (Anglo—Saxon, heg, hay; hege, a hedge.)

Hazazel

The Scape—goat (q.v.).

Hazel

(See Divining Rod .)

Hazel—nut

(Anglo—Saxon, haeselhnut, from haesel, a hat or cap, the cap—nut or the nut enclosed in a cap.)

Head

(Latin, caput; Saxon, hedfod; Scotch, hafet; contracted into head.)

Better be the head of an ass than the tail of a horse. Better be foremost amongst commoners than the lowest of the aristocracy; better be the head of the yeomanry than the tail of the gentry. The Italians say, “E meglio esser testa di luccio che coda di sturione. “

He has a head on his shoulders. He is up to snuff (q.v.); he is a clever fellow, with brains in his head. He has quite lost his head. He is in a quandary or quite confused.

I can make neither head nor tail of it. I cannot understand it at all. A gambling phrase. Men with héads beneath the shoulders. (See Caora.)

Men without heads. (See Blemmyes.)

Off one's head. Deranged; delirious; extremely excited. Here “head” means intelligence, understanding, etc. His intelligence or understanding has gone away.

To bundle one out head and heels. “Sans cérémonie, ” altogether. The allusion is to a custom at one time far too frequent in cottages, for a whole family to sleep together in one bed head to heels or pednamene, as it was termed in Cornwall; to bundle the whole lot out of bed was to turn them out head and heels.

To head off. To intercept.

To hit the nail on the head. You have guessed aright; you have done the right thing. The allusion is obvious. The French say, “Vous avez frappé au but “ (You have hit the mark); the Italians have the phrase, “Havete dato in brocca ” (You have hit the pitcher), alluding to a game where a pitcher stood in the place of Aunt Sally (q.v.). The Latin, “Rem acu tetigisti ” (You have touched the thing with a needle), refers to the custom of probing sores.

To keep one's head above water. To avoid bankruptcy. The allusion is to a person immersed in water; so long as his head is above water his life remains, but bad swimmers find it hard to keep their heads above water.

To lose one's head. To be confused and middle—minded. To make head. To get on.

Head Shaved

(Get your). You are a dotard. Go and get your head shaved like other lunatics. (See Bath.)

“Thou thinkst that monarchs never can act ill,

Gey thy head shaved, poor fool, or think so still.” Peter Pindar: Ode Upon Ode.

Head and Ears

Over head and ears [in debt, in love, etc.], completely; entirely. The allusion is to a person immersed in water. The French phrase is “Avoir des dettes pardessus la tete. “

Head and Shoulders

A phrase of sundry shades of meaning. Thus “head and shoulders taller” means considerably tall; to turn one out head and shoulders means to drive one out forcibly and without ceremony.

Head of Cattle

Cattle are counted by the head; manufacturing labourers by hands, as “How many hands do you employ?” horses by the nose (See Nose); guests