Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850 | Page 5

kan püssen.
O liechte kel, Wie vein, wie gel Ist dir dein har, Dein äuglin clar, Zartt
fraw, lass mich an sehen. Und tu mir kund Uss rottem mund, &c.
Dein ärmlin weisz Mit gantzem fleisz Geschnitzet sein, Die hennde
dein Gar hofelich gezieret, Dem leib ist ran, Gar wolgetan Sind dir dein
prust," &c. &c.
_Clara Hätzlerin Liederbuch_, p. 111.
In all this there is certainly nothing to warrant the conclusion that the
German poem was the original of Heywood's song; but, considering
that the latter was produced so near to the same age as the former, that
is, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and considering that the
older German poetical literature had already passed its culminating
point, while ours was upon the ascending scale, there is likeness
enough, both in manner and measure, to excite the suspicion of direct
or indirect communication.
The etymology of the word "news," on which you have recently had
some notes, is a case in illustration of the importance of this point. I
have never had the least doubt that this word is derived immediately
from the German. It is, in fact, "das Neue" in the genitive case; the
German phrase "Was giebt's Neues?" giving the exact sense of our
"What is the news?" This will appear {429} even stronger if we go
back to the date of the first use of the word in England. Possibly about
the same time, or not much earlier, we find in his same collection of
Clara Hätzlerin, the word spelt "new" and rhyming to "triu."
"Empfach mich uff das New In deines hertzen triu."
The genitive of this would be "newes," thus spelt and probably
pronounced the same as in England. That the word is not derived from

the English adjective "new"--that it is not of English manufacture at
all--I feel well assured: in that case the "_s_" would be the sign of the
plural: and we should have, as the Germans have, either extant or
obsolete, also "the new." The English language, however, has never
dealt in these abstractions, except in its higher poetry; though some
recent translators from the German have disregarded the difference in
this respect between the powers of the two languages. "News" is a noun
singular, and as such must have been adopted bodily into the language;
the form of the genitive case, commonly used in conversation, not
being understood, but being taken for an integral part of the word, as
formerly the Koran was called "The Alcoran."
"Noise," again, is evidently of the same derivation, though from a
dialect from which the modern German pronunciation of the diphthong
is derived. Richardson, in his _English Dictionary_, assumes it to be of
the same derivation as "noxious" and "noisome;" but there is no process
known to the English language by which it could be manufactured
without making a plural noun of it. In short, the two words are identical;
"news" retaining its primitive, and "noise" adopting a consequential
meaning.
SAMUEL HICKSON.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Charm for the Toothache._--A reverend friend, very conversant in the
popular customs and superstitions of Ireland, and who has seen the
charm mentioned in pp. 293, 349, and 397, given by a Roman Catholic
priest in the north-west of Ireland, has kindly furnished me with the
genuine version, and the form in which it was written, which are as
follows:--
"As Peter sat on a marble stone, The Lord came to him all alone; 'Peter,
what makes thee sit there?' 'My Lord, I am troubled with the toothache.'
'Peter arise, and go home; And you, and whosoever for my sake Shall
keep these words in memory, Shall never be troubled with the
toothache.'"
T.J.
_Charms._--_The Evil Eye._--Going one day into a cottage in the
village of Catterick, in Yorkshire, I observed hung up behind the door a
ponderous necklace of "lucky stones," i.e. stones with a hole through

them. On hinting an inquiry as to their use, I found the good lady of the
house disposed to shuffle off any explanation; but by a little
importunity I discovered that they had the credit of being able to
preserve the house and its inhabitants from the baneful influence of the
"evil eye." "Why, Nanny," said I, "you surely don't believe in witches
now-a-days?" "No! I don't say 'at I do; but certainly i' former times
there was wizzards an' buzzards, and them sort o' things." "Well," said I,
laughing, "but you surely don't think there are any now?" "No! I don't
say at ther' are; but I do believe in a yevil eye." After a little time I
extracted from poor Nanny more particulars on the subject, as
viz.:--how that there was a woman in the village whom she strongly
suspected of being able to