Notes and Queries, Number 54, November 9, 1850 | Page 5

his Undine-like bride; but at length, on requesting her to go to the field and catch his horse, she replied that she would do so presently; when striking her arm three times he exclaimed, D?s, d?s, d?s; Go, go, go. This was more than a free dweller in the waters could brook; so calling her ten head of cattle to follow her, she fled to the lake, and once more plunged beneath its waters.
Such is the legend; of which reason vainly expresses its disbelief, as long as the eye of faith can discern physical proofs of its truth in the deep furrow which, crossing the mountain in detached portions, terminates abruptly in the lake; for it seems that when the two oxen were summoned by their mistress, they were ploughing in the field; and at their departure, they carried the plough with them, and dragged it into the lake.
The nymph once more appeared upon the earth; for as her sons grew to manhood, she met them {389} one day in a place which, from this circumstance, received the name of Cwm Meddygon, and delivered to each of them a bag, containing such mysterious revelations in the science of medicine, that they became greater in the art than were ever any before them.
Though so curiously connected with this fable, the "surgeons of Myddvai" are supposed to be historical personages, who, according to a writer in the Cambro-Briton, flourished in the thirteenth century, and left behind them a MS. treatise on their practice, of which several fragments and imperfect copies are still preserved.
No. 4. Trwyn Pwcca.--Many years ago, there existed in a certain part of Monmouthshire a Pwcca, or fairy, which, like a faithful English Brownie, performed innumerable services for the farmers and householders in its neighbourhood, more especially that of feeding the cattle, and cleaning their sheds in wet weather; until at length some officious person, considering such practices as unchristian proceedings, laid the kindly spirit for three generations, banishing him to that common receptacle for such beings--the Red Sea. The spot in which he disappeared obtained the name of Trwyn Pwcca (Fairy's nose); and as the three generations have nearly passed away, the approaching return of the Pwcca is anxiously looked forward to in its vicinity, as an earnest of the "good time coming."
The form which tradition assigns to this Pwcca, is that of a handful of loose dried grass rolling before the wind (such as is constantly seen on moors); a circumstance which recalls to mind the Pyrenean legend of the spirit of the Lord of Orthez, mentioned by Miss Costello, which appeared as two straws moving on the floor. Query, Has the name of "Will o' the Wisp" any connexion with the supposed habit of appearing in this form?
SELEUCUS.
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CONNEXION OF WORDS--THE WORD "FREIGHT."
The word employed to denote freight, or rather the price of freight, at this day in the principal ports of the Mediterranean, is nolis, nolo, &c. In the Arabian and Indian ports, the word universally employed to denote the same meaning is nol. Are these words identical, and can their connexion be traced? When we consider the extensive commerce of the Phoenicians, both in the Mediterranean and Indian seas, that they were the great merchants and carriers of antiquity, and that, in the words of Hieron, "their numerous fleets were scattered over the Indian and Atlantic oceans; and the Tyrian pennant waved at the same time on the coasts of Britain and on the shores of Ceylon"--it is natural to look to that country as the birthplace of the word, whence it may have been imported, westward to Europe, and eastward to India, by the same people. And we find that it is a pure Arabic word, [Arabic: nwl] nawil and [Arabic: nwln] nawlun, or nol and nolan, both signifying freight (price of carriage), from the root [Arabic: nwh] noh, pretium dedit, donum. I am not aware that the word freight (not used in the sense of cargo or merchandise, but as the price of carriage of the merchandise, merces pro vectura) is to be found in the Old Testament, otherwise some light might be thrown on the matter by a reference to the cognate Hebrew word.
But here an interesting question presents itself. The word freight in Greek is [Greek: naulos] or [Greek: naulon], and in Latin naulum. Have these any connexion with the Arabic word, or are they to be traced to an independent source, and the coincidence in sense and sound with the Arabic merely accidental? If distinct, are the words now in use in the Mediterranean ports derived from the Greek or the Arabic? If the words be not identical, may not the Greek be derived from the Sanscrit, thus [Sanskrit: nau], nau, or in the pure form [Sanskrit: