Adama (Mythology, &c., vol. i. p. 69.). Can it have once been Adama, or Dama-asca?

In Great Britain we have rivers and lakes called severally Esk, Exe or Isca, Axe, and Usk.

Axe seems to have been written Asca at one time; for Lambarde gives Ascanmynster as the Saxon name of Axminster. Hence, also, we may infer that Axholme Island was once Ascanholme. The Exe was probably Esk, i.e. water, or river: it certainly was Uske. Iska is the British Isk Latinised by Ptolemy; for Camden says Exeter was called by the Welsh Caerisk, &c. Usk or Uske was written Osca by Gyraldo Camb. (See Lambarde.)

Kyleska, or Glendha, ferry in Sutherlandshire. Kyle-aska? Kyles (Ir.), a frith or strait.

Ask occurs frequently as the first syllable of names in England, and such places will be almost invariably found connected with water. Camden mentions a family of distinguished men in Richmondshire named Aske, from whom perhaps some places derive their names, as p. ex. the Askhams, Askemoore, &c. Askrigg, however, being in the neighbourhood of some remarkable waterfalls (Camden), may have reference to them.

Now, from places let us turn to things, first noticing that usk, in modern Welsh, means river. In Irish, uisce or uiske is water. In Hebrew and Chaldee, hisca is to wash or to drink. (See Introduction to Valancey's Irish Dictionary.) In the same we find ascu (ancient Irish), a water-serpent or dog; iasc, fish; easc (Irish), water, same as esk. Chalmers, in "Caledonia," &c., has easc or esc (Gael.), water; easc lan (Gael.), the full water.

Askalabos (Greek), a newt or water reptile; and asker, askard, askel, ask, and esk, in provincial English, a water-newt. (See Archaic Dictionary.)

Masca, the female sea-otter; so called by the Russians.

Askalopas (Greek), a woodcock or snipe, i.e. a swamp-bird.

As I said before, there are few words in any of the Indian languages of North America in which the sound ask occurs; at least as far as my limited acquaintance with them goes. The only two I can quote just now are both in the Chippeway. One only has direct reference to water; perhaps the other may indirectly. They are, woyzask, rushes, water-plants; mejask, herb, or grass. The only grass the forest Indians are likely to be acquainted with is that growing in the natural meadows along the river banks, which are occasionally met with, and these in general are pretty swampy.

We may wind up with our cask and flask. I could have added much more, but fear already to have exceeded what might hope for admittance in your pages; therefore I will only say that, in offering these remarks, I insist on nothing, and stand ready to submit to any correction.

A. C. M.

Exeter.

LEGENDS OF THE COUNTY CLARE.

About two miles from the village of Corofin, in the west of Clare, are the ruins of the Castle of Ballyportree, consisting of a massive square tower surrounded by a wall, at the corners of which are smaller round towers: the outer wall was also surrounded by a ditch. The castle is still so far perfect that the lower part is inhabited by a farmer's family; and in some of the upper rooms are still remaining massive chimney-pieces of grey limestone, of a very modern form, the horizontal portions of which are ornamented with a quatrefoil ornament engraved within a circle, but there are no dates or armorial bearings: from the windows of the castle four others are visible, none of them more than two miles from each other; and a very large cromlech is within a few yards of the castle ditch. The following legend is related of the castle:—When the Danes were building the castle (the Danes were the great builders, as Oliver Cromwell was the great destroyer of all the old castles, abbeys, &c. in Ireland),—when the Danes were building the Castle of Ballyportree, they collected workmen from all quarters, and forced them to labour night and day without stopping for rest or food; and according as any of them fell down from exhaustion, his body was thrown upon the wall, which was built up over him! When

the castle was finished, its inhabitants tyrannised over the whole country, until the time arrived when the Danes were finally expelled from Ireland. Ballyportree Castle held out to the last, but at length it was taken after a fierce resistance, only three of the garrison being found alive, who proved to be a father and his two sons; the infuriated conquerors were about to kill them also, when one of then proposed that their lives should be spared, and a free passage to their own country given them, on condition that they taught the Irishmen how to brew the famous ale from the heather—that secret so eagerly coveted by the Irish, and so zealously guarded by the Danes. At first neither promises nor threats had any effect on the prisoners, but at length the elder warrior consented to tell the secret on condition that his two sons should first be put to death before his eyes, alleging his fear, that when he returned to his own country, they might cause him to be put to death for betraying the secret. Though somewhat surprised at his request, the Irish chieftains immediately complied with it, and the young men were slain. Then the old warrior exclaimed, "Fools! I saw that your threats and your promises were beginning to influence my sons; for they were but boys, and might have yielded: but now the secret is safe, your threats or your promises have no effect on me!" Enraged at their disappointment, the Irish soldiers hewed the stern northman in pieces, and the coveted secret is still unrevealed.

In the South of Scotland a legend, almost word for word the same as the above, is told of an old castle there, with the exception that, instead of Danes, the old warrior and his sons are called Pechts. After the slaughter of his sons the old man's eyes are put out, and he is left to drag on a miserable existence: he lives to an immense old age, and one day, when all the generation that fought with him have passed away, he hears the young men celebrating the feats of strength performed by one of their number; the old Pecht asks for the victor, and requests him to let him feel his wrist; the young man feigns compliance with his request, but places an iron crow-bar in the old man's hand instead of his wrist; the old Pecht snaps the bar of iron in two with his fingers, remarking quietly to the astounded spectators, that "it is a gey bit gristle, and has not much pith in it yet." The story is told in the second volume of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, first series, I think; but I have not the volume at hand to refer to. The similarity between the two legends is curious and interesting.

Francis Robert Davies.

ARCHAIC WORDS.

(Vol. vii., p. 400., &c.)

The following list of words, which do not appear in Mr. Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic Words, may form some contribution, however small, to the enlargement of that and of some of our more comprehensive English dictionaries. It falls in with the desire already expressed in "N. & Q.;" and, if the present paper seem worth inserting, may be followed by another. In some few cases, though the word does appear in Mr. Halliwell's columns, an authority is deficient; instances having as it were turned up, and in rather uncommon sources, which seemed occasionally worth supplying. It must be observed that the explanations given are, in some instances, mere conjectures, and await more certain and accurate interpretation.

Aege, age. The Festyvall, fol. cxii. recto, edit. 1528.

Advyse, to view attentively. Strype's Memorials, under