Page images
PDF
EPUB

which is no other than the Latin adeptus. Just as that other expression, which we have in the north, a cute man, is an abbreviation of acute, or the Latin acutus, and signifies a person that is sharp, clever, neat, or to use a more modern term, jemmy; according to the subject you happen to be speaking of. Spice again is a word which we use in the sense of a jot, bit, small portion, or least mixture; as when we say, there is no spice of evil in perfect goodness, in which case it is the latter part of the French word espece, which was anciently adopted into our language in this very sense, as appears from these words of Caxton: "God's bounte is all pure... wythout ony espece of evyll."-Caxton's Mirrour of the World, Cap. 1. Espece is formed, after the manner of the French, from the Latin species. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

1767, Sept.

T. Row.

XLI. Derivation of the phrase--to Run a Muck.

MR. URBAN,

WE have an expression of doubtful and very obscure original, it is the phrase to run amuck; Mr. Johnson interprets it, to run madly and attack all that we meet, and he cites the authority of Mr. Dryden. The question is, whence the expression was borrowed, and what could give occasion to it? I remember a gentleman, who loved an etymology, observed, that it probably came from running to Mecca in one of those expensive and tedious pilgrimages which the followers of Mohammed think themselves obliged once in their lives to undertake, as prescribed in the Koran. And in confirmation of this, he remarked, that to saunter, which is now a common English word, came at first from Saincte Terre; the Croisees running in an idle manner, and to the neglect of their affairs, under pretence of being engaged in expeditions to the Holy Land. The etymology of saunter is undoubtedly probable, and may be the truth; but if Mr. Johnson has given us the real sense of running a muck, in his interpretation of the phrase, as I suppose he has, the chargeable and expensive pilgrimages to Mecca do not seem to come up to it; these imply only idleness and extravagance, which are not the ideas conveyed by running a muck, since this rather means, running a riot, and assaulting people's persons with madness and fury, so as to endanger or take

away their lives. I am therefore of opinion that this expression came to us from the island of Java, in the East Indies; Tavernier says, certain Java Lords, on a particular occasion, called the English traitors, and drawing their poisoned daggers, cried a mocca upon the English, killing a great number of them before they had time to put themselves into a posture of defence." Tavernier's Voyages II. p. 202. Again he tells us, that a Bantamois newly come from Mecca, "was upon the design of moqua; that is, in their language, when the rascality of the Mahometans return from Mecca, they presently take their axe in their hands, which is a kind of poniard, the blade whereof is half poisoned, with which they run through the streets, and kill all those which are not of the Mahometan law, till they be killed themselves." Ibidem p. 199. This seems to be an exact description of what we call running a muck, according to Mr. Johnson's sense of it; and if the English did not bring the expression from the island of Java, the Hollanders might, and so it might come to us through their hands. Whereupon it may be pertinent to observe, that the term Mohawk came in like manner from North America to England; by which we mean both those ruffians who infested the streets of London in the same cruel manner which the Mohawks, one of the six nations of Indians, might be supposed to do, as likewise the instrument by them employed in their assaults.

Yours,

T.Row.

P. S. As we know not the original of the word Mocca or Moqua in the Javanese language, it is possible it may come from Mecca, since, as you may observe, this town is mentioned along with it in the latter quotation above. But still it will not allude to the pilgrimage to that place, merely as a pilgrimage, for this implies nothing of massacres and assassinations, but to the furious enthusiasm of certain zealots after their return from thence. The word assassin, that I may just mention it, is taken from the name of a people in Asia, just as Mohawk is in North America, so that there is nothing wonderful in words coming from even the remotest countries; but of the word assassin I may perhaps write you a line on a future occasion.

1768, June.

MR. URBAN,

ONE of your ingenious correspondents, who signs T. Row, some time ago, attempted to give us an account of the origin of the word a muck, or the phrase running a muck, but I have some reason to think he has not quite reached the mark, though he comes near it. The word is Indian, as he supposes, and is used particularly by the Mallays, on the same occasion on which we use it, though the particular meaning of it I do not know. The inhabitants of the islands to the eastward of Bengal, such as Sumatra, Borneo, Baneo, and the coast of Mallay, are very famous for cock-fighting, in which they carry gaming to a much greater excess than the customs of Europe can admit; they stake first their property, and when by repeated losses all their money and effects are gone, they stake their wives and children. If fortune still frowns, so that nothing is left, the losing gamester begins to chew, or eat what is called bang, which I imagine to be the same as opium; when it begins to operate he disfigures himself, and furnishes himself with such weapons as he can get, the more deadly the fitter for his purpose, and the effect of the opium increasing, as he intends it should, he at length becomes mad: this madness is of the furious kind, and when it seizes him, he rushes forth, and kills whatever comes in his way, whether man or beast, friend or foe, and commits every outrage which may be expected from a person in such circumstances. This is what the Indians call a muck, or perhaps as Mr. Row says, a mecca, and when it happens, the neighbours rise, and combining together, hunt down, and kill the wretched desperado, as they would any other furious or destructive animal. Perhaps these particulars may excite some of your correspondents who are skilled in the languages of this part of the east, to give you still farther information on the subject. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Bengal, March 17, 1770.

A. B.

The authority quoted from Dryden by Johnson, very much favours this account of our Oriental correspondent, and probably gave T. Row the first hint of the word a muck being of Indian derivation, and it is therefore a pity that he did not cite it.

Frontless, and satire-proof he scours the streets,
And runs an INDIAN muck at all he meets.
L

VOL. II.

Thus Johnson has printed it, but it may be questioned. whether Indian is intended as an adjective to muck, or whether the words an Indian, are parenthetical: in either case it is printed wrong: if Indian is an adjective to muck, it should not have been printed with all capital letters, if not, the word an as well as the word Indian, should hav been in the Roman character, and there should have been a comma both at runs, and Indian, thus

And runs, an Indian, muck at all he meets.

But in either case it shews that Dryden knew from what country the word was derived. By our present correspondent's account, it seems probable that a muck means to do mischief franticly. From the passage in Taverner, quoted by T. Row, it seems to mean simply to kill by a sudden onset. We shall be much obliged to any of our distant or learned correspondents who will acquaint us with the literal meaning of the word.

1770, Dec.

XLII. Origin of the word Assassin.

MR. URBAN,

THE word assassin, whence comes to assassinate, assassination, &c. is both French and English; and it is supposed we borrowed it from the French. But that might not be the case, since both nations might have it from a common original, as nobody pretends to assert it is a pure French, or even a Gaulish word. Thus Mons. Menage acknowledges, that it came to the French from the East, ce mot nous est venu du Levant avec la chose. This author says, Le Vieil de la Montagne, the Old Man of the Mountain, prince of the Arsacides, or Assassins and Bedins, fortifying himself in a castle of difficult access, in the time of our expeditions to the Holy Land, collected together a number of people, who engaged to kill whomsoever he pleased. Hence, he adds, both the Italians and the French call these people assassins that committed murders in cold blood. It seems they were also called Arsacides. Menage cites his authorities, but passing them by, I shall content myself with giving you the words of one or two of our English authors. Dr. Fuller says, (Hist. of the Holy War, p. 38,) "These assassins were

a precise sect of Mahometans, and had in them the very spirit of that poisonous superstition. They had some six cities, and were about 40,000 in number, living near Antaradus in Syria. Over these was a chief master-whom they called, The Old Man of the Mountains. At his command they would refuse no pain or peril, but stab any prince, whom he appointed out to death; scorning not to find hands for his tongue, to perform what he enjoined. At this day there are none of them extant,- -being all, as it seemeth, slain by the Tartarians, anno 1237, &c.

Mr. Sale, in his preliminary discourse to the Koran, p. 246, gives the following authentic account of them. "To the Karmatians, the Ismaelians of Asia were very near of kin, if they were not a branch of them. For these, who were also called al molahedah, or the impious, and, by the writers of the history of the Holy Wars, assassins, agreed with the former in many respects; such as their inveterate malice against those of other religions, and especially the Mohammedan; their unlimited obedience to their prince, at whose command they were ready for assassinations, or any other bloody or dangerous enterprises; their pretended attachment to a certain Imam of the house of Ali, &c.. These Ismaelians, in the year 483, possessed themselves of Jebal, in the Persian Irak, under the conduct of Hasan Sabah; and that prince and his descendants enjoyed the same for 171 years, till the whole race of them was destroyed by Holagu the Tartar." Whence it appears, that the assassins were not Mohammedans, as Dr. Fuller suggests, but rather of a religion set up in opposition to Islam, or that introduced by Mohammed. Both authors, however, agree in their characters as to their being professed bravoes, or murderers; and it appears from Matthew Paris in several places, that the oriental name of this people, as a nation or community, was that of assassins. From the East it was brought to us, who were entirely unacquainted with it, till after the ara of the crusades; and it has been now, for an age or more, applied to persons of the like murderous disposition. I am, yours, &c.

1768, July.

T.Row.

« PreviousContinue »