Page 188, line 12.—"Chap-sager," sap-sago,—derived from two words, meaning scraped cheese.
Page 188, line 21.—When children in Germany are set at a little side-table, they are said to "sitzen am Katz-tische." These expressions come from the custom of giving the cat a side-bit while the dinner is going on.—Line 31. The Ephraimite was a coin named after one Ephraim, a Jew, who alloyed the legal coin of the Empire. The counterfeit was readily to be detected by suspending the piece in wine, the acid of which acted upon the spurious element, and turned the metal black.
Page 197, line 2. "Ten Persecutions."—In allusion, of course, to the number the Christians are estimated to have suffered under the Roman Emperor.
Page 203, line 25. "The gossiping letter."—Gevatter's-brief (godfather's letter), a request to her to stand as godmother.
Page 211, line 1.—A Spanish wall means a temporary partition put up to make two rooms of one.
Page 213, line 27.—"Sun-path," used here in the astronomical sense and figuratively. "Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams!" says Pyramus.—In line 12 occurs again that peculiar word fatal, which does not bear exactly our sense, but means ugly, disagreeable, &c.
Page 215, line 15.—"He can't count more than five," is a proverb expressing dulness or stupidity.
Page 217, line 17.—"Conditions"; i. e. apprentices, hires.
Page 218, line 3,—"A box of letters" i. e. a case of type.
Page 219, line 3. The time of the Indiction among the Romans was that wherein the people were summoned (indicted) to pay a certain tribute.—The Romish or Papal Indiction, which is that used in the Pope's bull, begins on the first of January.