, it appears to me to be an Arabic word. Can any reader enlighten
Muhammed?
A. N. Club
Picts' Houses and Argils.—The Cimmerians, a people mentioned by Herodotus, who occupied principally the peninsula of the Crimea, are distinguished by Prichard from the Cimbri or Kimbri, but supposed by M. Amédée Thierry to be a branch of the same race, and Celtic. Many of their customs are said to present a striking conformity with those of the Cimbri of the Baltic and of the Gauls. Those who inhabited the hills in the Crimea bore the name of Taures or Tauri, a word, Thierry says, signifying mountaineers in both the Kimbric and Gaulish idioms. The tribe of the plains, according to Ephorus, a Greek writer cotemporary with Aristotle, mentioned in Strabo, lib. v., dug subterraneous habitations, which they called argil or argel, a pure Kimbric word, which signifies a covered or deep place:
"Ἔφορός φησιν αὐτοὺς ἐν καταγείοις οἰκίαις οἰκειν ἁς καλοῦσιν ἀργίλλας."
Having seen several of the rude and miserable buildings underground in the Orkneys, called Picts' houses, I should like to know something of these argils or argillæ, but suppose them to be calculated for the requirements of a more advanced state of society than that of the dwellers in Picts' houses. Perhaps some of your correspondents could give information on this matter.
For the above, vide Introduction to Amédée Thierry's Histoire des Gaulois, &c., 1828, p. 57.
W. H. F.
The Drummer's Letter.—The letter from the drummer to the corporal's wife in The Sentimental Journey (it is hardly possible to give a precise reference to any part of this little work) ends thus:
"Je suis, Madame,
"Avec toutes les sentimens les plus respectueux et les plus tendres, tout à vous,
"Jaques Rocque."