"Slangs are the greaves with which the legs of convicts are fettered, having acquired that name from the manner in which they were worn, as they required a sling of string to keep them off the ground.... The irons were the slangs; and the slang-wearer's language was of course slangous, as partaking much if not wholly of the slang."—Sportsman's Slang, a New Dictionary and Varieties of Life, by John Bee: Preface, p. 5.
Zeus.
Scanderbeg's Sword (Vol. vii., pp. 35. 143.).—The proverb, "Scanderbeg's sword must have Scanderbeg's arm," is founded on the following story:
"George Castriot, Prince of Albania, one of the strongest and valiantest men that lived these two hundred yeares, had a cimeter, which Mahomet the Turkish Emperor, his mortall enemy, desired to see. Castriot (surnamed of the Turks, Ischenderbeg, that is, Great Alexander, because of his valiantnesse), having received a pledge for the restitution of his cimeter, sent it so far as Constantinople to Mahomet, in whose court there was not any man found that could with any ease wield that piece of steele: so that Mahomet sending it back againe, enioyned the messenger to tell the prince, that in this action he kind proceeded enemy-like, and with a fraudulent mind, sending a counterfeit cimeter to make his enemie afraid. Ischenderbeg writ back to him, that he had simply without fraud or guile sent him his owne cimeter, with the which he used to helpe himselfe couragiously in the wars; but that he had not sent him the hand and the arme which with the cimeter cleft the Turkes in two, struck off their heads, shoulders, legs, and other parts, yea, sliced them of by the wast; and that verie shortly he would show him a fresh proofe thereof; which afterwards he performed."—Historical Meditations from the Latin of P. Camerarius, by John Molle, Esquire, 1621, book iv. Cap. xvi. p. 299.
The following, relating to the arm and sword of Scanderbeg, may perhaps not inappropriately be added, although not connected with the proverb:
"Marinus Barletius (lib. i.) reports of Scanderbeg, Prince of Epirus (that most terrible enemy of the Turks), that, from his mother's womb, he brought with him into the world a notable mark of warlike glory: for he had upon his right arm a sword, so well set on, as if it had been drawn with the pencil of the most curious and skilful painter in the world."—Wanley's Wonders of the Little World, 1678, book i. cap. vii.
Zeus.
Arago on the Weather (Vol. vii., p. 40.).—Elsno will find extracts from Arago's papers in the Pictorial Almanack, 1847, p. 30., and in the Civil Engineer and Architects' Journal, which volume I cannot say, but I think that for 1847. Also in the Monthly Chronicle, vol. i. p. 60., and vol. ii. p. 209.; the annals of the Bureau des Longitudes for 1834 and the Annuaire for 1833.
Shirley Hibberd.
Rathe (Vol. vii., p. 392.).—Mr. Crossley is, I believe, mistaken in his derivation of the word rathe from the Celtic raithe, signifying inclination, although rather seems indisputably to belong to it. Rathe is, I believe, identical with the Saxon adjective rætha, signifying early. Chaucer's—