J. M. B.
[We believe the best and most recent collection of Danish ballads is the edition of Udvalgte Danske Viser fra Middelalderen, by Abrahamson, Nyerup, Rabbek, &c., in five small 8vo. volumes, Copenhagen, 1812. The best Swedish collection was Svenska Folk-Visor fran Forteden, collected and edited by Geijer and Afzelius, and published at Stockholm, 1814; but the more recent collection published by Arwidson in 1834 is certainly superior. It is in three octavo volumes, and is entitled Svenska Fornsänger. En Samling of Kämp-visor, Folk-visor, Lekar och Dansar, samt Barn- och Vall-Sänger.]
Etymology of "Conger."—What is the etymology of the word Conger, as applied to the larger kind of deep sea eels by our fishermen (who, be it remarked, never add eel. Conger-eel is entirely used by shore-folk)?
I imagine that it may be traced from the Danish Kongr, a king, or kings; for being the greatest of eels, the fishermen, whose nets he tore, and whose take he seriously reduced, might well call him in size, in strength, and voracity—Kongr, the king.
C. D. Lamont.
Greenock.
[Todd and Webster derive it from the Latin conger or congrus; Gr. γόγγρος, formed of γράω, to eat, the fish being very voracious; It. gongro; Fr. congre.]
"Si vis me flere, dolendum est primum tibi."—This is, I think, the ordinary form of a saying cited somewhere by Goldsmith, who calls it "so trite a quotation that it almost demands an apology to repeat it." Whence comes it originally? I am unable to give the exact reference to the passage in Goldsmith, but in his Citizen of the World, letter 53rd, he has a cognate idea:
"As in common conversation the best way to make the audience laugh is by first laughing yourself, so in writing," &c.
W. T. M.