Your mortal fae is now awa',
Tam Samson's dead!"
Kennedy M‘Nab.
"Putting a spoke in his wheel" (Vol. viii., pp. 269. 351. 576.).—There is no doubt that "putting a spoke in his wheel" is "offering an obstruction." But I have always understood the "spoke" to be, not a radius of the wheel, but a bar put between the spokes at right angles, so as to prevent the turning of the wheel; a rude mode of "locking," which I have often seen practised. The correctness of the metaphor is thus evident.
Wm. Hazel.
Dog Latin (Vol. viii., p. 523.).—The return of a sheriff to a writ which he had not been able to serve, owing to the defendant's secreting himself in a swamp, will be new to English readers. It was "Non come-at-ibus in swampo."
Since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the motto of the United States has been "E pluribus unum." A country sign-painter in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, painted "E pluribur unibus," instead of it on a sign.
Uneda.
Philadelphia.
Swedish Words current in England (Vol. vii., pp. 231. 366.).—Very many Swedish words are current in the north of England, e. gr. barn or bearn (Scotticè bairn), Sw. barn; bleit or blate, bashful, Sw. blöd; to cleam, to fasten, to spread thickly over, Sw. klemma; cod, pillow, Sw. kudde; to gly, to squint, Sw. glo; to lope, to leap, Sw. löpa; to late (Cumberland), to seek, Sw. leta; sackless, without crime, Sw. saklös; sark, shirt, Sw. särk; to thole (Derbyshire), to endure, Sw. tala; to walt, to totter, to overthrow, Sw. wälta; to warp, to lay eggs, Sw. wärpa; wogh (Lancashire), wall, Sw. wägg, &c. It is a fact very little known, that the Swedish language bears the closest resemblance of all modern languages to the English as regards grammatical structure, not even the Danish excepted.