J. PAYNE COLLIER.
I cannot find the particular Number of NOTES AND QUERIES, but unless I am greatly mistaken, in one of them, a correspondent gave praise (I am the last to say it was not deserved) to DR. MAGINN for suggesting that miching mallecho, in Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2., was from the Spanish mucho malhecho. I never heard of DR. MAGINN's opinion until I saw it in your pages; but if you happen to be able to refer to the Shakspeare I superintended through the press in 1843, vol. vii. p 271., note 9., you will see that I propose the Spanish word malhecho as the origin of "mallecho." I did not think this point worth notice at the time, and I doubt whether it is worth notice now. If you leave out this postscript, as you are at perfect liberty to do, I shall conclude that you are of my opinion.
J.P.C.
[The passage to which our valued correspondent refers is in our Second Volume, p. 358., where J.M.B. points out that the suggestion of a writer in the Quarterly Review for March 1850, that Shakspeare's miching mallecho was a mere misprint of the Spanish words mucho malhecho, had been anticipated by DR. MAGINN. It now appears that he had also been anticipated by MR. COLLIER.]
CROSSING RIVERS ON SKINS.
The mode of crossing a river on skins, mentioned by Layard (Nineveh and its Remains, 5th edition, vol. i. p. 129., vol. ii. p. 381.) is also referred to in the works of the following ancient writers. I quote Facciolati Lexicon Totius Latinitatis, in vocibus Uter et Utricularius. [Edit. Furlanetto, 4to.]
"Frequens fuit apud veteres utrium usus ad flumina trananda, Liv. 21. 27. Hispani, sine ulla mole, in utres vestimentis conjectis, ipsi cetris suppositis incubantes, flumen tranavere, Cæs. B.G. i. 48. Lusitani, peritique earum regionum cetrati citerioris Hispaniæ, consectabantur, quibus erat proclive transnare flumen, quod consuetudo eorum omnium est, ut sine utribus ad exercitum non eant, (Cf. Herzog., qui longam huic loco adnotationem adscripsit), Curt. 7. 5. Utres quam plurimos stramentis refertos dividit; his incubantes transnavere amnem, Plin. 6. 29. 35. Arabes Ascitæ appellati, quoniam bubulos utres binos sternentes ponte piraticam exercent, h.e. utribus junctis tabulas instar pontis sternentes. Adde Front. Strat. 3. 13., et Ammian. 30. 1. med."
"Utricularii vocabantur qui utriculos, seu utres inflatos ratibus ita subjiciebant, ut iisdem flumina transnare possent. Eorum collegium in quibusdam urbibus ad flumen aliquod sitis habebatur, ideoque utricularii sæpe cum nautis conjunguntur, Inscr. ap. Mur. 531, n. 4. Ex voto a solo templum ex suo fecerunt collegio utriculariorum."
JANUS DOUSA.