The origin of this phrase is connected with the following story:—A certain Greek (whose name has for the present escaped me, but who must have been ready to contribute to the "Notes and Queries" of his time) was one day observed carefully "stepping" over the αὐλός or footrace-course at Olympia; and he gave as a reason for so doing, that when that race-course was originally marked out, it was exactly six hundred times as long as Hercules' foot (that being the distance Hercules could run without taking breath): so that by ascertaining how many times the length of his own foot is contained, he would know how much Hercules' foot exceeded his foot in length, and might therefrom calculate how much Hercules' stature exceeded that of ordinary men of those degenerate days.
J. Eastwood.
Ecclesfield.
This proverb does not appear to be of classical origin. Several proverbs of a similar meaning are collected in Diogenian, v. 15. The most common is, ἐκ τῶν ὀνύχων τὸν λέοντα, ex ungue leonem. The allusion to Hercules is probably borrowed from some fable.
L.
Bucaneers (Vol. i., p. 400.).—Your correspondent C. will find an interesting account of the Bucaneers in a poem by M. Poirié St. Aurèle, entitled Le Flibustier, and published by Ambroise Dupont & Co., Paris, 1827. The Introduction and Notes furnish some curious particulars relative to the origin, progress, and dissolution of those once celebrated pirates, and to the daring exploits of their principal leaders, Montauban, Grammont, Monbars, Vand-Horn, Laurent de Graff, and Sir H. Morgan. The book contains many facts which go far to support Bryan Edwards's favourable opinion. I may add that the author derives the French word flibustier from the English freebooter, and the English word bucaneer from the French boucanier; which latter word is derived from boucan, an expression used by the Caribs to describe the place where they assembled to make a repast of their enemies taken in war.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia, March, 1851.
God's Acre (Vol. iii., p. 284.).—By a Saxon phrase, Mr. Longfellow undoubtedly meant German. In Germany Gottes-acker is a name for churchyard; and it is to be found in Wachter's Glossarium Germanicum, as well as in modern dictionaries. It is true there is the other word Kirchhof, perhaps of more modern date.
"Gots-aker. Cæmeterium. Quasi ager Dei, quia corpora defunctorum fidelium comparantur semini. 1 Cor. xv. 36., observante Keyslero in Antiq. Septentr. p. 109."—Wachter's Gloss. Germanicum.