BONIFACE.
Gipsies.
—In Shinar, or the province of Babylon, are the mountains of Singares, and the city and river of Singara. Have they anything to do with the origin of Zingari, the Italian name for gipsies?
L. M. M. R.
Breezes from Gas Works.
—Why do secretaries to provincial gas companies call small pieces of coke breezes; and why do they by letters offer to sell "breezes at tenpence per sack?" My residence is not far distant from the works of one of these Æolian gas companies; and when the wind is in the east, I inhale breezes which my senses tell me do not blow from "Araby the blest."
X. Y. Z.
The Phrase "and tye."
—The clerk in a parish in the north-west part of Sussex frequently makes use of an expression which I cannot understand,—nay more, he is unable to explain it himself! The expression is used by several of the old men in the parish, though by none of them so often as by the clerk. "Well, master, how are ye to-day?" He answers, "Middling, thanky'e and tye." He brings these two words in at the end of most sentences. If you ask him whether there are many people in the church, he will say, "Fairish number and tye;" or, "No, not many and tye."
Can any of your correspondents say if they have heard it elsewhere, or tell the meaning of it?