Chapter C: Forbes

Temple.

_Red Book of the Irish Exchequer_ (Vol. iii., p. 6.).--J. F. F. may find some information in Mr. Mason's description of the sketch in the 13th vol. of the _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_.

R. H.

_Yankee, Derivation of_ (Vol. iii., pp. 260. 437. 461.).--I send you a Note on the etymology of this word, which I do not see noticed by any of your correspondents:

"When the New England Colonies were first settled, the inhabitants
were obliged to fight their way against many nations of Indians.
They found but little difficulty in subduing them all except one
tribe, who were known by the name of Yankoos, which signifies
invincible. After the waste of much blood and treasure, the
Yankoos were at last subdued by the New Englandmen. The remains of
this nation (agreeable to the Indian custom) transferred their
name to their conquerors. For a while they were called Yankoos;
but from a corruption, common to names in all languages, they got
through time the name of Yankee."--_New York Gazetteer_, June 1,
1775.

R. H.

_Indian Jugglers; Ballad of Ashwell Thorp_ (Vol. iv., p. 472.).--The correspondent who inquires about the Indian jugglers' trick of "growing a mango," is referred to Blomfield's _History of Norfork_, vol. v. p. 155. (8vo edition), where he will find a curious song, called the "Ballad of Ashwell Thorp," (said to be made in Sir Thomas Knevet's time, who was Sheriff of Norfolk in 1579, and died about 1616), showing that a similar trick was known in England at that time. An account is here given of an acorn being sown in the middle of a hall, growing up in a few minutes to a prodigious tree, bearing acorns, which ripened and fell; and how, after the tree had been with much difficulty cut down by two woodcutters, the trunk and fragments were finally carried away by two goslings. The feat is said to have been performed by a Londoner. The ballad-monger has perhaps improved a little upon the simple facts of the case. He concludes by saying:

"This story is very true
Which I have told to you,
'Tis a wonder you didn't heare it.
I'll lay a pint of wine,
If Parker and old Hinde
Were alive, that they would swear it."