FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213  
214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   >>   >|  
'Tanner! what can the man who cures raw skins by means of a preparation of oak bark and other materials have to do with the name which these fakers, as they call themselves, bestow on the smallest silver coin in these dominions? Tanner! I can't trace the connection between the man of bark and the silver coin, unless journeymen tanners are in the habit of working for sixpence a day. But I have it,' I continued, flourishing my hat over my head, 'tanner, in this instance, is not an English word.' Is it not surprising that the language of Mr. Petulengro and of Tawno Chikno is continually coming to my assistance whenever I appear to be at a nonplus with respect to the derivation of crabbed words? I have made out crabbed words in AEschylus by means of the speech of Chikno and Petulengro, and even in my Biblical researches I have derived no slight assistance from it. It appears to be a kind of picklock, an open sesame, Tanner--Tawno! the one is but a modification of the other; they were originally identical, and have still much the same signification. Tanner, in the language of the apple-woman, meaneth the smallest of English silver coins; and Tawno, in the language of the Petulengres, though bestowed upon the biggest of the Romans, according to strict interpretation signifieth a little child. So I left the bridge, retracing my steps for a considerable way, as I thought I had seen enough in the direction in which I had hitherto been wandering; I should say that I scarcely walked less than thirty miles about the big city on the day of my first arrival. Night came on, but still I was walking about, my eyes wide open, and admiring everything that presented itself to them. Everything was new to me, for everything is different in London from what it is elsewhere--the people, their language, the horses, the _tout ensemble_--even the stones of London are different from others--at least it appeared to me that I had never walked with the same case and facility on the flagstones of a country town as on those of London; so I continued roving about till night came on, and then the splendour of some of the shops particularly struck me. 'A regular Arabian Nights entertainment!' said I, as I looked into one on Cornhill, gorgeous with precious merchandise, and lighted up with lustres, the rays of which were reflected from a hundred mirrors. But, notwithstanding the excellence of the London pavement, I began about nine o'clock to
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213  
214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
language
 

London

 

Tanner

 

silver

 

crabbed

 

continued

 

Chikno

 

assistance

 

Petulengro

 
English

walked

 

smallest

 

hitherto

 

ensemble

 

wandering

 

direction

 

walking

 
horses
 
people
 
admiring

thirty

 

Everything

 

presented

 

scarcely

 

arrival

 

precious

 

merchandise

 

lighted

 
gorgeous
 

Cornhill


entertainment
 
looked
 

lustres

 
pavement
 
excellence
 
reflected
 

hundred

 

mirrors

 
notwithstanding
 
Nights

Arabian
 

flagstones

 

country

 
facility
 
appeared
 

roving

 

struck

 

regular

 

splendour

 

stones