or
_damsen_ plum" (Cotgrave); the _currant_ from _Corinth_, and the
_peach_, Fr. _peche_, from Vulgar Lat. _pessica_, for _Persica_.

A _polony_ was originally a _Bolonian_ sausage, from _Bologna_.
_Parchment_, Fr. _parchemin_, is the adjective _pergamenus_, from
_Pergamus_, in Asia Minor. _Spaniel_ is the Old Fr. _espagneul_
(_epagneul_), lit. Spanish. We have the adjective _Moorish_ in _morris_,
or _morrice_, _pike_--

"He that sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace than a
_morris pike_."
(_Comedy of Errors_, iv. 3.)

In _morris dance_, Fr. _danse mauresque_, the same adjective is used
with something of the vagueness to be noticed in connection with India
and Turkey (p. 52). Shakespeare uses the Spanish form--

"I have seen him
Caper upright, like to a wild _morisco_,
Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells."
(2 _Henry VI._, iii. 1.)

Other "local" dances are the _polka_, which means Polish woman,
_mazurka_, woman of Mazuria, and the obsolete _polonaise_, lit. Polish,
_cracovienne_, from Cracow, and _varsovienne_, from Warsaw. The
_tarantella_, like the _tarantula_ spider, takes its name from Taranto,
in Italy. The tune of the dance is said to have been originally employed
as a cure for the lethargy caused by the bite of the spider. Florio has
_tarantola_, "a serpent called an eft or an evet. Some take it to be a
flye whose sting is perillous and deadly, and nothing but divers sounds
of musicke can cure the patient."

The town of _Troyes_ has given its name to _troy_ weight. The armourers
of _Bilbao_, in Spain, made swords of such perfect temper that they
could be bent point to hilt. Hence Falstaff describes himself in the
buck-basket as--

"Compassed, like a good _bilbo_, in the circumference of a peck,
hilt to point, heel to head."
(_Merry Wives_, iii. 5.)

The _Andrea Ferrara_, or Scottish broadsword, carried by Fergus M'Ivor,
bears, according to some authorities, the name of an armourer of
Ferrara, in Italy. According to others, _Andrea dei Ferrari_ was a
sword-maker at Belluno. I have heard it affirmed by a Scottish
drill-sergeant that the real name of this genius was _Andrew
Ferrars_,[38] and that he belonged to the same nationality as other
great men.

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