ous husk, some resemblance to a ferocious face. Stevens
(1706) explains _coco_ as "the word us'd to fright children; as we say
the Bulbeggar."

[Page Heading: COW-BOY WORDS]

_Mustang_ seems to represent two words, _mestengo y mostrenco_, "a
straier" (Percyvall). The first appears to be connected with _mesta_, "a
monthly fair among herdsmen; also, the laws to be observed by all that
keep or deal in cattle" (Stevens), and the second with _mostrar_, to
show, the finder being expected to advertise a stray. The original
_mustangs_ were of course descended from the strayed horses of the
Spanish _conquistadors_. _Ranch_, Span. _rancho_, a row (of huts), is a
doublet of _rank_, from Fr. _rang_, Old Fr. _reng_, Old High Ger.
_hring_, a ring. Thus what is now usually straight was once circular,
the ground idea of ar_range_ment surviving. Another doublet is Fr.
_harangue_, due to the French inability to pronounce _hr-_ (see p. 55),
a speech delivered in the ring. _Cf._ also Ital. _aringo_, "a riding or
carreering place, a liste for horses, or feates of armes: a declamation,
an oration, a noise, a common loud speech" (Florio), in which the "ring"
idea is also prominent.

Other "cow-boy" words of Spanish origin are the less familiar _cinch_,
girth of a horse, Span. _cincha_, from Lat. _cingula_, also used
metaphorically--

"The state of the elements enabled Mother Nature 'to get a _cinch_'
on an honourable aestheticism."
(Snaith, _Mrs Fitz_, Ch. 1.)

and the formidable riding-whip called a _quirt_, Span. _cuerda_, cord--

"Whooping and swearing as they plied the _quirt_."
(Masefield, _Rosas_.)

Stories of Californian life often mention Span. _reata_, a tethering
rope, from the verb _reatar_, to bind together, Lat. _re-aptare_.
Combined with the definite article (_la reata_) it has given _lariat_, a
familiar word in literature of the Buffalo Bill character. _Lasso_,
Span. _lazo_, Lat. _laqueus_, snare, is a doublet of Eng. _lace_.

When, in the _Song of Hiawatha_--

"Gitche Manito, the mighty,
Smoked the _calumet_, the Peace-pipe,
As a signal to the nations,"

he was using an implement with a French name. _Calumet_ is an Old Norman
word for _chalumeau_, reed, pipe, a diminutive from Lat. _calamus_. It
was naturally applied by early French voyagers to the "long reed for a
pipe-stem." Eng. _shawm_ is the same