Shall we view _nick_ as allied to the E.
_v._ signifying 'to touch luckily'?"

Now, there is no such seeming derivation in the first part of the word. The
_Neive_, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It is
held out to him who is to guess--the conjuror--_and it is he who is
addressed_, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide
conjecture, it may be), he is invoked in the person of NIC NEVILLE (_Neivie
Nic_), a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St. Andrew's
in 1569. If I am right, a curious testimony is furnished to his quondam
popularity among the common people:

"From that he past to Sanctandrois, where a notable sorceres callit
_Nic Neville_ was condamnit to the death and brynt," &c. &c.--_The
Historie and Life of King Jame the Sext_, p. 40. Edin. 1825. Bannatyne
Club Ed.

J. D. N. N.

* * * * *

RECORDS AT MALTA.

Let me call _your_ attention, as well as that of your readers (for good may
come from both), to an article in the December No. of the _Archaeological
Journal_, 1850, entitled "Notice of Documents preserved in the Record
Office at Malta;" an article which I feel sure ought to be more publicly
known, both for the sake of the reading world at large, and the high
character bestowed upon the present keeper of those records, M. Luigi
Vella, under whose charge they have been brought to a minute course of
investigation. There may be found here many things worthy of elucidation;
many secret treasures, whether for the archaeologist, bibliopole, or herald,
that only require your widely disseminated "brochure" to bring nearer to
our own homes and our own firesides. It is with this view that I venture to
express a hope, that a _precis_ of that article may not be deemed
irregular; which point, of course, I must leave to your good judgment and
good taste to decide, being a very Tyro in archaeology, and no book-worm
(though I really love a book), so I know nothing of _their_ points of
etiquette. At the same time I must, in justice to Mr. A. Milward (the
writer of the notice, and to whom I have not the honour of being known),
entreat his pardon for the plagiarism, if such it can be called, having
only the common "reciprocation of ideas" at heart; and remain as ever an
humble follower under Captain Cuttle's standard.

One Corporal WHIP.

PRECIS of _Documents preserved in Record Office, Malta_.

Six volume