e fancies of
etymologists.]

[Footnote 7: The derivation of _raccoon_ from the French _raton_, to
which Mr. Skeat gives currency, still holds its place in some of our
standard dictionaries. If American lexicographers would only read the
literature of American settlement they would know that Mr. Skeat's
citation of a translation of Buffon is nearly two centuries too late. As
early as 1612 Captain John Smith gives _aroughcune_ as the aboriginal
Virginia word, and more than one New England writer used _rackoon_ a few
years later.]

[Footnote 8: This prefixed _y_ is a mark of a very illiterate or antique
form of the dialect. I have known _piece yarthen_ used for "a piece of
earthen" [ware], the preposition getting lost in the sound of the _y_. I
leave it to etymologists to determine its relation to that ancient
prefix that differentiates _earn_ in one sense from _yearn_. But the
article before a vowel may account for it if we consider it a
corruption. "The earth" pronounced in a drawling way will produce _the
yearth_. In the New York Documents is a letter from one Barnard Hodges,
a settler in Delaware in the days of Governor Andros, whose spelling
indicates a free use of the parasitic _y_. He writes "yunless,"
"yeunder" (under), "yunderstanding," "yeundertake," and "yeouffeis"
(office).]

[Footnote 9: Like many of the ear-marks of this dialect, the verb
"dog-on" came from Scotland, presumably by the way of the north of
Ireland. A correspondent of _The Nation_ calls attention to the use of
"dagon" as Scotch dialect in Barrie's "Little Minister," a recent book.
On examining that story, I find that the word has precisely the sense of
our Hoosier "dog-on," which is to be pronounced broadly as a Hoosier
pronounces dog--"daug-on." If Mr. Barrie gives his _a_ the broad sound,
his "dagon" is nearly identical with "dog-on." Here are some detached
sentences from "The Little Minister:"

"Beattie spoke for more than himself when he said: 'Dagon that Manse! I
never gie a swear but there it is glowering at me.'"

"'Dagon religion,' Rob retorted fiercely; 't spoils a' thing.'"

"There was some angry muttering from the crowd, and young Charles Yuill
exclaimed, 'Dagon you, would you lord it ower us on week-days as well as
on Sabbaths?'"

"'Have you on your Sabbath shoon or have you no on your Sabbath shoon?'
'Guid care you took I should ha'e the dagont things on!' retorted the
farmer."

It will be seen that "dagont," as used abov