Though seen by the world,
I'm known but to few;
The Gentiles detest me,
I'm pork to the Jew.
I never have past
But one night in the dark,
And that was with Noah,
Alone, in the ark.
My weight is three pounds,
My length is a mile,
And when I'm discover'd,
You'll say, with a smile,
My first and my last
Are the wish of our isle."
I should be obliged if any body could give me a key to this.
QUAESTOR.
* * * * *
+Replies.+
HOWKEY OR HORKEY.
_Howkey_ or _Horkey_ (Vol. i. p. 263.) is evidently, as your East Anglian
correspondent and J.M.B. have pointed out, a corrupt pronunciation of the
original _Hockey_; _Hock_ being a heap of sheaves of corn, and hence the
_hock-cart_, or cart loaded with sheaves.
Herrick, who often affords pleasing illustrations of old rural customs and
superstitions, has a short poem, addressed to Lord Westmoreland, entitled
"The Hock-cart, or Harvest Home," in which he says:--
"The harvest swains and wenches bound,
For joy to see the hock-cart crown'd."
_Die Hocke_ was, in the language of Lower Saxony, _a heap of sheaves_.
_Hocken_ was the act of piling up these sheaves; and in that valuable
repertory of old and provincial German words, the _Woerterbuch_ of J.
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