in
the small way, too, out there, as graze upon a human, pretty strong :
but don't mind them ! They're company ! It's snakes,' he says, ' as
you'll object to ; and wThenever you wake, and see one, in
an upright postoore, on your bed,' he says, ' like a corkscrew with the
handle off, a sittin' on its bottom ring, cut him down, for he means
wenom ! ' "
With
reference to Jewels in general, the " Slang Dictionary" (Chatto &
Windus, 1874) associates the vulgarism—" a Jew's eye," as signifying
anything particularly valuable, wTith the French word Joaille, a Jewel.
In
ancient times, when a king was short of cash, he generally issued
orders for so many " Jews' Eyes," or equivalent sums of money. The Jews
preferred paying the ransom, although often very heavy. Furthermore, it
is notorious that at one time in this country an order often went forth
to draw Jews' teeth, in the event of their refusing to contribute a
certain sum to the Exchequer. Thus a probable supposition is, that if
the teeth of a Jew brought in so much money, the value of a Jew's eye
must be something far higher. Possibly, too, the lex talionis is here intimated :—" An eye for an eye ; and a tooth for a tooth."
With regard to a possible faculty for digesting stones, there is related in Hone's Table Book (1878),
an account of a Stone-Eater, by Father Paulian. " In the beginning of
May, 1760, was brought to Avignon a true Lithophagus, or Stone-Eater.
He not only swallowed flints, of an inch and a half long, and a full
inch broad, and half-an inch thick ; but other stones, which he could
reduce to powder, such as marbles, pebbles, etc., he made up into a
paste, taking this as
