sieur, fiddles, harps, rosin, catgut and all, vamosed. — Vicksburg Sentinel, May,

1848.

On Sunday our city was thrown into a state of intense excitement. Between seventy and eighty slaves had disappeared. Several negroes who had made arrangement to vamose, were left behind, and, to be revenged, they gave the alarm. — Washington Paper.

TO VAMOSE THE RANCH. To leave the house, quit the spot, be off. Like the word vamos, much used on the Western frontier and in the South. This is surely breaking Priscian's head with a vengeance.

The Camanches came within a league of us, but vamosed the ranche when they learned that the rangers were here.- Southern Sketches, p. 141.

VARMINT. A corrupt pronunciation of the word vermin, applied to noxious wild beasts of any kind. It comes to us from the North of England.

There are more than a hundred lakes and brakes in them diggins, that hain't never been pressed by no mortal 'ceptin' varmints. - Traits of American Humor.

I shot tolerably well, and was satisfied the fault would be mine if the varmints did not suffer. Crockett, Tour, p. 125.

"These beavers," said old Ryan, "are industrious little fellows. They are the knowingest varmint as I know.”—Irving's Tour on the Prairies.

Uncas, call up your father; we have need of all our weapons to bring the cunning varmint from his roost. Cooper, Last of the Mohicans, p. 104.

VEGETABLE IVORY. See Tagua-Nut.

VEGETABLE MARROW. See Alligator-Pear.

VEGETABLE OYSTER. See Oyster-Plant.

VEGETARIAN. A disciple of a strict dietetic school, in which animal food is prohibited.

VEGETARIANISM. The doctrines of the Vegetarians.

A great number of manufactured articles derive their vendibility almost entirely from the pattern of the design. - Mr. Sheppard's Speech before Maryland Institute, 1857.

VENDUE. (French vendre, to sell, vendu, sold.) A public auction. This word is in use in the United States and the West Indies; but it is not common in England, though it is found in the recent English dictionaries of Knowles, Oswald, and Smart.-Worcester. The word, being a wholly unnecessary one, is fast becoming obsolete with us.

VENISON. In the United States this word means exclusively the flesh of deer. In England it is applied to the flesh of deer, hares, and certain game birds.

VEST. A waistcoat, or garment worn under a coat. We almost always

use this word instead of waistcoat, which we rarely apply to any thing but an under garment, as 66 a flannel waistcoat." VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. A portion of the citizens of a place who, assuming that the regular magistrates are unable or unwilling to execute the laws, undertake to watch over its safety, and to punish its criminals. The most notorious of these self-constituted bodies have been those of San Francisco and New Orleans.

Few people abroad, who had been trained from infancy to revere "the majesty of the law," and who had never seen any crime but what their own strong legal institutions and efficient police could detect and punish, could possibly conceive such a state of things as would justify the formation and independent action of an association which set itself above all formal law, and which openly administered summary justice, or what they called justice, in armed opposition and defiance to the regularly constituted tribunals of the country. Therefore, in other lands, it happened that the vigilance committee became often a term of reproach, and people pointed to it as a sign that society in California was utterly and perhaps irredeemably impure and disorganized. — Annals of San Francisco, p. 562.

A hand-bill having been posted in Richmond, Virginia, calling a meeting of the citizens for this evening, to form a vigilance committee to suppress certain secret movements among the colored population and to stop outrages on private property, Governor Wise addressed a letter to Mayor Mayo calling his attention to the movement, and adding that he would use force in prohibiting such meeting from being held on the Capitol square. The Mayor in reply states that, knowing the author of the handbill to be one of the few rowdies of that city, he considers himself a vigilance committee" enough for him and his comrades, and therefore deems it unnecessary to adopt any unusual measures against the proposed movement. - (Balt.) Sun, July 1, 1858. Last month, in the town of Maubeuge, in the north of France, a Protestant congregation was broken up and a part of its members marched on a Sunday from their place of worship to the town jail. The final proceedings of the civil authorities in the case were, according to our American notions of right and law, as gross a violation of justice as vigilance committee or lynching mob was ever guilty of.-N. Y. Tribune, Sept. 30, 1858.

VIRGINIA CREEPER. The ornamental woody vine Ampelopsis quinquefolia, cultivated for covering walls and fences. By some it is called Woodbine, and by others American Ivy.

VIRGINIA REEL. The common name throughout the United States for the old English"country-dance" (contre-danse).

VIRGINNY, or OLD VIRGINNY. The common negro appellation of the State of Virginia.

VOYAGE. Among whalers, each man calls his share of the proceeds of the cruize, which he receives instead of wages, his voyage.

VOYAGEUR. (French.) A Canadian boatman. Worcester.

The Canadian voyageur is, in all respects, a peculiar character; and on no point is

he more sensitive, than in the just distribution of pieces among the crew forming a party. Sir John Franklin's Narrative.

There is no form of wretchedness among those to which the checkered life of a voyageur is exposed, at once so great and so humiliating, as the torture inflicted by the musquitos. - Bach, Arctic Journal, p. 117.

I VUM! for I vow! is a euphemistic form of oath often heard in New England.

“I vum," said he, "I'm sorry; what's the matter?"— Margaret, p. 86.

The Rev. Mr. Dow, Jr., in one of his edifying discourses on profanity, not inaptly observes:

What though, instead of saying, "I swear to God," you say, "I declare to goodness?" It is as much the same thing as a bobolink with a new coat of feathers. I vum is just the same in spirit as I vow, and a "diabolical falsehood" is synonymous with a devilish lie.-Dow's Sermons, Vol. III. p. 265.

W.

To WABASH. "He's Wabashed," meaning he is cheated, is an expression much used in Indiana and other parts of the West.

TO WABBLE. In the Western States, to make free use of one's tongue; to be a ready speaker.

WAGGLETAIL. The larva of the mosquito, etc.; also called a wiggler.

TO WAKE SNAKES. 1. To make a rousing noise; and hence to rouse up, get into action.

Well, here I be; wake snakes, the day's a-breaking. — Southern Sketches, p. 119. Come, wake snakes, and push off with the captain, and get the fish on board. — Sam Slick, Human Nature, p. 164.

2. To have a rousing, roaring time.

Hozea Bigelow (introduced to us by his friend Lowell the poet), in speaking of military service, says:

This goin' where glory awaits ye, haint one agreeable featur';
And if it warn't for wakin' snakes, I'd be home agin short metre."

WAKE-UP. See Clape.

TO WAKE UP THE WRONG PASSENGER. To make a mistake in the individual. A modern substitute for the old phrase, "To get the wrong sow by the ear." The allusion is to the custom on board steamboats, of arousing or waking passengers at stopping places at night, when frequent mistakes are made and the wrong person called up.

The tyrant coquette, as a matter of course,

Thinks her lover must mind the rein just like a horse;

Discouraged he leaves her, she sees her mistake,
And laments that she did the wrong passenger wake.
The Stage Driver's Ball, Comic Song.

Sam Slick gives the following account of an interview between an abolitionist preacher and a contented slave. The former addressing the slave, says:

"Poor, ignorant wretch!"

"Massa," replied the negro, "you has waked up de wrong passenger dis time. I is n't poor. I ab plenty to eat, and plenty to drink. When I wants money, Missus gives it to me. When I wants wild ducks or venison, all I got to do is, to say to dat Yankee oberseer, Missus and I want some canvas-back or some deer.'". - Human Nature, p. 289.

TO WALK THE CHALK. To walk straight.

"The Tallapoosa volunteers," said Capt. Suggs; "so let every body look out and walk the chalk."- Simon Suggs, p. 89.

To WALK INTO. To get the upper hand of; to take advantage of; to punish. A common vulgarism.

To walk into a down-east land-jobber requires great skill, and a very considerable knowledge of human nature. — Sam Slick, 3d Series, p. 122.

I went into the dining-room, and sot down afore a plate that had my name writ on a card onto it, and I did walk into the beef, and taters, and things, about east. Hiram Bigelow's Lett. in Family Comp.

The way in which the Courier and Enquirer walks into the character and reputation of some of their old associates in the Clay movement, is a caution to respectable blackguards, and makes Wall street journalism a rival to Five Point eloquence. — New York Herald, Sept. 16, 1858.

WALKING PAPERS, or Walking TICKET.

Orders to leave; a dismissal.

When a person is appointed to a public office, or receives a commission, he receives papers or documents investing him with authority; so when he is discharged, it is said, in familiar language, that "he has received his walking papers, or his walking ticket."

It is probable that "walking papers" will be forwarded to a large proportion of the corps diplomatique during the session of Congress. B and B are already admonished to return, and the invitation will be pretty general.-N. Y. Herald, Letter from Washington.

We can announce with certainty that the Hon. Mr. D ing ticket, accompanied with some correspondence with his him offence. Kingston, Canada, Whig, Dec., 1843.

has received his walkExcellency that has given

Mr. Duane was ordered to remove the deposits. He answered that his duty did not require it. In a few hours he got his walking ticket that his services were no longer wanted. Crockett, Tour down East, p. 30.

"If you ever question me again," said Mrs. Samson Savage, "you'll get your walking ticket in short order.”. Widow Bedott Papers, p. 307.

WALL ROCK. Granular limestone, used in the building of walls.

TO WALLOP. To beat. Provincial in England and colloquial in the United States.

I grabs right hold of the cow's tail, and yelled and screamed like mad, and wallopped away at her like any thing. Sam Slick in England, ch. 18.

There's nothing like wallopping for taking the conceit out of fellows who think they know more than their betters.-J. C. Neal, Orson Dabbs.

All I know was wallopped into me. Charcoal Sketches.

I took larnin' through the skin. — Neal's

WALT. Crank. A ship is said to be walt, when she has not her due ballast, that is, not enough to enable her to bear her sails, and keep her stiff. Hubbard, in his History of New England, speaking of Lamberton's illfated ship, says, that "she was ill-built, very walt-sided."-Rev. Alex. Young, note to Chron. of Massachusetts.

The next year brought a Flemish fly-boat of about 140 tons, which being unfit for a fishing voyage, and wanting lodging for the men, they added unto her another deck, by which means she was carried so high that she proved walt and unable to bear sail. White, the Planter's Plea, 1630, p. 1.

In the North of England, walt means to totter; to overthrow. -Halliwell.

WAMBLE-CRopped. Sick at the stomach; and figuratively, crest-fallen; humiliated. New England.

There stood Capt. Jumper, shaking General Taylor's hand when he came on board the "Two Pollys," trying to get a start in the address, but could not; and then I tried it. I never saw Capt, Jumper so wilted down before—and that made me feel so wamble-cropt I could not say a word. — Maj. Downing, Letter from Baton Rouge, June 15, 1848.

The Captain looked so awful womble-cropt, that I pitied him. I never saw such an uncomfortable looking countenance. - Widow Bedott Papers, p. 284.

WAMPUM. (A term in the Algonkin languages signifying white, the color of the shells most frequent in wampum belts.) Shells, or strings of shells, used by the American Indians as money. These, when united, formed a broad belt, which was worn as an ornament or girdle. It was sometimes called wumpumpeage, or wampeage. See Peage.

The Indians are ignorant of Europe's coin. Their own is of two sorts: one white, which they make of the stem or stock of the periwinkle, when all the shell is broken off; and of this sort six of their small beads, which they make with holes to string the bracelets, are current with the English for a penny. The second is black, inclining to blue, which is made of the shell of a fish, which some English call hens, Poquahock: and of this sort three make an English penny. Their white money they call wompam, which signifies white; their black, Suckanhock, Sucki, signifying black. —R. Williams, Key to the Indian Language.

Though the young Indian women are said to prostitute their bodies for wampumpeak and other such like fineries, I could never find any ground for the accusation. - Beverly's Virginia, 1705, Book III.