The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1893-02-18
soorrrr 81 AnrsrcAx Axs1pgzAss
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C~e.trtsrtsess - the study or Herk-b
,usr rrs.a D. BsDk Tor. Je~ysaI
AZ the regular weekly meeting 0he Presf>
dent. NackernseeL In the chair) the Rev
wraxall Wood communicated some verses
which he had heard sung BY his nurse some
where about 1870. As the nurse could neither
read nor write. his transcription OF them. the
reverend gentleman said. must necessarily 30
phonetic and probably verbally Inaccurate:
.Hocus pocus, hocus.. Isle. Query, Hokst
would hocuspoous play:
He was the pokiest hocus. sir,
That was in Georrtay. tvsrianti
North Csriins-tsy1
"on, he was twenty spans in height
And twenty spans around,
And being so mail WAS often lost,
But subsequently, found.
"Hs'd drink the mnt Of eight score eews
And then cry out 'Repest;'
And when he went int q creek
He'd get there With both feet
"He often whistisd in the wood.
And bought q pig In poke.
And when he had his tun O. beer
Would always sing out 'Hoeh r" tQusryi Hoks.1
These verses. said Mr.. Wood. represent
Hocus not as the giant power OF nature. the
God Fire Focus. the bright eye 1.-THE Greek
OkosJ Of Flame: but q familiar. good-nstured
giant. q god turned bourgeois. SO to speak.
he nHu lObC MS OT1RlOdl httTlDuteb VI n h
god. benelcent indeed. but terrible. and had
become simply a gigantic. homely figure In
the popular imagination. He had been dean.
thropomorphized. SO to speak. He had sunk
from a primeval power. a god invested with
human attributes. to the place OF q figure OF
the nursery. He tMr. Wood desired to say he
was not prepared to say that the Hok. or
Hocus. myth was not intimately related to the
Scandinavian wayland's myth. The nam OF
Vr..tu-lp. .,nkko. Ma No~tntl. .v--AskAA
Hac. Hok. and Hok. like Wayland. was a smith.
a FIRE god. an Hephaistos.
In moving the thanks OF the society to Mr..
Wood. Mr.. Swift Of Indiana said that there was
one point in the reverend gentleman's paper
with which he could not agree. He suggested
as the possible origin. or at any ratio a. the
collateral Of Hok. Hocus. the Greek Och. .
magic charm against fleas. and compared with
it Beelzebub. the Lord Of Flies.
MI. q. Fred Willlams: There are no nies
on Hokus." tLaughter.1
Continuing. Mr.. swift said that the long
vowel in Och seemed to him conclusive. II
Hok was from the short-vowelled okos how
were you to account for the long or
Another member said that he presumed that
q vowel was as liable to get short as q man.
What he could not account for was the pros.
ence Of the H in Hok. Hocos. Hocus. while In
okos or even Och the ~aspirate was absent.
The President: The presence Of the a~spirats
at least assures us that we need not seek an
English original for Hocos. lApplause.l
Mr.. Osborne Of Conn ecticut communicated q
counting-in rhyme which 10 used on the Mug
wump Reservation In New Haven:
Hickey. pokey. mokeI hoke.
smythie. smithie, smittis. smitt,
Hocus. pocus. IT"
Mr.. Wendell P. Garrison said that In his
opinion it was unsafe and unscientiho to de-
pend upon Greek analoeies or origins In re-
gard to the Hok myth. Might not Hok be .
form OF Choke. Cook. akin to but not descend
ed from Jocus. Col. Wheelwright OF Boston
insisted upon the Northern origin OF the name
and the myth He compared Hakon. Hake.
Hook. Fake. all. he said. having the sense OF
curvation or crookedness. He did not mean
that the great Fire God was crooked. but he
felt sure. after consulting Profs. Whitney and
Lanman. that hook. crook. hake. Hoke. and
Fake 1.-THE god Facus-Saturnus hence had the
sicklel were the same. In conclusion he
would read the following linestranslated from
the Elder Hoka:
First Of rre.feeders. furnacenllinE.
Fury.fraught scion Of Fake.
HiRh.heartH oka. bright ~lifs-gtvsr.
or heroes heftiest. Hoka. hall
south!and's scion. stark est in ~struggis,
Stern stssi-drivsr, stout In the storm.
Cormorantfeeder. crowder OF oemstsrisA
ChokA the Cracker. nre-chortling carl"
1t was announced that at the next meeting
some OF the Hocus ballads which have recent
ly been collected by a member OF the society
would be communicated. Among these are
When Hocus First to Now York Came"
How They Found Hocus." "Hokesoak." and
from New Orleaus) lie Bon Oqie. Adjourned.