* * * * *
"HURRAH!"
(Vol. viii., p. 20. &c.)
In two previous Numbers (Vol. vi., p. 54.; Vol. vii., p. 594.) Queries
have been inserted as to the derivation of the exclamations _Hurrah!_ and
_Hip, hip, hurrah!_ These have elicited much learned remark (Vol. vii.,
p. 633.; Vol. viii., pp. 20. 277.), but still I think the real originals
have not yet been reached by your correspondents.
As to _hip, hip!_ I fear it must remain questionable, whether it be not a
mere fanciful conjecture to resolve it into the initials of the war-cry
of the Crusaders, "Hierosolyma est perdita!" The authorities, however,
seem to establish that it should be written "hep" instead of _hip_. I
would only remark, _en passant_, that there is an error in the passage
cited by MR. BRENT (Vol. viii., p. 88.) in opposition to this mediæval
solution, which entirely destroys the authority of the quotation. He
refers to a note on the ballad of "Old Sir Simon the King," in which, on
the couplet--
"Hang up all the poor _hep_ drinkers,
Cries Old Sir Sim, the king of skinkers."
the author says that "_hep_ was a term of derision applied to those who
drank a weak infusion of the hep (or _hip_) berry or sloe: and that the
exclamation 'hip, hip, hurrah!' is merely a corruption of 'hip, hip,
away!'" But, unfortunately for this theory, the hip is not the sloe, as
the annotator seems to suppose; nor is it capable of being used in the
preparation of any infusion that could be substituted for wine, or drunk
"with all the honours." It is merely the hard and tasteless _buckey_
of the wild dog-rose, to the flower of which Chaucer likens the gentle
knight Sir Thopas:
"As swete as is the bramble flour,
That beareth, the red _hepe_."
This demurrer, therefore, does not affect the validity of the claim
which has been set up in favour of an oriental origin for this convivial
_refrain_.
As to _hurrah!_ if I be correct in my idea of its parentage, there
are few words still in use which can boast such a remote and widely
extended prevalence. It is one of those interjections in which sound so
echoes sense, that men seem to have adopted it almost instinctively. In
India and Ceylon, the Mahouts and attendants of the baggage-elephants
cheer them on by perpetual repetitions of _ur-ré, ur-ré!_ The Arabs and
camel-drivers {324} in Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt encourage their
animals to speed by shouting _ar-ré, ar-ré!_ The Moors seem to have
carried the custom with them into Spain, where the mules and horses are
still driven with cries of _arré_ (whence the muleteers derive their
Spanish appellation of _arrieros_). In France, the sportsman excites the
hound by shouts of _hare, hare!_ and the waggoner turns his horses by
his voice, and the use of the word _hurhaut!_ In Germany, according to
Johnson (_in verbo_ HURRY), "_Hurs_ was a word used by the old Germans
in urging their horses to speed." And to the present day, the herdsmen
in Ireland, and parts of Scotland, drive their cattle with shouts of
_hurrish, hurrish!_ In the latter country, in fact, to _hurry_, or to
_harry_, is the popular term descriptive of the predatory habits of the
border reivers in plundering and "driving the cattle" of the lowlanders.
The sound is so expressive of excitement and energy, that it seems to
have been adopted in all nations as a stimulant in times of commotion;
and eventually as a war-cry by the Russians, the English, and almost
every people of Europe. Sir Francis Palgrave, in the passage quoted from
his _History of Normandy_ ("N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 20.), has described
the custom of the Normans in raising the country by "the cry of _haro_,"
or _haron_, upon which all the lieges were bound to join in pursuit of
the offender. This _clameur de haron_ is the origin of the English "hue
and cry;" and the word _hue_ itself seems to retain some trace of the
prevailing pedigree.
This stimulating interjection appears, in fact, to have enriched the
French language as well as our own with some of the most expressive
etymologies. It is the parent of the obsolete French verb _harer_, "to
hound on, or excite clamour against any one." And it is to be traced in
the epithet for a worn-out horse, a _haridelle_, or _haridan_.
In like manner, our English expressions, to _hurry_, to _harry_, and
_harass_ a flying enemy, are all instinct with the same impulse, and all
traceable to the same root.