_Suicide at Marseilles_ (Vol. vii., pp. 180. 316.).--The original authority for the custom at Marseilles, of keeping poison at the public expense for the accommodation of all who could give the senate satisfactory reasons for committing suicide, is Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. cap. vi. § 7.
_Etymology of Slang_ (Vol. vii., p. 331.).--
"SLANGS are the greaves with which the legs of convicts are fettered, having acquired that name from the manner in which they were worn, as they required a sling of string to keep them off the ground.... The irons were the _slangs_; and the slang-wearer's language was of course slangous, as partaking much if not wholly of the _slang_."--_Sportsman's Slang, a New Dictionary and Varieties of Life_, by John Bee: Preface, p. 5.
_Scanderbeg's Sword_ (Vol. vii., pp. 35. 143.).--The proverb, "Scanderbeg's sword must have Scanderbeg's arm," is founded on the following story:
"George Castriot, Prince of Albania, one of the strongest and valiantest men that lived these two hundred yeares, had a cimeter, which Mahomet the Turkish Emperor, his mortall enemy, desired to see. Castriot (surnamed of the Turks, Ischenderbeg, that is, Great Alexander, because of his valiantnesse), having received a pledge for the restitution of his cimeter, sent it so far as Constantinople to Mahomet, in whose court there was not any man found that could with any ease wield that piece of steele: so that Mahomet sending it back againe, enioyned the messenger to tell the prince, that in this action he kind proceeded enemy-like, and with a fraudulent mind, sending a counterfeit cimeter { 512} to make his enemie afraid. Ischenderbeg writ back to him, that he had simply without fraud or guile sent him his owne cimeter, with the which he used to helpe himselfe couragiously in the wars; but that he had not sent him the hand and the arme which with the cimeter cleft the Turkes in two, struck off their heads, shoulders, legs, and other parts, yea, sliced them of by the wast; and that verie shortly he would show him a fresh proofe thereof; which afterwards he performed."--_Historical Meditations from the Latin of P. Camerarius_, by John Molle, Esquire, 1621, book iv. Cap. xvi. p. 299.
