toward his cabin, or shanty, he made his comments with his customary
freedom. Before recording what he communicated, however, we shall
digress for one moment in order to say a word ourselves concerning
this term "shanty." It is now in general use throughout the whole of
the United States, meaning a cabin that has been constructed in
haste, and for temporary purposes. By a license of speech, it is
occasionally applied to more permanent residences, as men are known
to apply familiar epithets to familiar objects. The derivation of
the word has caused some speculation. The term certainly came from
the West-perhaps from the Northwest-and the best explanation we have
ever heard of its derivation is to sup-pose "shanty," as we now
spell it, a corruption of "chiente," which it is thought may have
been a word in Canadian French phrase to express a "dog-kennel."
"Chenil," we believe, is the true French term for such a thing, and
our own word is said to be derived from it--"meute" meaning "a
kennel of dogs," or "a pack of hounds," rather than their dwelling.
At any rate, "chiente" is so plausible a solution of the difficulty,
that one may hope it is the true one, even though he has no better
authority for it than a very vague rumor. Curious discoveries are
sometimes made by these rude analogies, however, though they are
generally thought not to be very near akin to learning. For
ourselves, now, we do not entertain a doubt that the sobriquet of
"Yankees" which is in every man's mouth, and of which the derivation
appears to puzzle all our philologists, is nothing but a slight
corruption of the word "Yengeese," the term applied to the
"English," by the tribes to whom they first became known. We have no
other authority for this derivation than conjecture, and conjectures
that are purely our own; but it is so very plausible as almost to
carry conviction of itself. [Footnote: Since writing the above, the
author has met with an allusion that has induced him to think he may