2068. _rewel-boon_, probably whale-ivory, or ivory made of whales' teeth. In the Turnament of Tottenham, as printed in Percy's reliques, we read that Tyb had 'a garland on her hed ful of _rounde_ bonys,' where another copy has (says Halliwell, s. v. _ruel_) the reading--'fulle of _ruelle_-bones.' Halliwell adds--'In the romaunce of Rembrun, p. 458, the coping of a wall is mentioned as made 'of fin _ruwal_, that schon swithe brighte.' And in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. v. 48, fol. 119, is the passage-- 'Hir sadill_e_ was of _reuylle-bone_, Semely was þ_a_t sight to se, Stifly sette w_i_t_h_ p_re_cious ston_e_, Compaste about w_i_t_h_ crapote [_toad-stone_].' In Sir Degrevant, 1429, a roof is said to be-- 'buskyd above With besauntus ful bryghth, All of _ruel-bon_,' &c. Quite near the beginning of the Vie de Seint Auban, ed. Atkinson, we have-- 'mes ne ert d'or adubbee, ne d'autre metal, de peres preciuses, de ivoire ne _roal_'; i. e. but it was not adorned with gold nor other metal, nor with precious stones, nor ivory, nor _rewel_. Du Cange gives a Low Lat. form _rohanlum_, and an O. Fr. _rochal_, but tells us that the MS. readings are _rohallum_ and _rohal_. The passage occurs in the Laws of Normandy about wreckage, and should run--'dux sibi retinet ... ebur, _rohallum_, lapides pretiosas'; or, in the French version, 'l'ivoire, et le _rohal_, et les pierres precieuses.' Ducange explains the word by 'rock-crystal,' but this is a pure guess, suggested by F. _roche_, a rock. It is clear that, when the word is spelt _rochal_, the _ch_ denotes the same sound as the Ger. _ch_, a guttural resembling _h_, and not the F. _ch_ at all. Collecting all the spellings, we find them to be, in French, _rohal_, _rochal_, _roal_; and, in English, _ruwal_, _rewel_, _ruel_, (_reuylle_, _ruelle_). The _h_ and _w_ might arise from a Teutonic _hw_, so that the latter part of the word was originally -_hwal_, i. e. whale; hence, perhaps, Godefroy explains F. _rochal_ as 'ivoire de morse,' ivory of the walrus (A. S. _hors-hwæl_). The [198] true origin seems rather to be some Norse form akin to Norweg. _röyrkval_ (E. _rorqual_). Some whales, as the _cachalot_, have teeth that afford a kind of ivory; and this is what seems to be alluded to. The expression 'white as _whale-bone_,' i. e. white as whale-ivory, was once common; see Weber's Met. Romances, iii. 350; and _whales-bone_ in Nares. Most of this ivory was derived, however, from the tusk of the walrus or the narwhal. Sir Thopas's saddle was ornamented with ivory. 2071. _cipress_, cypress-wood. In the Assembly of Foules, l. 179, we have-- 'The sailing firr, the _cipres_, deth to pleyne'-- i. e. the cypress suitable for lamenting a death. Vergil calls the cypress 'atra,' Æn. iii. 64, and 'feralis,' vi. 216; and as it is so frequently a symbol of mourning, it may be said to _bode war_. 2078. In Sir Degrevant (ed. Halliwell, p. 191) we have just this expression--