From a purely literary point of view, few studies would be more curious or fertile than that of slang. It is an entire language within a language, a sort of sickly grafting which has produced a vegetation, a parasite which has its roots in the old Gaulish trunk, and whose sinister foliage crawls up the whole of one side of the language. This is what might be called the first or common notion of slang, but to those who study the language as it should be studied, that is to say, as geologists study the earth, slang appears like a real alluvium. According as we dig more or less deeply, we find in slang, beneath the old popular French, Provençal, Spanish, Italian, Levantine, that language of the Mediterranean ports, English, and German, Romanic,--in its three varieties of French, Italian, and Roman,--Latin, and finally, Basque and Celtic. It is a deep and strange formation, a subterranean edifice built up in common by all scoundrels. Each accursed race has deposited its stratum, each suffering has let its stone fall, each heart has given its pebble. A multitude of wicked, low, or irritated souls who passed through life, and have faded away in eternity, are found there almost entire, and to some extent still visible, in the shape of a monstrous word. Do you want Spanish? The old Gothic slang swarms with it. Thus we have _boffette_, a box on the ears, which comes from _bofeton; vantane_, a window (afterwards vanterne), from _vantana; gat_, a cat, from _gato; acite_, oil, from _aceyte_. Do you want Italian? We have _spade_, a sword, which comes from _spada_, and _carvel_, a boat, which comes from _caravella._ From the English we have _bichot_, the _bishop; raille_, a spy, from _rascal, rascalion_, roguish; and _pilche_, a case, from _pitcher_, a scabbard. Of German origin are _caleur_, the waiter, from _kellner; hers_, the master, from _herzog_, or duke. In Latin we find _frangir_, to break, from _frangere; affurer_, to steal, from _fur_; and _cadène_, a chain, from _catena_. There is one word which is found in all continental language with a sort of mysterious power and authority, and that is the word _magnus_: Scotland makes _mac_ of it, which designates the chief of the clan, Mac Farlane, Mac Callumore, the great Farlane, the great Callumore; slang reduces it to _meck_, afterwards _meg_, that is to say, the Deity. Do you wish for Basque? Here is _gahisto_, the devil, which is derived from _gaiztoa_, bad, and _sorgabon_, good-night, which comes from _gabon_, good-evening. In Celtic we find _blavin_, a handkerchief, derived from _blavet_, running water; _ménesse_, a woman (in a bad sense), from _meinec_, full of stones; _barant_, a stream, from _baranton_, a fountain; _goffeur_, a locksmith, from _goff_, a blacksmith; and _guédouze_, death, which comes from _guenn-du_, white and black. Lastly, do you wish for history? Slang calls crowns "the Maltese," in memory of the coin which was current aboard the Maltese galleys.