In the 16th and 17th centuries it was held that familiar spirits, in the guise of flies, fleas, etc., attended on witches, who for a price professed to dispose of the Power for evil thus imparted. Thence a _fly_ meant _a familiar_ (spiritus familiaris). That is, I presume, the origin of the above expression. funk »I’m in _a blue funk_ that one of these days she will oversleep herself.» (They And I. 194. 6.) _A student._ = _to be anxious, nervous about something_. (_funk_: a state of fear; generally with an intensifying word, e. g. a bloody, mortal, or blue funk.) Garn »_Garn!_ They’d run out of ’eads when they was making you.» (P. Kelver I. 93. 9.) _A London gutter child._ _Garn_, a corruption of _go on_, is vulgar London language. It is used in the same way as the French _Va! Allez!_ governor A man, slouching under the trees, paused as I overtook him. »You couldn’t oblige me with a light, could you, _guv’nor_?» he said. (Novel Notes 110. 16.) _Governor_ stands here as a vulgar mode of address, quite corresponding to the French _bourgeois_. In Swedish we should say simply: _han_ or _Herrn_. In the sense of _father_ or _master_, _employer_ (The governor: »gubben»), the word is now in everyday colloquial use. grub »You give me my _grub_ and a shake-down, and I’ll grumble less than’ most of ’em». (Tommy and Co. 15. 15.) _Uneducated Young man._ One of the commonest of the numerous vulgar paraphrases of _food_ (Farmer-Henley’s Dict. of Slang and Coll. Engl. mentions about a score of them.) to lam »The Lord will help us. Hold him fast, and—_Lam into him_». (Novel Notes 163. 9.) _A tract-distributor._ »She _lammed in tracts at him_ full of the most awful language». (Sketches 200. 25.) _Old woman of the working class._ _Lamb_ (vulgarized: _lam_) is sometimes ironically used to indicate a rough, cruel, or merciless person, and thence specifically applied to bludgeon men at elections. To this word we must refer, I suppose, the vulgar verb _to lamb_ or _to lam_ = to beat, to strike frequently. (Figurally or literally.) The sense of the two above expressions is: (1) _go at him_ (figurally); (2) _she aimed mental blows at him by means of tracts._ let on »Don’t _let on_ to any of the chaps that I am a member of that blessed waxwork show». (Novel Notes 203. 20.) _Uncultivated young man._ _Let on_: vulgar for _confess_, _inform_, _reveal the secret_. matey »You must have forgot yourself, _matey_.» (Sketches 193. 20.) _A workman._ A vulgar diminutive form of _mate_. mug »Do you take me for a _mug_?» (Tommy And Co. 46. 20.) _A London brat of the working class._ He »took to» me, he said, because I was »so jolly green»—»such a rummy little _mug_.» _A schoolboy._ »Are you the rich _mug_ Vane’s been representing you to be?» (P. Kelver II. 224. 28.) _An actress._ »Keep your _mug_ shut about Oxford.» (Novel Notes 203. 26.) _Uncultivated young man._