_Je m’en moque comme de l’an quarante_ is a saying which dates from the beginning of the eleventh century. There was at that period an extensive belief that the end of the world was at hand, and that the _thousand years_ and more supposed to have been assigned by our Lord as the duration of his church on earth, and of society in general, were to expire in the year 40 of that century. Sinners were converted in crowds; many talked of turning hermit; but, once this redoubtable epoch was over, men changed their tone, and from that time to this the expression used in speaking of a thing which need inspire no alarm is: “I care no more for it than for the year forty!” _La beauté du Diable_ we should naturally suppose meant an appalling ugliness. It means nothing of the kind, but, on the contrary, that exceeding prettiness frequently noticeable in young girls between the ages of fourteen and nineteen, or thereabouts, which then passes away. This, the freshness of youthful beauty, seems to derive its name from the old proverb, _The devil was handsome when he was young_—namely, while he was yet an unfallen angel. Ladies somewhat advanced in the debatable ground of life’s pilgrimage, when youth has made way for the nameless years of “a certain age,” are said to _coiffer Sainte Catherine_. It was formerly the custom in France, as it still is in Spain and some parts of Italy, on particular festivals, to array in festal garments and headgear the statues of the saints. St. Catherine being the patroness of virgins, the care of her adornment was always entrusted to young girls. This charge, however agreeable and honorable at sixteen, might, nevertheless, not be desirable in perpetuity, and thus it came to be said of any middle-aged maiden: “She stays to _coiffer_ St. Catherine.” To speak French very badly, or with a bad accent, is called _parler Français comme une vache Espagnole_. The people inhabiting the Basque provinces obtain their name from the indigenous word _vaso_—mountain—which, when taken adjectively, is augmented by the final _co_, and thus becomes _vasoco_, and, by contraction, _vasco_—mountaineer. The French, knowing little enough of Spanish, said at first _vacco_, and then _vacce_. Thus, _parler comme un vacce Espagnol_ meant at first to allude to the _inhabitants_ of the Basque provinces of Spain, whose language still bears all the characteristics of a primitive tongue, and who have great difficulty in expressing themselves in French; but _vacce_, at a time when the Latin had left its traces everywhere, was said for _vache_, the peasants in many of the French provinces retaining it still. Thence arose the confusion which produced the senseless comparison, “to speak French like a Spanish cow.”