the city of Prague. In popular parlance this bit of
masonry is called Libu[vs]a's bath, and hereby hangs a tale to introduce
which we must hark back some fourteen centuries.

* * * * *

Some time in the sixth century--nobody seems to know exactly or to care
much when it was--one Czech or Czechus was wandering about this land of
Bohemia with a party of friends and relatives, probably a whole tribe of
them. Czech seems to have had the country to himself; if he had met any
strangers there would have been a fight, and we should have heard about
it. It may therefore be assumed that the former occupants, probably
lodgers only, had moved on. There was much movement going on in those
early centuries of the Christian era, the main tendency being from
north-east to south-west, from cold, damp and short-commons to warmth
and plenty. Now we have sufficient reason to believe that Thuringians
and Rugians abode for a while in Bohemia and parts of Bavaria, and
Lombards in Moravia, and that these gentry, hearing of loot to be had in
plenty farther south, left their temporary homes, crossed the Danube and
made themselves unpopular elsewhere, leaving the lands of Bohemia and
Moravia to anyone who cared to take them. This happened some time about
the middle of the sixth century, which gives us something more definite
to go upon as to Czech's place in time. Anyway, there were Czech, his
friends and relations wandering at their own sweet pleasure over the
rolling wood-clad landscape of Bohemia. On this excursion Czech espied
from afar a peculiar shaped hill (not one of the hills of Prague) to
which he promptly gave the appropriate name of [vR]ip. Now this
innocent-looking word is, by virtue of the sign placed over the R,
pronounced in a peculiar manner; between the initial consonant and the
"i" you should insert a sound somewhat like that of the French "j" as in
"jamais," for instance. Heaven and the Czechs only know what meaning you
would convey did you neglect this euphonious concatenation of consonants
and simply say "rip"--probably something to cover the young person with
confusion; but rightly pronounced, and with due regard to the soft but
insistent sibilant, this mixture of sounds means--toadstool. It is all
so simple when once you know: [vR]ip = toadstool,--and there you are.
The description tallies too: the hill of [vR]ip does look like a
toadstool; I have seen it myself, and am prepared to support Cz