'
As a 'China beard' consists of only a few hairs under the chin, the
above simile is correct; but in the French edition of these travels,
the translator erroneously rendered the words _oiseau de Chine_,
Chinese bird, and subsequently, a celebrated French savant raised a
magnificent hypothetical edifice on the basis of the mistranslation.
Herbert was the first who used the word dodo as the name of this bird,
stating it to be derived from the Portuguese _doudo_, a simpleton; but
as he is generally somewhat wild and vague in his etymologies, and as
we have no intelligence whatever of the dodo through the Portuguese,
we may safely conclude that the name is of Dutch derivation. In the
old black-letter Dutch and English dictionary now before us, we find
the word _dodoor_ translated a humdrum, which, Dr Johnson tells us,
means 'a stupid person.' Now, if the name be derived from the bird's
simplicity, the Dutch _dodoor_ is as near the mark as the Portuguese
_doudo_. But it may be that the name was given on account of the
peculiar form of the bird, and not in illusion to its mental capacity;
and, consequently, even _dodoor_ may not be the true origin. We more
than suspect that it is really derived from a vulgar, compound
epithet, used by Dutch seamen to denote an awkward, clumsily-formed,
inactive person. This inquiry, however, is beyond our humble powers,
and should be prosecuted by some learned professor--such, for
instance, as Jonathan Oldbuck's friend, Dr Heavysterne, of the Low
Countries.
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