But seriously, we think Mr. Wedgwood’s derivation of crag (or rather, that which he adopts, for it has had other advocates) a very probable one, at least for more northern tribes.  There is no reason why men should have escaped the same law of nomenclature which gave names to the cuckoo and the pavo.[a] But when he approaches draff, he gets upon thinner ice.  Where a metaphorical appropriateness is plainly wanting to one etymology and another as plainly supplies it, other considerations being equal, probability may fairly turn the scale in favor of the latter.  Mr. Wedgwood is here dealing with a sound translated to another meaning by an intellectual process of analogy; and no one knows better than he—­for his book shows everywhere the fair-mindedness of a thorough scholar—­the extreme difficulty of convincing other minds in such matters.  He seems to have been unconsciously influenced in this case by a desire to give more support to a very ingenious etymology of the word dream.  His process of reasoning may be briefly stated thus:  draff and dregs are refuse, they are things thrown away, sometimes (as in German dreck, sordes) they are even disgustful; and as there is no expression of contempt and disgust so strong as spitting, the sound rac transferred itself by a natural association of ideas from the act to the object of it.  He cites Du. drabbe, Dan. drav, Ger. traebern, Icel. dregg, Prov. draco, Ger., Du. dreck, O. F. drache, dreche, (and he might have added E. trash,) E. dross, all with nearly the same meaning.  We have selected such as would show the different forms of the word.  To the same radical Mr. Wedgwood refers G. truejen, betruegen, and this would carry with it our English trick (Prov. tric, in Diez, Fr. triche).  In our opinion he is wrong, doubly wrong, inasmuch as we think he has confounded two widely different roots.  He has taken his O. Fr. forms from Roquefort (Gloss.  Rom.  I. 411,) but has omitted one of his definitions, coque qui enveloope le grain, that is, the husk, or hull.  Mr. Wedgwood might perhaps found an argument on this in support of our old friend Rac and his relation to huskiness; but it seems to us one of those trifles, the turned leaf, or broken twig, that put one on the right trail.  We accept Mr. Wedgwood’s derivative signification of refuse, worthless, contemptible, and ask if all these terms do not apply equally well to the chaff of the threshing-floor?  It is more satisfactory to us, then, to attribute a part of the words given above to the Gothic dragan, (L. trahere, G. tragen,) to drag, to draw, and a part to Goth. thriskan, to thresh.  The conjecture of Diez, (cited by Diefenbach,) that the Italian trescare (to stamp with the feet, to dance) should be referred to the same root, is confirmed by the ancient practice of threshing grain