Blest ef I don't think ef a sperrit was to knack at the front door, he'd tell 'un to wipe hes feet 'pon the mat, an' make hissel' at home.

Well, well, seein's believin', as Tommy said when he spied Noah's Ark i' the peep-show." Footnote, Chapter XVII [1] I cannot forbear to add a note on this eminently Trojan word.

In the fifteenth century, so high was the spirit of the Trojan sea-captains, and so heavy the toll of black-mail they levied on ships of other ports, that King Edward IV sent poursuivant after poursuivant to threaten his displeasure.
The messengers had their ears slit for their pains; and "poursuivanting" or "pussivanting" survives as a term for ineffective bustle..