Interesting quote, PMB - thanks for the info. Looks like they'd forgotten more than I would have expected then. (Although confusion of Amerindians and Indian Indians is not unexpected, given that Columbus thought he'd hit India.)

Re the name Othello, I guess it's also perfectly possible we're all barking up the wrong tree. Like asking George Lucas what the etymology for "Chewbacca" was. ;-)

Snail, if you never got past that opening line, you saved yourself an exercise in boredom. Hospitals could use that book as an anaesthetic - and if it doesn't put the patients to sleep straight away, get out the hardback version to club them over the head with hundreds of pages of wasted words.

Graham.