Welsh rarebit bread and butter and occasionally with the vinegar from pickled beetroot. The word "Welsh" may have been adopted because it carries a now-archaic sense in English to mean "foreign, non-native" - an etymological phenomenon seen in its ultimate ancestor, the Proto-Germanic "walhaz" ("foreigner") and many of its descendants like the dated sense of German (Romance-speaker). It is also possible that the dish was attributed to the Welsh because they were considered particularly fond of cheese, as evidenced by Andrew Boorde in his "Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge" (1542), when he wrote "I am a Welshman, I do love
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) (particularly the pool of tears scene, which seems related to the flood of sweat in one early "Rarebit Fiend" strip), and a variety of dream cartoons and illustrations that appeared in various periodicals McCay was likely familiar with. The most probable immediate influence on the strip was "Welsh Rarebit Tales" (1902) by Harle Oren Cummins. Cummins stated he drew inspiration for this collection of 15 science fiction stories from nightmares brought on by eating Welsh rarebit and lobster—making further likely the influence, as several post-"Herald" strips from 1911 and 1912 were titled "Dream