Montagnards & 9 yards proposal

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Douglas G. Wilson wrote: "This etymology has been proposed before." If
>this is a claim about the etymology involving nine tribes of Montagnards,
>please provide a citation.

Excuse me, I thought it was "whole nine 'Yards" which was being proposed as
the ancestral expression. If the proposal involves "whole nine 'Yard
tribes" or something like that, I'm not sure whether I've seen it before or
not. I've seen a bunch of hypotheses ... and I've even developed a few of
my own.

Let me ask again: does anybody know of any pre-1970 non-"Doom Pussy" citations?

-- Doug Wilson