original humbugs

hû`mbûg

1. n fraud, sham; deception; impostor.
2. kind of hard boiled black-and-white stripped
sweetmeat usually flavoured with peppermint;
any of various similarly patterned fishes.
3. v.t. delude (person into, out of, thing or doing).
4. v.i. be, behave like an impostor.
5. Hence ~gery [18th C of unknown origin]