A VARIETY OF PHRASES.
Among fireside amusements propounding riddles was very general sixty or
seventy years ago. This is a custom that has existed in Ireland from very
early times, as the reader may see by looking at my 'Old Celtic Romances,'
pp. 69, 186, 187, where he will find some characteristic ancient Irish
ones. And we know that it was common among other ancient nations. I have a
number of our modern Irish riddles, many in my memory, and some supplied to
me from Wexford by Mr. Patrick J. MacCall of Dublin, who knows Wexford
well. Some are easy enough: but there are others that might defy the Witch
of Endor to answer them. They hardly come within my scope, but I will give
a few examples. {186}
A steel grey with a flaxen tail and a brass boy driving. Answer: needle and
thread; thimble.
Little Jennie Whiteface has a red nose,
The longer she lives the shorter she grows.
Answer: a lighted candle.
A man without eyes
Went out to view the skies,
He saw a tree with apples on:
He took no apples,
He ate no apples,
And still he left no apples on.
Answer: a one-eyed man: the tree had two apples: he took one.
Long legs, crooked thighs, little head, no eyes. Answer: a tongs.
Ink-ank under a bank ten drawing four. Answer: a girl milking a cow.
Four-and-twenty white bulls tied in a stall:
In comes a red bull and over licks them all.
Answer: teeth and tongue.
These are perhaps not very hard, though not quite so easy as the Sphinx's
riddle to the Thebans, which Oedipus answered to his immortal renown. But I
should like to see Oedipus try his hand at the following. Samson's riddle
about the bees is hard enough, but ours beats it hollow. Though Solomon
solved all the puzzles propounded to him by the Queen of Sheba, I think
this would put him to the pin of his collar. I learned it in Limerick two
generations ago; and I have got a Wexford version from Mr. MacCall. Observe
the delightful inconsequence of riddle and answer. {187}
Riddle me, riddle me right:
What did I see last night?
The wind blew,
The cock crew,
The bells of heaven
Struck eleven.
'Tis time for my poor _sowl_ to go to heaven.
Answer: the fox burying his mother under a holly tree.
To a person who begins his dinner without saying grace: 'You begin your
meal like a fox': for a fox never says grace. A fox once ran off with a
cock--neck in mouth--to make a meal of him. Just as he was about to fall
to, the cock said--'Won't you thank God?' So the fox opened his mouth to
say grace, and the cock escaped and flew up into a tree. On which the fox
swore he'd never more say grace or any other prayer. (From Clare: Healy.)
In depreciation of a person's honour: 'Your honour and goat's wool would
make good stockings': i.e. your honour is as far from true honour as goat's
hair is from wool.
'For the life of me' I can't see why you vex yourself for so small a
matter.
Of a pair of well-matched bad men:--'They might lick thumbs.' Also 'A pity
to spoil two houses with them.' (Moran: Carlow.)
A person is said to be 'belled through the parish' when some discreditable
report concerning him has gone about in the neighbourhood. The allusion is
to a bellman announcing something to the public. (Moran: Carlow.) {188}
A person addresses some abusive and offensive words to another, who replies
'Talk away: _your tongue is no scandal_.' The meaning is, 'You are so well
known for the foulness of your tongue that no one will pay any attention to
you when you are speaking evil of another.' (Moran: Carlow.)
'Come and have a drink,' said the dragoon. 'I don't take anything; _thank
you all the same_,' replied Billy Heffernan. (Knocknagow.) Very general
everywhere in Ireland.
Regarding a person in consumption:--
March will _sarch_ [search],
April will try,
May will see
Whether you'll live or die.
(MACCALL: Wexford.)
When a man inherits some failing from his parents, 'He didn't catch it in
the wind'--'It wasn't off the wind he took it.' (Moran: Carlow.)
When a man declines to talk with or discuss matters with another, he says
'I owe you no discourse'--used in a more or less offensive sense--and heard
all through Ireland.
When a person shows himself very cute and clever another says to him 'Who
let you out?'--an ironical expression of fun: as much as to say that he
must have been confined in an asylum as a confirmed fool. (Moran: Carlow.)
When a person for any reason feels elated, he says 'I wouldn't call the
king my uncle.' ('Knocknagow'; but heard everywhere in Ireland.)
When a person who is kind enough while he is with {189} you grows careless
about you once he goes away:--'Out of sight out of mind.'
To go _with your finger in your mouth_ is to go on a fool's errand, to go
without exactly knowing why you are going--without knowing particulars.
When a person singing a song has to stop up because he forgets the next
verse, he says (mostly in joke) 'there's a hole in the ballad'--throwing
the blame on the old ballad sheet on which the words were imperfect on
account of a big hole.
Searching for some small article where it is hard to find it among a lot of
other things is 'looking for a needle in a bundle of straw.'
When a mistake or any circumstance that entails loss or trouble is
irreparable--'there's no help for spilt milk.'
Seventy or eighty years ago the accomplishments of an Irishman should be:
To smoke his dudheen,
To drink his cruiskeen,
To flourish his alpeen,
To wallop a spalpeen.
(MACCALL: Wexford.)
It is reported about that Tom Fox stole Dick Finn's sheep: but he didn't.
Driven to desperation by the false report, Tom now really steals one, and
says:--'As I have the name of it, I may as well have the gain of it.'
A person is told of some extraordinary occurrence and exclaims--'Well such
a thing as that was never before heard of _since Adam was a boy_.' This
last expression is very general.
The Chairman of the Banbridge Board of Guardians {190} lately asked a tramp
what was his occupation: to which the fellow--cancelling his impudence by
his drollery--replied:--'I'm a hailstone maker out of work owing to the
want of snow.'
My partner in any business has acted against my advice and has persisted,
notwithstanding my repeated friendly remonstrances, till at last he brings
failure and discredit. Yet when the trial comes I _stand black for him_;
i.e. I act loyally towards him--I defend him: I take my share of the blame,
and never give the least hint that the failure is all his doing. _Standing
black_ often heard.
'He's not all there,' i.e. he is a little daft, a little _cracked_,
weak-minded, foolish, has a slight touch of insanity: 'there's a slate
off,' 'he has a bee in his bonnet' (Scotch): 'he wants a square' (this last
Old English).
A man gets into an angry fit and you take no trouble to pacify him:--'Let
him cool in the skin he heated in.' (Moran: Carlow.)
A person asks me for money: I give him all I have, which is less than he
asked for:--'That is all [the corn] there's threshed.' (Moran: Carlow.)
A man with a very thin face 'could kiss a goat between the horns.' (Moran:
Carlow.)
'Never put a tooth on it': an invitation to speak out plainly, whatever the
consequences.
A woman giving evidence at Drumcondra Petty Sessions last year says 'I was
born and reared in Finglas, and there isn't one--man or woman--that dare
say _black was the white of my eye_': that is, no one could allege any
wrong-doing against her. Heard everywhere in Ireland. {191}
A man who is going backwards or down the hill in circumstances is said to
be 'going after his back.' The sense is obvious. (Moran: Wexford.)
'Come day go day God send Sunday,' applied to an easy-going idle
good-for-nothing person, who never looks to the future.
When a person is asked about something of which for some reason he does not
wish to speak, he says 'Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.'
(General.)
A man who is of opinion that his friend has bought a cow too dear says 'You
bought every hair in her tail.'
To a person everlastingly talking:--'Give your tongue a holiday.'
He always visits us _of a Saturday_. Halliwell says this is common in
several English dialects. (Rev. Wm. Burke.)
Johnny Dunn, a job gardener of Dublin, being asked about his young wife,
who was living apart from him:--'Oh she's just doing nothing, but walking
about town with a _mug of consequence_ on her.'
'I'm blue-moulded for want of a beating,' says a fellow who pretends to be
anxious for a fight, but can find no one to fight with him.
A whistling woman and a crowing hen
Will make a man wealthy but deer knows when.
(Moran: Carlow.)
The people have an almost superstitious dislike for both: they are
considered unlucky.
'I'll make him scratch where he doesn't itch': meaning I'll punish him
sorely in some way. (Moran: Carlow.) {192}
When flinging an abusive epithet at a person, 'you' is often put in twice,
first as an opening tip, and last as a finishing home blow:--'What else
could I expect from your like, _you unnatural vagabone, you_!'
'I'm afraid he turns up his little finger too often'; i.e.--he is given to
drink: alluding to the position of the hand when a person is taking a
glass.
My neighbour Jack Donovan asked me one day,
How many strawberries grew in the _say_;
I made him an answer as well as I could,
As many red herrings as grew in the wood.
When a person is obliged to utter anything bordering on coarseness, he
always adds, by way of a sort of apology, 'saving your presence': or 'with
respect to you.'
Small trifling things are expressed by a variety of words:--'Those sausages
are not worth a _mallamadee_': 'I don't care a _traneen_ what he says': 'I
don't care two rows of pins.'
To be rid of a person or thing is expressed by 'I got shut of him,' or 'I
am done of it.' (Limerick.)
'How did you travel to town?' 'Oh I went _on shanks' mare_:' i.e. I walked.
'His bread is baked'; i.e. he is doomed to die soon. (See p. 109 bottom.)
Banagher is a village in King's Co. on the Shannon: Ballinasloe is a town
in Galway at the other side of the river. When anything very unusual or
unexpected occurs, the people say,'Well that bangs Banagher!' or 'that
bangs Banagher and Ballinasloe!'
'Have you got a shilling to spare for a friend?' 'Indeed I have not.' 'Ah
you must give it to me; it {193} is for your cousin Tom.' 'Oh, _that's a
horse of another colour_.' (So he gives it.)
'_Well done mother!_' says the blacksmith when the tooth was out. This is
how it was pulled. He tied one end of a strong string round the tooth, and
the other end to the horn of the anvil, and made the old woman keep back
her head so as to tighten the string. '_Asy_ now mother,' says he. Then
taking the flaming horseshoe from the fire with the tongs he suddenly
thrust it towards her face. Anyone can finish the story.
If she catches you she'll _comb your hair with the creepy stool_: i.e.
she'll whack and beat you with it. (Ulster.)
They say pigs can see the wind, and that it is red. In very old times the
Irish believed that there were twelve different winds with twelve colours.
(For these see my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' p. 527.) The people
also will tell you that a pig will swim till the water cuts its throat.
Ah, I see you want _to walk up my sleeve_: i.e. you want to deceive me--_to
take me in_. (Kerry.)
An expression often heard in the South:--Such and such a thing will happen
now and then _if you were to put your eyes on sticks_; i.e. however
watchful you may be. 'Well, if I was to put my eyes upon sticks, Misther
Mann, I never would know your sister again.' (Gerald Griffin.)
He _is down in the mouth_, i.e. he is in low spirits. I suppose this is
from the dropping down of the corners of the mouth.
To scold a person--to reprimand him--to give him a good 'setting down'--to
give him 'all sorts'--to give him 'the rough side of your tongue.' {194}
Anything that cheers you up 'takes the cockles off your heart': 'Here drink
this [glass of punch, wine, &c.] and 'twill take the cockles off your
heart.' 'It raises the very cockles o' my heart to see you.'
('Collegians.') ''Twould rise the cockles av your heart to hear her singing
the Coolin.' ('Knocknagow.') Probably the origin is this:--Cares and
troubles clog the heart as cockles clog a ship.
Instead of 'No blame to you' or 'Small blame to you,' the people often say,
''Tis a stepmother would blame you.'
'Cut your stick, now,' 'cut away'; both mean _go away_: the idea being that
you want a walking stick and that it is time for you to cut it.
'I hear William is out of his situation.' 'Yes indeed, that is true.' 'And
how is he living?' 'I don't know; I suppose he's living _on the fat of his
guts_': meaning he is living on whatever he has saved. But it is sometimes
used in the direct sense. Poor old Hill, while his shop prospered, had an
immense paunch, but he became poor and had to live on poor food and little
of it, so that the belly got flat; and the people used to say--he's living
now on the fat of his guts, poor old fellow.
Tom Hogan is managing his farm in a way likely to bring him to poverty, and
Phil Lahy says to him--'Tom, you'll scratch a beggarman's back yet':
meaning that Tom will himself be the beggarman. ('Knocknagow.') Common all
over Munster.
The people have a gentle laudable habit of mixing up sacred names and pious
phrases with their ordinary conversation, in a purely reverential spirit.
This is one of the many peculiarities of Anglo-Irish {195} speech derived
from the Irish language: for pious expressions pervaded Irish to its very
heart, of which the people lost a large part when they ceased to speak the
language. Yet it continues very prevalent among our English-speaking
people; and nearly all the expressions they use are direct translations
from Irish.
'I hear there is a mad dog running about the town.' 'Oh do you tell me
so--the Lord between us and harm!' or 'the Lord preserve us!' both very
common exclamations in case of danger.
Sudden news is brought about something serious happening to a neighbour,
and the people say:--'Oh, God bless the hearers,' or 'God bless the mark.'
This last is however generally used in derision. John Cox, a notorious
schemer and miser, 'has put down his name for L20 for a charity--God bless
the mark!' an intimation that the L20 will never be heard of again.
When a person goes away for ever or dies, the friends and people say 'God
be with him,' a very beautiful expression, as it is the concentration of
human affection and regret, and also a prayer. It is merely the translation
of the Irish _Dia leis_, which has forms for all the three persons and two
genders:--'with her,' 'with you, 'with them,' &c.
Under any discouraging or distressing circumstances, the expressions 'God
help me' and 'God help us' are continually in the mouths of the people.
They are merely translations of _go bh-foireadh Dia orruinn_, &c.
Similarly, expressions of pity for another such as 'That poor woman is in
great trouble, God help her,' are translations. {196}
In Dublin, Roman Catholics when passing a Catholic church (or 'chapel')
remove the hat or cap for a moment as a mark of respect, and usually utter
a short aspiration or prayer under breath. This custom is I think
spreading.
When one expresses his intention to do anything even moderately important,
he always adds 'please God.' Even in our English speech this is of old
standing. During the Irish wars of Elizabeth, it was told to an Irish chief
that one of the English captains had stated he would take such and such a
castle, when the chief retorted, 'Oh yes, but did he say _please God_': as
much as to say, 'yes if God pleases, but not otherwise.'
'This sickness kept me from Mass for a long time; but _with the help of
God_, I'll venture next Sunday.' 'Yes, poor Kitty is in great danger, but
_with the help of God_ she will pull through.'
'I am afraid that poor Nellie will die after that accident.' 'Oh, God
forbid,' is the response.
People have a pleasing habit of applying the word _blessed_ [2-syll.] to
many natural objects, to days, nights, &c. 'Well, you have teased me
terribly the whole of this blessed day--you young vagabone.'
'Were it not that full of sorrow from my people forth I go,
By the blessed sun 'tis royally I'd sing thy praise Mayo.'
Translation of Irish Song on 'The County Mayo.'
A mother says to her mischievous child, 'Oh blessed hour, what am I to do
with you at all at all!'
'Oh we're in a precious plight
By your means this blessed night.'
(Repeal Song of 1843.)
{197}
'God help me this blessed night.' ('Mun Carberry and the Pooka' by Robert
Dwyer Joyce.)
A man is on the verge of ruin, or in some other great trouble, and the
neighbours will say, 'the Lord will open a gap for him': meaning God will
find some means of extricating him. Father Higgins, who sent me this, truly
remarks:--'This is a fine expressive phrase showing the poetical
temperament of our people, and their religious spirit too.'
When anything happens very much out of the common:--'Glory be to God, isn't
that wonderful.'
At the mention of the name of a person that is dead, the Roman Catholic
people invariably utter the little prayer 'God rest his soul' or 'the Lord
have mercy on him.'
The people thank God for everything, whatever it may be His will to send,
good or bad. 'Isn't this a beautiful day, Mike.' ''Tis indeed, thank God.'
'This is a terrible wet day, William, and very bad for the crops.' 'It is
indeed Tom, thanks be to God for all: He knows best.'
As might be expected where expressions of this kind are so constantly in
the people's mouths, it happens occasionally that they come in rather
awkwardly. Little Kitty, running in from the dairy with the eyes starting
out of her head, says to her mother who is talking to a neighbour in the
kitchen: 'Oh, mother, mother, I saw a terrible thing in the cream.' 'Ah,
never mind, child,' says the mother, suspecting the truth and anxious to
hush it up, 'it's nothing but the grace of God.' 'Oh but mother, sure the
grace of God hasn't a long tail.'
The following story was current when I was a {198} child, long before
Charles Kickham wrote 'Knocknagow,' in which he tells the story too: but I
will give it in his words. A station is held at Maurice Kearney's, where
the family and servants and the neighbours go to Confession and receive
Holy Communion: among the rest Barney Broderick the stable boy. After all
was over, Father MacMahon's driver provokes and insults Barney, who is kept
back, and keeps himself back with difficulty from falling on him and
'knocking his two eyes into one' and afterwards 'breaking every tooth in
his head.' 'Damn well the _blagard_ knows,' exclaims Barney, 'that I'm in a
state of grace to-day. But'--he continued, shaking his fist at the
fellow--'but, please God I won't be in a state of grace always.'
When a person is smooth-tongued, meek-looking, over civil, and deceitful,
he is _plauzy_ [plausible], 'as mild as ever on stirabout smiled.' 'Oh she
is sly enough; she looks as if _butter wouldn't melt in her mouth_.'
(Charles Macklin--an Irish writer--in _The Man of the World_.) This last
expression of Macklin's is heard everywhere here.
A person is in some sore fix, or there is trouble before him: 'I wouldn't
like to be _in his shoes_ just now.'
A person falls in for some piece of good fortune:--'Oh you're _made up_,
John: you're a _med_ man; you're _on the pig's back_ now.'
In a house where the wife is master--the husband henpecked:--'the grey mare
is the better horse.' (General.)
He got the father of a beating; i.e. a great beating. {199}
'How did poor Jack get that mark on his face?' 'Oh he fell over his
shadow': meaning he fell while he was drunk.
A good dancer 'handles his feet well.' (MacCall: Wexford.)
A pensioner, a loafer, or anyone that has nothing to do but walk about, is
_an inspector of public buildings_.
Those who leave Ireland commonly become all the more attached to it: they
get to love _the old sod_ all the more intensely. A poor old woman was
dying in Liverpool, and Father O'Neill came and administered the last
sacraments. He noticed that she still hesitated as if she wished to say
something more; and after some encouragement she at length said:--'Well,
father, I only wanted to ask you, _will my soul pass through Ireland on its
journey?_' ('Knocknagow.') According to a religious legend in 'The Second
Vision of Adamnan' the soul, on parting from the body, visits four places
before setting out for its final destination:--the place of birth, the
place of death, the place of baptism, and the place of burial. So this poor
old woman got her wish.
'Well, I don't like to say anything bad about you; and as for the other
side, _the less I praise you the less I lie_.' (North.)
There is a touch of heredity in this:--'You're nothing but a schemer like
your seven generations before you.' (Kildare.)
'Oh you need not be afraid: I'll call only very seldom henceforward.'
Reply:--'The seldomer the welcomer.' {200}
'Never dread the winter till the snow is on the blanket': i.e. as long as
you have a roof over your head. An allusion to the misery of those poor
people--numerous enough in the evil days of past times--who were evicted
from house and home. (P. Reilly: Kildare.)
Of a lucky man:--'That man's ducks are laying.'
When a baby is born, the previous baby's 'nose is out of joint.' Said also
of a young man who is supplanted by another in courtship.
A man who supplants another in any pursuit or design is said to 'come
inside him.'
A person is speaking bitterly or uncharitably of one who is dead; and
another says reprovingly--'let the dead rest.'
When it is proposed to give a person something he doesn't need or something
much too good for him, you oppose or refuse it by saying:--'_Cock him up
with it_--how much he wants it!--I'll do no such thing.' Two gentlemen
staying for a night in a small hotel in a remote country town ordered toast
for breakfast, which it seems was very unusual there. They sat down to
breakfast, but there was no sign of the toast. 'What about the toast?' asks
one. Whereupon the impudent waiter replies--'Ah, then cock yez up with
toast: how bad yez are for it.'
A very general form of expression to point to a person's identity in a very
vague way is seen in the following example:--'From whom did you buy that
horse, James?' Reply:--'From _a man of the Burkes_ living over there in
Ballinvreena': i.e. a man named Burke. Mr. Seumas MacManus has adopted
{201} this idiom in the name of one of his books:--'A Lad of the O'Friels.'
'I never saw the froth of your pot or the bead of your naggin': i.e. you
have never entertained me. _Bead_, the string of little bubbles that rise
when you shake whiskey in a bottle. (Kildare.)
Of a man likely to die: 'he'll soon be a load for four': i.e. the four
coffin-bearers. (Reilly: Kildare.)
When a person attempts to correct you when you are not in error:--'Don't
take me up till I fall.'
When you make a good attempt:--'If I didn't knock it down, I staggered it.'
'Love daddy, love mammy, love yourself best.' Said of a very selfish
person.
An odd expression:--'You are making such noise that _I can't hear my
ears_.' (Derry; and also Limerick.)
Plato to a young man who asked his advice about getting married:--'If you
don't get married you'll be sorry: and if you do you'll be sorry.'
Our Irish cynic is more bitter:--
If a man doesn't marry he'll rue it sore:
And if he gets married he'll rue it more.
The children were great pets with their grandmother: 'She wouldn't let
anyone _look crooked_ at them': i.e. she wouldn't permit the least
unkindness.
'Can he read a Latin book?' 'Read one! why, he can write Latin books, _let
alone_ reading them.' _Let alone_ in this sense very common all over
Ireland.
A person offers to do you some kindness, and you accept it jokingly with
'Sweet is your hand in a pitcher of honey.' (Crofton Croker.) {202}
When a man falls into error, not very serious or criminal--gets drunk
accidentally for instance--the people will say, by way of
extenuation:--''Tis a good man's case.'
You may be sure Tim will be at the fair to-morrow, _dead or alive or
a-horseback_.
'You never spoke but you said something': said to a person who makes a
silly remark or gives foolish advice. (Kinahan).
'He will never comb a grey hair': said of a young person who looks
unhealthy and is likely to die early.
Two persons had an angry dispute; and _one word borrowed another_ till at
last they came to blows. Heard everywhere in Ireland.
The robin and the wren are God's cock and hen.
'I'll take the book _and no thanks to you_,' i.e. I'll take it in spite of
you, whether you like or no, against your will--'I'll take it in spite of
your teeth'--'in spite of your nose': all very common.
A person arrives barely in time for his purpose or to fulfil his
engagement:--'You have just saved your distance.'
To _put a person off the walk_ means to kill him, to remove him in some
way. (Meath.)
A man has had a long fit of illness, and the wife, telling about it,
says:--'For six weeks coal nor candle never went out.' (Antrim.)
'To cure a person's hiccup' means to make him submit, to bring him to his
senses, to make him acknowledge his error, by some decided course of
action. A shopkeeper goes to a customer for payment of a debt, and gets no
satisfaction, but, on the {203} contrary, impudence. 'Oh well, I'll send
you an attorney's letter to-morrow, and may be that will cure your hiccup.'
The origin of this expression is the general belief through Ireland that a
troublesome fit of hiccup may be cured by suddenly making some very
startling and alarming announcement to the person--an announcement in which
he is deeply concerned: such as that the stacks in the haggard are on
fire--that three of his cows have just been drowned, &c. Fiachra MacBrady,
a schoolmaster and poet, of Stradone in Cavan (1712), wrote a humorous
description of his travels through Ireland of which the translation has
this verse:--
'I drank till quite mellow, then like a brave fellow,
Began for to bellow and shouted for more;
But my host held his stick up, which soon _cured my hiccup_,
As no cash I could pick up to pay off the score.'
The host was the publican, and the stick that he held up was the tally
stick on which were marked in nicks all the drinks poor MacBrady had
taken--a usual way of keeping accounts in old times. The sight of the
_score_ brought him to his senses at once--_cured his hiccup_.
A verse of which the following is a type is very often found in our
Anglo-Irish songs:--
'The flowers in those valleys no more shall spring,
The blackbirds and thrushes no more shall sing,
The sea shall dry up and no water shall be,
At the hour I'll prove false to sweet graw-mochree.'
So in Scotland:--'I will luve thee still, my dear, till a' the seas gang
dry.' (Burns.)
A warning sometimes given to a messenger:--'Now don't forget it like Billy
and the pepper': This {204} is the story of Billy and the pepper. A gander
got killed accidentally; and as the family hardly ever tasted meat, there
was to be a great treat that day. To top the grandeur they sent little
Billy to town for a pennyworth of pepper. But Billy forgot the name, and
only remembered that it was something hot; so he asked the shopman for a
penn'orth of _hot-thing_. The man couldn't make head or tail of the
_hot-thing_, so he questioned Billy. Is it mustard? No. Is it ginger? No.
Is it pepper? Oh that's just it--_gandher's pepper_.
A man has done me some intentional injury, and I say to him, using a very
common phrase:--'Oh, well, wait; _I'll pay you off_ for that': meaning
'I'll punish you for it--I'll have satisfaction.'
_Dry_ for _thirsty_ is an old English usage; for in Middleton's Plays it is
found used in this sense. (Lowell.) It is almost universal in Ireland,
where of course it survives from old English. There is an old Irish air and
song called 'I think it no treason to drink when I'm _dry_': and in another
old Folk Song we find this couplet:
'There was an old soldier riding by,
He called for a quart because he was _dry_.'
Instances of the odd perversion of sense by misplacing some little clause
are common in all countries: and I will give here just one that came under
my own observation. A young friend, a boy, had remained away an unusually
long time without visiting us; and on being asked the reason he
replied:--'I could not come, sir; I got a bite in the leg of dog'--an
example which I think is unique. {205}
On the first appearance of the new moon, a number of children linked hands
and danced, keeping time to the following verse--
I see the moon, the moon sees me,
God bless the moon and God bless me:
There's grace in the cottage and grace in the hall;
And the grace of God is over us all.
For the air to which this was sung see my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,'
p. 60.
'Do you really mean to drive that horse of William's to pound?' 'Certainly
I will.' 'Oh very well; let ye take what you'll get.' Meaning you are
likely to pay dear for it--you may take the consequences. (Ulster.)
'If he tries to remove that stone without any help _it will take him all
his time_': it will require his utmost exertions. (Ulster: very common.)
When rain is badly wanted and often threatens but still doesn't come they
say:--'It has great _hould_ [hold] of the rain.' On the other hand when
there is long continued wet weather:--'It is very fond of the rain.'
When flakes of snow begin to fall:--'They are plucking the geese in
Connaught.' 'Formerly in all the congested districts of Ireland [which are
more common in Connaught than elsewhere] goose and duck feathers formed one
of the largest industries.' (Kinahan.)
Now James you should put down your name for more than 5s.: there's Tom
Gallagher, not half so well off as you, _put the shame on you_ by
subscribing L1. (Kinahan: pretty general.) {206}
In stories 'a day' is often added on to a period of time, especially to a
year. A person is banished out of Ireland for a year and a day.
The battle of Ventry Harbour lasted for a year and a day, when at last the
foreigners were defeated.
There's a colleen fair as May,
For a year and for a day
I have sought by ev'ry way
Her heart to gain.
(PETRIE.)
'Billy MacDaniel,' said the fairy, 'you shall be my servant for seven years
and a day.' (Crofton Croker.) Borrowed from the Irish.
The word _all_ is often used by our rustic poets exactly as it is found in
English folk-songs. Gay has happily imitated this popular usage in
'Black-eyed Susan':--
'All in the Downs the fleet was moored'--
and Scott in 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel':--
'All as they left the listed plain.'
Any number of examples might be given from our peasant songs, but these two
will be sufficient:--
'As I roved out one evening two miles below Pomeroy
I met a farmer's daughter _all on_ the mountains high.'
'How a young lady's heart was won
_All by_ the loving of a farmer's son.'
(The two lovely airs of these will be found in two of my books: for the
first, see 'The Mountains high' in 'Ancient Irish Music'; and for the
second {207} see 'Handsome Sally' in 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs.')
'He saw her on that day, and _never laid eyes on her_ alive afterwards.'
(Speech of Irish counsel in murder case: 1909.) A common expression.
A wish for success either in life or in some particular undertaking--purely
figurative of course:--'That the road may rise under you.' As the road
continually rises under foot there is always an easy down hill in front.
(Kerry.)
Regarding some proposal or offer:--'I never said against it'; i.e. I never
disapproved of it--declined it--refused it.
Be said by me: i.e. take my advice. (General.)
When a cart-wheel screeches because the axle-tree has not been greased, it
is _cursing for grease_. (Munster.)
When a person wishes to keep out from another--to avoid argument or
conflict, he says:--'The child's bargain--let me alone and I'll let you
alone.'
When a person goes to law expenses trying to recover a debt which it is
very unlikely he will recover, that is 'throwing good money after bad.'
'I'm the second tallest man in Mitchelstown'--or 'I'm the next tallest.'
Both mean 'there is just one other man in Mitchelstown taller than me, and
I come next to him.'
'Your honour.' Old English: very common as a term of courtesy in the time
of Elizabeth, and to be met with everywhere in the State papers and
correspondence of that period. Used now all through Ireland by the
peasantry when addressing persons very much above them. {208}
_The cabman's answer._ I am indebted to this cabman for giving me an
opportunity of saying something here about myself. It is quite a common
thing for people to write to me for information that they could easily find
in my books: and this is especially the case in connexion with Irish
place-names. I have always made it a point to reply to these
communications. But of late they have become embarrassingly numerous, while
my time is getting more circumscribed with every year of my long life. Now,
this is to give notice to _all the world and Garrett Reilly_ that
henceforward I will give these good people the reply that the Dublin cabman
gave the lady. 'Please, sir,' said she, 'will you kindly tell me the
shortest way to St. Patrick's Cathedral.' He opened the door of his cab
with his left hand, and pointing in with the forefinger of his right,
answered--'In there ma'am.' {209}
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