74 4. Harsh days and ill-clad men, the hag of Mapsfcown used to say, so eager was she to get the people's labour (i.e., to get the work out of them). 6. The night is two-thirds of illness (i.e., the night is the more trying time to sick people). 7. Three meals of nettles in March, you need not fear illness of head or foot till a year's end. poc rinni]^, a short fit of illness that lasts no more than a day. 8. Drawing towards eternity. In the storm of death. In the throes of death. 9. bnut, a mass of molten metal. Here, the scum on the surface of boiled milk. 10. " If a drop of boiling (boiled) water were to fall on your arm — may evil be far from us — and if a blister were not to come upon it (lit., * and that a blister were not to rise '), it would be scalded." UuAT)--oói5T:e, scorched. The ai^i after clog refers to the part of the arm on which the water fell. 11. ihe water which boils away is conceived as being absorbed by the pot. However, j-úi^ce can be translated " evaporated." 12. "A look (f illeA-ó) satisfies." 13. ScAtTiAX), incorrectly fcút, noun or verb, "a peel, a piece of loose flesh," " to unwind, ravel, get undone." 14. " The place of his killing was not there," i.e., he did not stand on the spot which would have marked him for death. So, too, certain places are supposed to predestine to hunger, or error. The expressions may be regarded as a slightly more picturesque way of saying tii |iAib An bÁf i n-oÁn -oó, " death (hunger, etc.) was not in destiny for him." 15. The Af after x)eijnAiTi is said by Dr. Henebry to be in imitation of the *' out " in " to make out a living." *Oo c«|i, applied to mone}', means "to invest." "They say the cat three times in the night meditates killing someone," a way of saying that the cat is not fully domesticated. 19. It is plain that there is ever so much more of this child's song than I give. All the details of woman's work, we may sup- pose, are mentioned in the complete version. Note that tiÁ is used instead of no. The idea is negative, the sentence being equivalent to "there is no one to do this thing nor that thing for you." [nÁ because a question is asked. — De H.] So, too, in a Connaught song we find CA-oé ah ét^reAcc r|uu|t tiÁ ceAipA? i.e., equivalently, " neither three nor four would matter," For further information see JaIka iia C. 73, 3G. 21. " Woe on him who lets a fine day go because of a wet morning." nio)t -ÓA-OA teif, "he would have thought nothing of." The explanations in some of these pieces may not appear very easy to the learner. This is due to their distinctive
