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I.
66.
Stones are the beginning of a kiln,
Welcome is the beginning of a prince,
Sleep is the beginning of health.
II.
The end of a ship is drowning,
The end of a kiln is burning,
The end of a prince is disparagement,
The end of health is sighing.
67. The short way for the food. and round-about for the work.
68. Long fasting and want of the shoes make the young old.
69. Each hero is got gratis (that is, in the long run).
70. If good, it will be praised.
71. If I am yellow, I have a bright heart.
72. If the housewife is sick, she did not lose her appetite.
73. If you are not in the eating-house, be in the next to it.
74. Idleness is the desire of a fool.
75. A stammering or dumb priest gets no living (parish).
76. A lucky man has only to be born.
77. When the cat is out the mouse dances.
78. Necessity forces a hag to run.
79. When a person thinks himself nice (or well-off), it is then he is a market plaything.
(To be continued.)
NOTES ON IRISH ETYMOLOGY.
By Tomás ó Flannaoile.
I. Earraċ, saṁraḋ, foġṁar, geiṁreaḋ.
It is pretty certain that the ancient pagan Irish reckoned at first but two seasons in their year—summer and winter Not to mention other authorities, the Harleian MS. (British Museum), H.I.B. 5280, p.38—quoted by O’Donovan in the Introduction to his edition of the “Book of Rights”—gives the following: “Ar is dé roinn no bid for in m-pliadain and .i. in samrad ó Beiltine co Samain, acus in geimred ó Samain co Beltine,” i.e., for it is two divisions used to be on the year then, namely, the summer from May to November, and the winter from November to May. We know too that other ancient nations recognised but two seasons in the year. In the Bible only two seasons are mentioned, summer and winter, and in many languages to this day the expression ‘summer and winter’ is popularly used for ‘the whole year.’
The oldest and simplest Irish names for these two seasons were sam=summer, and gam=winter. In later times the compounds sam-rad=‘summer-part,’ and gem-red=‘winter part,’ became more usual in Ireland. They are the forms used in the extract given above, and it is from them that we have saṁraḋ and geiṁreaḋ, the present Irish names for summer and winter respectively. The original simple names, however, survived for a long time after the fuller compound forms came into use. These primitive words, sam and gam, also belonged originally to the Cymric Celts. and they are substantially the forms still used in Welsh for the names of the two chief seasons. They have, however, suffered more change in Welsh than they suffered in Irish, for instead of sam and gam, or even samh and gamh, the Welsh say and write hâfand gauaf.[1] The f in these words sounds as English v; and represents the aspirated m, which we express by ṁ or mh. Initial S in most Celtic words has been preserved in Irish, but became permanently changed to h in Welsh at an early period—though there is evidence to show that the change occurred later than the Christian era. Thus, our salann (salt), sean (old), síol (seed), are weakened in Welsh to halen, hen and hìl respectively. This, it will be remembered, is what the Greeks also did with their initial S as a general rule, whilst the Latins retained it—which is one of the proofs that Latin is in many respects older than Greek. Irish, however, has some forms which are older than Welsh, Greek or Latin—but this is not the immediate point in hand.
In Irish the forms sam and gam continued—as I have already said—to be used for a long time after the adoption of the compound forms samrad and geimred. Though they are no longer in actual use with us, they are found in ancient literature. In the Aṁra Choluim-ċille, as given in the Liber Hymnorum, there are some verses quoted (in a gloss on the words “sceo rein riṫ”) where the line occurs: “ro faeṫ sam snigid gam,” i.e., gone hath summer, snoweth winter—in which happily we have examples of both words. In the Leaḃar Laiġneaċ, or ‘Book of Leinster,’ there is a poem which we are told St. Molling compelled the devil to recite—perhaps I should say compose—and in which occur the lines:
“Dogní toil maicc dé do nim
Is grian etroċt imbí sam—”
that is, as translated by O’Curry, Who doth the will of the Son of God of heaven, is a brilliant sun, around which is summer.[2] In the Annals of the IV. MM., under A.D. 1151, we find the entry—“Gaṁ ilṡíonaċ, gaeṫaċ, ainḃṫionaċ co ffolc ndearṁair”—translated by O’Donovan: A changeable, windy, stormy winter, with great rain. The Four Masters, one might expect, would write their annals in the language of their own time, but from their profession, and from their long study of ancient writings, they often used, and could scarcely help using, old words, old idioms, and old grammatical forms in their seventeenth century Irish, the result being a style of very mixed character. The word gaṁ was no doubt practically obsolete in their time, but, if used, the form would be gaṁ and not gam, whilst there is little doubt it was still
