English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 31

Calleach na looha [Colleagh: accented on 2nd syll. in South; on 1st in North] 'hag of the ashes.' Children--and sometimes _old children_--think that a little hag resides in the ashpit beside the fire. Irish _cailleach_, an old woman: _luaith_, ashes.

Calleach-rue ('red hag'); a little reddish brown fish about 4 inches long, plentiful in small streams. We boys thought them delicious when broiled on the turf-coals. We fished for them either with a loop-snare made of a single {230} horsehair on the end of a twig, with which it was very hard to catch them; for, as the boys used to say, 'they were cute little divels'--or directly--like the sportsmen of old--with a spear--the same spear being nothing but _an ould fork_.

Caish; a growing pig about 6 months old. (Munster.)

Call; claim, right: 'put down that spade; you have no call to it.'

'Bedad,' says he, 'this sight is queer, My eyes it does bedizen--O; What _call_ have you marauding here, Or how daar you leave your prison--O?'

(Repeal Song: 1843.)

Need, occasion: they lived so near each other that there was no call to send letters. 'Why are you shouting that way?' 'I have a good call to shout, and that blackguard running away with my apples.' Father O'Flynn could preach on many subjects:--'Down from mythology into thayology, Troth! and conchology if he'd the call.' (A. P. Graves.) Used everywhere in Ireland in these several senses.

Call; custom in business: Our new shopkeeper is getting great call, i.e. his customers are numerous. (South.)

Cam or caum; a metal vessel for melting resin to make _s.l.u.ts_ or long torches; also used to melt metal for coining. (Simmons: Armagh.) Called a _grisset_ in Munster. Usually of a curved shape: Irish _cam_, curved.

Candle. 'Jack Brien is a good scholar, but he couldn't hold a candle to Tom Murphy': i.e. he {231} is very inferior to him. The person that holds a candle for a workman is a mere attendant and quite an inferior.

Cannags; the stray ears left after the corn has been reaped and gathered. (Morris: Mon.) Called _liscauns_ in Munster.

Caper: oat-cake and b.u.t.ter. (Simmons: Armagh.)

Caravat and Shanavest; the names of two hostile factions in Kilkenny and all round about there, of the early part of last century. Like Three-year-old and Four-year-old. Irish _Caravat_, a cravat; and _Shanavest_, old vest: which names were adopted, but no one can tell why.

Card-cutter; a fortune-teller by card tricks. Card-cutters were pretty common in Limerick in my early days: but it was regarded as disreputable to have any dealings with them.

Cardia; friendship, a friendly welcome, additional time granted for paying a debt. (All over Ireland.) Ir. _cairde_, same meanings.

Cardinal Points, 168.

Carleycue; a very small coin of some kind. Used like _keenoge_ and _cross_. (Very general.)

Carn; a heap of anything; a monumental pile of stones heaped up over a dead person. Irish _carn_, same meanings.

Caroline or 'Caroline hat'; a tall hat. ('Knocknagow': all over Munster.)

Caroogh, an expert or professional card-player. (Munster.) Irish _cearrbhach_, same sound and meaning.

Carra, Carrie; a weir on a river. (Derry.) Irish _carra_, same meaning.

{232} Carrigaholt in Clare, 145.

Carry; to lead or drive: 'James, carry down those cows to the river'

(i.e. drive): 'carry the horse to the forge' (lead). 'I will carry my family this year to Youghal for the salt water.' (Kinahan: South, West, and North-west.) See Bring.

Case: the Irish _cas_, and applied in the same way: 'It is a poor case that I have to pay for your extravagance.' _Nach dubhach bocht un cas bheith ag tuitim le ghradh_: 'isn't it a poor case to be failing through love.'--Old Irish Song. Our dialectical Irish _case_, as above, is taken straight from the Irish _cas_; but this and the standard English _case_ are both borrowed from Latin.

Ca.s.snara; respect, anything done out of respect: 'he put on his new coat for a _casnara_.' (Morris: South Mon.)

Castor oil was our horror when we were children. No wonder; for this story went about of how it was made. A number of corpses were hanging from hooks round the walls of the _factory_, and drops were continually falling from their big toes into vessels standing underneath. This was castor oil.

Catin clay; clay mixed with rushes or straws used in building the mud walls of cottages. (Simmons: Arm.)

Cat of a kind: they're 'cat of a kind,' both like each other and both objectionable.

Cat's lick; used in and around Dublin to express exactly the same as the Munster _Scotch lick_, which see. A cat has a small tongue and does not do much licking.

{233} Caubeen; an old shabby cap or hat: Irish _caibin_: he wore a 'shocking bad caubeen.'

Cauboge; originally an old hat, like caubeen; but now applied--as the symbol of vulgarity--to an ignorant fellow, a boor, a b.u.mpkin: 'What else could you expect from that cauboge?' (South.)

Caulcannon, Calecannon, Colecannon, Kalecannon; potatoes mashed with b.u.t.ter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot-herbs. In Munster often made and eaten on Hallow Eve. The first syllable is the Irish _cal_, cabbage; _cannon_ is also Irish, meaning speckled.

Caur, kindly, good-natured, affable. (Morris: South Mon.)

Cawmeen; a mote: 'there's a cawmeen in my eye.' (Moran: Carlow.) Irish with the diminutive.

Cawsha Pooka; the big fungus often seen growing on old trees or elsewhere. From Irish _caise_, cheese: the 'Pooka's cheese.' See Pooka and Pookapyle and Bucknabarra.

Cead mile failte [caidh meela faultha], a hundred thousand welcomes.

Irish, and universal in Ireland as a salute.

Ceolaun [keolaun], a trifling contemptible little fellow. (Munster.)

Cess; very often used in the combination _bad cess_ (bad luck):--'Bad cess to me but there's something comin' over me.' (Kickham: 'Knocknagow.') Some think this is a contraction of _success_; others that it is to be taken as it stands--a _cess_ or contribution; which receives some little support from its use in Louth to mean 'a quant.i.ty of corn in for threshing.'

{234} Chalk Sunday; the first Sunday after Shrove Tuesday (first Sunday in Lent), when those young men who should have been married, but were not, were marked with a heavy streak of chalk on the back of the _Sunday coat_, by boys who carried bits of chalk in their pockets for that purpose, and lay in wait for the bachelors. The marking was done while the congregation were a.s.sembling for Ma.s.s: and the young fellow ran for his life, always laughing, and often singing the concluding words of some suitable doggerel such as:--'And you are not married though Lent has come!' This custom prevailed in Munster. I saw it in full play in Limerick: but I think it has died out. For the air to which the verses were sung, see my 'Old Irish Music and Songs,' p. 12.

Champ (Down); the same as 'caulcannon,' which see. Also potatoes mashed with b.u.t.ter and milk; same as 'pandy,' which see.

Chanter; to go about grumbling and fault-finding. (Ulster.)

Chapel: Church: Scallan, 143.

Chaw for _chew_, 97. 'Chawing the rag'; continually grumbling, jawing, and giving abuse. (Kinahan.)

Cheek; impudence; _bra.s.s_: cheeky; presumptuous.

Chincough, whooping-cough: from _kink-cough_. See Kink.

Chittering; constantly muttering complaints. (Knowles.)

Chook chook [the _oo_ sounded rather short]; a call for hens. It is the Irish _tiuc_, come.

Christian; a human being as distinguished from one of the lower animals:--'That dog has nearly as much sense as a Christian.' {235}

Chuff: full.--'I'm chuffey after my dinner.' (MacCall: Wexford.)