33. Imṫeaċt gé an oileáin ort, imṫeaċt gan filleaḋ go bráṫ ort, the banishment of the geese of the island to you, never to return.
34. Is mairg a ḃiḋeann i dtír gan duine aige féin, mar is i lá na bruiġne a luiḋeann an bata (buille) ar a ṫaoḃ; ’s nuair a ṫarroc ċum cille ní ḃiḋeann a ċaraid ’n a ḋéiḋ, woe to him who is alone in a land. ’tis in the day of strife the stick (blow) shall fall (lie) on his side, and when he is buried his friend shall not follow his remains. What is tarroc?
35. Cia b’é ṫeiḋeann as nó naċ dteiḋeann as, ní ṫeiḋeann fear na h-eadaragála as, whoever escapes or does not escape, the intervener (peacemaker) does not escape. Eadaragála may be for eadarġaḃála, or for eadargána, gen. of eadargáin, intervention. In Meath, eadarsgáin is said, and in English (!) the old people say, “A. and B. were disputing, and C. was making a dhiriscaun between them.”
36. Dá mbeiḋead soineann go Saṁain, ḃeiḋeaḋ breall ar ḋuine éigin, if there was calm weather to November, some one would have a surly face (would be discontented).
There is another application of this proverb in Munster, which would seem to be more correct, viz., “If there was fine weather till November, someone would be behindhand or in a backward state (with his harvest).” Breall=unhandiness, awkwardness. This is probably the original sense. It is so used in Donegal. Tá breall ort would there be said to a person who had let some crockery fall on the floor, so that it was smashed. The word breall is losing its proper meaning in many parts of Munster, as it is often understood to signify “a cross look.”—J. H. L.]
37. Is eusguiḋe neoin ioná maidin. [This has been already given; there is another application of it in Louth, that one is “suppler” in the midday than in the morning. Also thus in Scotland.—J. H. L]
[New words in above: ceoḃraon, cuisne, ceofarnaċ, ceobarnaċ, cafaruaċ, bunairtle, daoisgín, bearnaḋ, ceaduiġ, ceiduiġ, creiduiġ, cuṁa, mairtre, eadaragála, -gána, eadarsgáin, breall. Doubtful: tarroc. Proverbs requiring further explanation, Nos. 13, 23, 32.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
(31) A correspondent from Carrick-on-Suir sends us the following inscription which is copied from a tombstone in the priory churchyard:
(On front of stone).
“Bíoḋ truaġ agaiḃ ḋam, bioḋ truaġ agaiḃ ḋam, go háiriġṫe siḃ-se mo ċáirde féin. Iob. xix. 21. Faoi sgaṫ na croise so atá aḋlaicṫe colann Mhuiris Breaṫnaiġ, Baile-an-diseirt; Do fuair bás an treas lá de ṁí Luġnasa 1877. ’San deaċṁaḋ bliaḋain, ar trí fiċid d’á aois—Agus a Chéile Siġle, d’ḟág an saoġal so an naoṁaḋ lá deug de ṁí ḋeiriḋ an tsaṁraiḋ 1888, ag aois a hoċt mbliaḋan a’s trí fiċid. Mar an gcéadna, a ḋearḃráṫair Seaġan; do fuair bás ’san mbliaḋain 1872, ag aois sé mbliaḋan déag a’s dá fiċid. R.I.P. A Íosa ṁilis déan trócaire orra; a Mhaiġdean Mhuire ḋílis guiḋ orra.
On left side.
Atá an líon briste agus atámaoidne saor. Sailm, cxxiii.—7
On right side.
Is beannuiġṫe na mairḃ ġeiḃ bás is an Tíġearna. Aisling, xiv 13.
On back.
’Sé an Tiġearna mo ṡolus agus mo ṡlánuġaḋ: Cia roiṁe a mbeiḋ eagla agam. Sailm, xxvi.
(32) In Galway, a feminine proper name in the genitive is not inflected when followed by an adjective, and takes the adjective in the genitive masculine: cos Bhríġid ḃig, láiṁ Cháit ṁóir, not Bhríġde bige, Cháite móire. The forms an t-aonṁaḋ, an t-oċtṁaḋ are used before feminine nominatives, and before masculine and feminine genitives. See Molloy’s Grammar, pp. 50, 124, 213.—C. P. B.
(33) I have not seen in any Irish Grammar an attempt to explain the particle a before cardinal numerals used absolutely, i.e., without a noun following, as a haon, a dó, a cúig, a hoċt, a haon deug, &c. It has been suggested, I think by Dr. Atkinson, that it may be a remnant of the old neuter article. But this is untenable, as in that case we should have a n-aon, a gcúig, a n-oċt, &c. No form of the article corresponds in usage to this particle, which does not vary for case,—tar éis a seaċt, tar éis a hoċt, roiṁ a hoċt. What does correspond to it is the feminine possessive adjective, a, which this a before numerals resembles in prefixing h to vowels and in not changing consonants. Is it possible that the two particles, a = ‘her’ and a before numerals, are identical? It is well known that the hand is the primitive instrument of reckoning in most countries, and is indeed so used still by children and persons of little arithmetical skill in these countries. The word or hand in Irish, láṁ, is feminine. I suggest the possibility that the particle in question is really the possessive adjective a, ‘her, its,’ referring to the hand. We can imagine how originally a person, in counting a sequence of numbers, identified each number with one of the fingers, going round them as
