Seadhna to make out whether it was laughing he was or growling. But when he looked up between the two eyes on him, the same terror was near coming on him that came on him at first. He understood well that it was not laughing the “lad” was. He never before then saw any two eyes that were worse than they, any look that was more malignant than the look they had, any forehead as evil-minded as the forehead that was above them. He did not speak, and he did his best to pretend that he did not notice the growling. At the same time the black man let the gold out again on his palm and counted it. “Here!” said he, “Seadhna, there are a hundred pounds for you for the first shilling you gave away to-day. Are you paid?” “It should be right that I am (I should think I am).” “Right or wrong!” said the black man, “are you paid?” and the growling became sharper and quicker. “Oh! I am paid, I am paid,” said Seadhna, “thank you!” “Here! if so," said he, “there is another hundred for you, for the second shilling you gave away to-day.” “That is the shilling I gave to the woman who was barefooted.” “That is the shilling you gave to the same gentlewoman.” “If she was a gentlewoman, what made her barefooted? and what made her take from me my shilling, and I having but another shilling left?” “If she was a gentlewoman! If you only knew! she is the gentlewoman that ruined me!” While he was saying those words a trembling of hands and feet came on him. The growling ceased. His head leaned backwards on his neck. He gazed up into the sky. An attitude of death came on him, and the stamp of a corpse came on his face.
When Seadhna saw this deadly change, the wonder of his heart came on him. “It must be,” said he, in a careless sort of way, “that this is not the first time with you hearing something about her.” The black man jumped. He struck a blow of his hoof on the ground, so that the sod which was under Seadhna’s foot trembled. “Mangling to you!” said he, “shut your mouth or you will be maimed!” “I beg your pardon, sir,” said Seadhna, meekly, “I thought that perhaps it was a little drop you had taken, and to say that you gave me a hundred pounds in exchange for a shilling.”
“I would, and seven hundred, if I could succeed in taking from the good which that same shilling did; but when you gave it away for the sake of the Saviour it is not possible to spoil its good for ever.”
“And,” said Seaḋna, “what need is there to spoil the good? May you not as well have the good of that shilling as it is?”
“You have too much talk; too much altogether. I told you to shut your mouth. Here! there is the purse entirely for you,” said the black man.
“I suppose there is no danger, sir,” said Seadhna, “that there would not be enough for the time in it. There is many a day in thirteen years. ’Tis many a shoe a man would have made in the lapse of that portion of time, and many a way he would want a shilling.”
“Don’t be uneasy,” said the black man, putting a bit of a laugh out of hini. “Draw out of it as hard as ever you can. It will be as plump the last day as it is to-day. You will not have much business of it from that forward.”
NOTES.
Peadar Ua Laoġaire.
Seaḋ, ‘there, there now!’
Quickened.
ag cur smuta gáire as=with a chuckle, a piece of a laugh.
ní héidir, of course . . . not, there is no danger; distinct from ní féidir.
An iomad—an iomarca; in the north, an íomad=many.
Bain ó, take from, diminish; bain uait féin, keep down your presumption, sing a bit lower!
Do ráḋ ’s gur, whereas, seeing that.
Teaċt ṫar=talk about, mention.
Go neaṁġuiseaċ, with assumed unconcern.
Iompáil (iompóḋ) lí, change of colour, pallor showing itself on the face indicative of terror.
Ceannaċa, features.
driuċ, wretched aspect.
Do ḃeir, often in the sense ‘makes,’ ‘causes to be or (followed by ar or do) to do,’ ‘induces;’ Compare the following from Aran Islands:
“Ceist agam ort, a ċléiriġ,
O’s tú leuġas an Bíobla,
Ceurd (creud) do ḃeir an amuid sona
’S do ḃeir dona an duine críonna?”
Do ḟreagair an cléireaċ mar leanas:
“Roinneann Dia na suḃailciḋe
Mar roinneann sé na gníoṁarṫa;
Bheir sé cion duine do’n amadán,
A’s cead soláṫair d’ḟear na críondaċt.’”
“I have a question for thee, cleric
As it is thou that readest the Bible—
What makes the fool prosperous
And the cunning man unprosperous?”
The cleric replied as follows:
“God divides the virtues (good things)
As he divides the actions (capacities);
He gives a man’s share to the fool
And leave to earn to the man of cunning.”—[Ed.]
Mnaoi uasail, translated ‘gentlewoman,’ as ‘lady’ might be understood in a depreciatory sense.
There is a play on the word cóir, which, in its literal sense, is objectionable to the black gentleman.
Saoṫar, violent breathing through exertion.
Breis, here ‘profit.’
Note pronoun omitted.
Díolṁuineaċ, ‘fellow, lad.’ Díolaṁnaċ, a hireling, a stout fellow (see O Reilly).
Fa ndeár ‘caused,’ a remnant of an old Irish verb; cid fodera, what caused it.
Seaḋ go díreaċ, ‘oh, yes!’ ironically.
Mo ġráḋ í sin: sin makes the pronoun both emphatic and demonstrative.
An rud: this use of the definite article is quite common in introducing some new object in a story in Irish.
Cuiṁniuġaḋ, ‘remembering,’ also ‘reflecting;’ ṁ slender in the middle of a word is usually silent in Munster, but lengthens the foregoing vowel—pronounce cuíniú; geiṁread ‘winter’ pr. gíre; sgeiṁleaḋ, ‘a skirmish, a sally,’ pr. sgíle; deiṁin, certain, pr. like English ‘dine:’ doiṁin, ‘deep,’ as if doiġin (like Englih ‘thine’).
Coṁgar: ṁ broad gives a strong nasal sound to the vowel preceding—pronounce like cóng-gar; cuṁgaċ ‘difficulty, a strait,’ like cúng-gaċ. Coṁangar seems a nominative, or rather an accusative. Two constructions are used, gaḃail an bóṫar, going the road, and gaḃáil an ḃóṫair, going of the road. We must regard an bóṫar as used adverbially, as an infinitive or verbal noun is never followed by a direct object in Gaelic. We also find siar an bóṫar, ‘west, or back, along the road,’ and suas an ċnuic or suas an cnoc ‘up the hill.’
Siar: the points of the compass are very much used in ordinary Irish conversation to indicate direction. Siar, ṡiar, in reference to a house implies the inner parts. Dul siar orm, going to the bad in spite of me. The primary meaning of siar, backwards, is evident in all these idioms. Do luiġ a ċeann siar ar a ṁuineál, his head sank back on his neck.
Mar sin, ‘yes, because’ . . .
A Laoiġ, my young dear, my dear.
I nEirinn: equivalent to, or more emphatic than, ar doṁan, ar biṫ; pé i nEirinn í, whosoever she is.
