wards along the wall. He looked at the black man “Oh! sir,” said he “I am exceedingly thankful to you, Oh! Oh! Oh! May God prevail excessively with you! and His Blessed Mother!”
Oh yeh! People of my loins and of my life! As soon as that word came out of Seadhna’s mouth the black man changed. He raised up his two hands as high as the horns. A blue flame came out of his eyes. The hoof danced, the tail became erect, the claw extended itself. His mouth opened, and he put the roar out of him such as a mad lion would. That roar began with a growling, and a swelling and strengthening came on it, until the floor vibrated, until the house vibrated, until the mountain vibrated all round. When Seadhna saw the change, and when he heard the sound and the strength of that roar, swelling and rising, the house made a spinning motion around him, a cloud came before his eyes, and he dropped in a lump on the floor, without consciousness, without power of speech.
Sheila. Oh, Peg, I see him, I see him! Oh! Oh! Oh!
Peg. Whist! Whist! Sheila, my darling! what do you see?
Sheila. Oh! the man of the horns! the man of the horns? What shall I do! What shall I do? Oh!
Kate. The neighbours will hear her! Whist, Sheila, my darling she is!
Gob. Your mother is coming up the field, Peg.
Peg. Come here, Sheila, and sit here in my bosom (lap).
Sheila. Oh! oh! What shall I do! What shall I do! Oh! oh!
Maure. What is this ye are going on with here? What put you crying, Sheila, my darling?
Sheila. Wisha, I don’t know, Mom, ’tis how a terror came on me, and I thought I saw the man of the horns.
Maure. The man of the horns! yerra, who is he?
Sheila. Oh! the man of the tail I meant to say.
Maure. The man of the tail!
Sheila. The man of the tail and of the claw in it.
Maure. Wisha, upon my own word, Peg, it is a great shame for you. The youngsters of the land are spoiled by you. I don't know in the world how you collected what ra maishes you have inside in your head, or how you keep an account of them, and you only thirteen years up to May. What is the story that is going on with ye now?
Sheila. Seadhna is, Mom, but I think he is dead.
Maure. I’ll engage he is not, and that he won't, it is unknown when.
Sheela. Why then, indeed, he got a terrible fright (what was next to death). If I was in his position I was as dead as Arth.
Maure. I thought there were five or six of ye there. Where are the others?
Peg. I think, mother, that they stole away from you.
Maure. Wisha, they need not have done that. Get up, Peg, an get me something to eat. Indeed not little as a wonder is the fright ye have put into this child. Look at that for a sigh that comes out of her. I don’t say but that she is asleep.
Sheila. Oh, I am not, Mom, There is not a bit of sleep on me. It is not worth a pin. Any person did not put a fright in me. Myself was the cause of it. If I may not be thinking of him so sharply as I was, I would not see him. I won’t think of him any more, the thief. I don’t know in the world, Peg, what caused him to put such a bellow out of him.
Peg. Your supper is ready, mother. Come hither to me, Sheila, and permit your mother to take her food. There!
(To be continued).
NOTES.
é ċásaṁ liom, to throw it in my face, to reproach with. The people sometimes translate it by, to return it to me.
botún, a blazing indiscretion.
caidiráil, blabbing, tattling.
Do ċoimead rúin air, to keep a secret on it.
A usual imprecation is toċas ⁊ diṫ ingine ort, generally used for fun.
Do ḃorr ⁊ do neartuiġ airri, there swelled and there strengthened upon it. This is the true idiom, and not do ḃorr sí ⁊ do neartuiġ sí. The latter does not express a progressive swelling and strengthening; the former does.
Do ṫuit se ’na ċnapán, he fell in a dead mass. This is the usual way for expressing a sudden fainting fit.
Gan aiṫne gan úrlaḃra; aiṫne is the faculty of recognising persons and things; úrlaḃra the faculty of speech.
Gaḃaim-se orm. I’ll warrant, I am certain that (lit. I take it on me). This is sometimes written and pronounced gan siorram, but it is manifestly wrong, because gan should then govern the substantive siorram, and the next verb should be in the indicative mood; gan siorram go ḃfuil could not stand; it should be gan siorram tá. I have heard the words pronounced exactly as I have written them.
Dó ṁaise, why then indeed.
Fuair sé An t-anaiṫe: anaḃfa, anḃaṫa or anaiḃfe, means some terrible fright, such as getting nearly drowned.
Is mairg a báiṫtear i n-am an anaiṫe
Mar tagann an ġrian i ndiaiḋ na féarṫana.
MARḂRANN
AR
An gCléaḃaraċ Urraimeaċ.
I.
Mo léan mo ḋíṫ fó ṫrí, mo lann im lár,
An sgéal so sgís ag tiḋeaċt anall ṫar sáil,
Dá léir-ċur síos do’n ḃuiḋin le’r fann an
tráċt:—
An Cléaḃraċ croíḋ’l gan ḃríġ i mbann an
ḃáis.
II.
A ḃáis naċ sgeíṁleaċ sgaoilteaċ cam ataoi,
An neáṁḋaċ aoiḃinn íoguir ġaḃais id líon,
Is d’ḟágḃais síol na draoibe ’s clann an
ḟeíll
Ag fás ’na smísdiḋiḃ saoile ag daṁas i
mbaois.
III.
I mbaois níor ṁair an fear gan ċlaon gan
ċáim,
Dil-ṫír a ṡean ’na preas ag méirliġ áir
