BEARLAGAIR NA SAOR.

A few remarks re “Bearlagair na Saor.” I have heard
a little of it since I was a child. I think the following are
nor in Dr. Hogan's list:-
fórúch, foreman
scit, trowel
cearnóg, policeman
borb a' bhiadail, Protestant clergyman (not literally)
cnapara, cat
mús ?
lúdóir, worker

I cannot get any satisfactory translation for mús(mooz),
I have heard it sounded with m unaspirated frequently —
“Geab do choistriughadh till I seciughadh this éis 's mús”
= walk on slowly till I do for this fellow. “ I seiciú'd
mús = I spoiled his tricks. In each of these mús is
sounded with m hard.

I notice in GAELIC JOURNAL “shek er-em hueso” =
perhaps seic ar mo mhúsa = discharged from work; but
also meaning any similar or greater catastrophe befalling
the 1st person singular. An old mason told me the latter meant “Kill
you” or “be hanged to you!” I am of opinion mús
an músa (emphatic) are the same word, havig an
indefinite positive meaning. Yet perhaps it is not incor-
rect to render the phrases “seic ar mo bhabh-sa” ... do
bhabh-sa. This latter, I think, is your opinion.

Masons love their slang, and occasionally dovetail it
into some well-known rhyme. Cork masons have all
heard the following:

Geab-éis an arraic, to the road is gone,
'G iarraidh cine you'll find him;
His scit is casar he has girded on,
A cearnóg coistriu-ing behind him.

'G iarraidh cine pronounced g'earra cine. I was told
it meant want or hunger. Could it be gearr-a-cineach?
I think as I write it above is best.

I think bhiadal(devil) is a good example of interchange
of middle and initial consonant, for diabhal.

The word for pawn-shop is certainly iarr-cín not
tiar-cín or tior-cín. I have never heard either or the
latter, but the former over and over again. My mason
told me that iarr-cín meant “begging house,” from
iarradh cíne (seeking food), But coistri 'dti iarr-cin =
go to the pawn-shop.

Tomás Seóns.

Miane Bridge, Cork,
28th September, 1898.

[Our contributor is evidently right about mús, and is
too tender with our own conjectural form mo bhabh-sa,
based on the supposition that in mavousa, ou sounded as
in loud. The worst of “phonetic” spelling is that
nobody but the speller can ever tell how they sound
unless a whole dissertation on the sounds is also supplied.
Mús evidently is a mere peg on which to hang the
personality of the possessive adjective. Mo mhús=mé.
Mo mhús-sa(mavousa)= mise. —ED]