pawnd (Lat. pendo, to hang, through French). Of house utensils
there were the bowie, a round barrel for the milk, and the
scimmer "for reamin" or removing the cream on top. A
smaller and shallower milk vessel was the bain, probably from
the Gaelic bainne, milk. In South-western Scotland it is always
a washing-tub. In Sackville's "Induction to the Mirror for
Magistrates" (1555) there is an example of the word,—
"And Priam eke, in vain how he did run
To arms, whom Pyrrhus with despite hath done
To cruel death, and bathed him in the bayne
Of his son's blood before the altar slain."
Old-fashioned varieties of food lingered in sowens, and soor-dook. Soup maigre was barefit broth, of water, pot barley, and milk. Dainties were little known, such as in "the liths" of an orange, a word which he had never heard.
I did not test my friend much on the wide held of natural objects. He knew the Buchan for the lapwing, the wallop, evidently in both cases a visualising of the bird's characteristic flight. The rhyme,—
"Wallop-a, wallop-a weet,
Hairry ma nest, an' rin awa' weet,"
is a variant of the familiar
"Pees-weet, Pees-weet (Fr. dix-huit),
Hairry my nest and gar (make) me greet."
He knew the yellow-hammer as the yellow yorlin. From the frog's spawn he got an indication of the weather. " If the season was to be dry, it was in the centre of the pool; if wet, near the edge." He never saw this prognostic fail, but could give no guarantee for a period beyond three months, when the young came to maturity. In the plant world I note only his Thissilaga (colt's foot) and Peenie (peony) rose for the Fife Dishielogie and Speengie rose respectively.
The scene of these reminiscences was the farm-toon of Willie Gallon. The "gudewife" was Leezie Harl—known, as married women of old were, by their maiden name—and their man or grieve, Rob Manson. "I was wi' them twenty years," said
