Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/185

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165 Then both parties adjourned to an inn, smoked a pipe, drank ale, settled about the next trial in fisticuffs, and finished by singing a song or two to the tune of " the old hundred." A celebrated preacher once said that he did not see why the Devil should have the best tunes, and these men thought conversely. Yet they were very kindly, worked hard, lived hard, and stood by one another like bricks in a strong wall, veritably like " One and all." Once when the writer had lost his way on a wild moor, late at night, one of such men rose from bed and guided him in safety away from the mine shafts. A reward for the trouble was evidently quite unlooked for, and it would have given of- fence to have pressed it. The writer merely records the facts as known to him. These Cornishmen gave hard blows, and what is harder, they learnt how to take them. With all their roughness they were better men than Pecksniff, or Mawworm ; but times are changed, and we are changed with them. So much the better. But how much ? Fairy. A weasel. c. Palky. A long-stemmed plant. Halliwell, Fal-the-ral. Nonsense. Fallows. Eisers to a cart, to make it hold more. Fang, or Vang. To get, to seize. (Fong, Saxon), FangingS, or VangingS. Earnings, winnings. Fantads. Eediculous notions. Fardle. A burthen. Fardel^ Chaucer, It is fardel in Celtic Cornish. Fare nuts. Earth nuts. Ground nuts. Farthing of land. Thirty acres of land. Halliwell. Fawt. Fault. This is a Celtic Cornish word.