Page:Comical sayings of Paddy from Cork (1).pdf/13

 Tom. I really think you gave her enough along with her, but you ought to have cried for her, if it was no more but to be in the fashion.

Teag. And why should I cry without sorrow? when we hired two criers to cry all the way before her to keep her in the fashion.

Tom. And what do they cry before a dead woman?

Teag. Why they cry the common cry, or funeral lament that is used in our Irish country.

Tom. And what manner of cry is that, Paddy?

Teag. Dear Tom, if you don't know I'll tell you, when any dies there is a number of criers goes before, saying, Luff, fuff, fou, allelieu, dear honey, what aileth thee to die! It was not for want of good buttermilk and potatoes.

PART III.

Tom. WELL Paddy, and what did you do when you wife died?

Teag, Dear honey, what would I do; do you think I was such a big fool as to die to, I am sure if I had I would not have got fair play when I am not so old yet as my father was when he died.

Tom. No, Paddy, that's not what I mean, was you sorry, or did you weep for her?

Teag. Weep for her, by shaint Patrick I would not weep nor yet be sorry, suppose my own mother and all the women in Ireland had died seven years before I was born.

Tom. What did you do with your children when she died?

Teag. Do you imagine I was such a big fool as bury my children alive along with a dead woman; arra, dear honey, we always commonly give no- thing along with a dead person, but an old shirt, a winding sheet a big hammer, with a long candle, and an Irish silver threepenny piece?

Tom. Dear Paddy, and what do they make of all these things?