Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/218

 CH. XII.] contrary, impudence. 'Oh well, I'll send you an attorney's letter to-morrow, and may be that will cure your hiccup.' The origin of this expression is the general belief through Ireland that a troublesome fit of hiccup may be cured by suddenly making some very startling and alarming announcement to the person—an announcement in which he is deeply concerned: such as that the stacks in the haggard are on fire—that three of his cows have just been drowned, &c. Fiachra MacBrady, a schoolmaster and poet, of Stradone in Cavan (1712), wrote a humorous description of his travels through Ireland of which the translation has this verse:—

'I drank till quite mellow, then like a brave fellow, Began for to bellow and shouted for more; But my host held his stick up, which soon cured my hiccup, As no cash I could pick up to pay off the score.'

The host was the publican, and the stick that he held up was the tally stick on which were marked in nicks all the drinks poor MacBrady had taken—a usual way of keeping accounts in old times. The sight of the score brought him to his senses at once—cured his hiccup.

A verse of which the following is a type is very often found in our Anglo-Irish songs:—

'The flowers in those valleys no more shall spring, The blackbirds and thrushes no more shall sing, The sea shall dry up and no water shall be, At the hour I'll prove false to sweet graw-mochree.'

So in Scotland:—'I will luve thee still, my dear, till a' the seas gang dry.' (Burns.)

A warning sometimes given to a messenger:—'Now don't forget it like Billy and the pepper': This