Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/504

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Collectanea.

Another —

YYURYYUB,ICURYY4rae.

Too wise you are too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me.

Another —

If the B mt put : if the B. putting :

If the grate be empty put coal on if the grate be full stop putting coal on.

Another —

Dear i/- come 2 5 T 6.

Dear Bob come to tea between 5 and 6.

In a book on games, it would be quite out of place to go into questions of tinkers' dialect, the so-called " shelta " or, as they seem sometimes to call it, " Okam " {Revue Celtique, xiii. 403). These disguised languages are of the ' Pedlar's French ' order. Among children, the adding of a syllable to the ordinary words, the use of "back slang," etc., is common enough; they may flatter themselves that it is not understood by their seniors, but it is generally used merely for amusement. We have not heard of any such transmogrification of the Gaelic, the only thing of the kind we have come across being the addition of the sound of the k to English, thus :— Ifk ik hadk, etc. ; any person can originate examples for himself.

A certain amount of amusement is got out of asking the meaning of certain sentences, the emphasis being deliberately put on the wrong word ; for example : — " Explain this ; it was, and I said not, or." If the one to whom it has been proposed " gives it up," it is repeated thus : — " It was and I said, not or. '

Tricks with matches are pretty common.

Match Tricks.

I. Without omitting any to make 11 matches 9-

i