Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/91

 ColUctanca. 75

perhaps a few others. The ' respectable people ' were all others above the position of labourers, who were the ' poor folk.' The countryman had his rules of manners and etiquette, which were never broken. He took oft' his hat to nobody ; he touched it with his forefinger to the 'gentlefolk,' but never to the 'respectable people.' He addressed the 'gentlefolk ' as ' Sir,' and his employer invariably as ' Master.' Only the principal inhabitants and the large farmers were termed ' Mr. So-and-So ' ; all the others were called ' Master So-and-So,' as was the married labourer himself. Some of the more old-fashioned farmers used 'thee ' in speaking to their men, but it would have been an intentional insult for the men to say ' thee ' to their master, or to any superior. A labourer would say to his employer, — "What be I to go at, master?" and the master would reply, — "Thee go up in the Roslin-house ground, and rake arter cart " (that is, rake up the loose corn behind the wagon, in carrying corn).

The phrases used in driving horses I always thought interesting. Some carters would keep saying almost continuously to their horses, — '• Come hayther, come hayther, ivutV''^ " Het up, Jolly!"- "Haw wut, Smiler ! " "Come here up, Dumplin!" "Haw, haw, haw" was said encouragingly, and I took it to mean, — "All is going well, keep on as you are going." The four horses in a team were (and still are) called the Forrust, Lash-horse, Body horse, and Thiller. The first horse was seldom called by his name, but, if he was not pulling fairly, or was looking carelessly about him, the driver would call out " Forrust," when he would instantly prick up his ears, and attend to his work.

The question of women's rights presented no difticulty to the countryman. He had no doubts whatever upon //za^" subject. He said, — "A 'ooman's aulus sarved well enough if 'er yent knocked about." Some even went a little further. A friend of mine told an old labourer that some man in the village had been ill-treating his wife, and he replied, — " He unly gin 'er a slap 'o the 'ead, and that dun't 'urt no 'ooman ! "

1 A call to a horse to come towards one ; hence to turn to the left side, on which the carter walks when driving without reins.

2 Go to the right or off side away from the driver. Cf, ' heit, scot ! heit, brok ! ' in Chaucer's Freres Tale. (X.B. Initial // is never pronounced.)