Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/240

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however, which I believe to be local or peculiar to the island : —


 * Ta airh er cushagyn ayns shen.
 * There is gold on the cushags there.


 * ("Cushag" is the Manx for ragwort, a weed very common in the island.)


 * Tra ta yn dooinney boght cooney lesh dooinney boght elley, ta Jee hene garaghtee.
 * When one poor man helps another, God himself laughs.


 * Tra ta'n gheay 'sy villey yiow shiu magh yn Ghlass-ghuilley.
 * When the wind is in the tree you will get the Lockman.


 * (The "Lockman" is a sort of sheriff's officer, but the meaning of this proverb is obscure.)


 * Clagh ny killagh ayns kione dty hie wooar.
 * [May] a stone of the church [be found] in the head of thy dwelling.


 * (This expression was used as a curse.)


 * Mannagh vow cliaghtey cliaghtey, nee cliaghtey coe.
 * If custom be not indulged with custom, custom will weep.


 * As round as the Tynwald. 


 * (Tynwald is the hill or mount from which the laws are promulgated.)


 * As stiff as the staff of government (applied to a person of stiff carriage).


 * (The Governor received a white staff of office on his appointment.)


 * As indifferently as the herring back-bone doth lie in the midst of the fish.


 * (Part of the oath of the Deemster or Judge.)

It is, however, only by a systematic analysis and classification that the full significance and bearing of proverbs can be determined, and a proper comparison made between those of different nations. This I have endeavoured to do for Manx proverbs upon the lines already indicated.