Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/142

 INTRODUCTION. . XI in Antrim of 500 Gaelic proverbs^ which were piinted, with English tianslationSy in his Journal, These were picked up from the peasantry among their homes and at markets. A short note from the pen of Mr. MacAdam in Dr. J. A. H. Morray's work on The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland (London : 1873), is so much to the point that I must quote it : " The people are evidently the same as those of Argyll, as indi- cated by their names, and for centuries a constant intercourse has been kept up between them. Even yet the Glensmen of Antrim' go regularly to the Highland fairs, and communicate, without the slightest difficulty, with the Highlanders. Having myself conversed with both Olensmen and Arran men I can testify to the absolute identity of their speech. Dr. Murray adds :  But there is not the slightest reason to deduce the Glensmen from Scotland ; they are a relic of the ancient continuity of the population of Ulster and Western Scotland." I wrote this year to a friend whose home is in the Glens for information as to the present use of Gaelic there. He writes : — " I have ascertained from one of our medical men, who is long resident here, that in one of the principal glens there are about sixty persons who speak Irish, and who prefer its use to that of English, among themselves, but who all know and speak English. Some of the children also understand Irish, but will not speak it, or let you know that they understand you if you speak to them in it.'' W. H. Patterson. StroTidtownj Belfast, Jv/ne, 1880,