Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/203

Rh glossed by a German for his fellow-countrymen, calls a phillibeg a weed worn by Scotsmen. He had got his "weed" from reading in earlier literature such as in "Midsummer Night's Dream:" "Weed (dress) wide enough to wrap a fairy in." The Cumbrian "gallasses" is also Fife for braces or suspenders, and is but a variant of "gallows."

Pawky, too familiar, sly, impudent: "Grace did not trouble herself about the susceptibilities of pawky young monkeys." "They caw't yanudder for aw t' pawkiest rapscallions." This is certainly not the pawky we all have such a respect for. It must be the "paik," a low character of Davie Lindsay's verses, and one of "the poor relations" in words, "with a past."

Skeal or scales, a sort of huts or hovels, built of sods or turfs on commons. This is the JcelandicIcelandic [sic] "skjol," shelter; "skyling," a screening. As initial "sk" in Scandinavian and Dutch has become "sh" (cf. ski and Eng. shoe), we have here the summer "sheelins" of ballad and song. The hardening of sh, though spelt sch, still holds in Cape Dutch, so that Scheepers should be pronounced Skaepers.

This Norse skjol has assumed various forms among us. In English the sheeling is the sheal, a temporary summer hut, from a root, to cover. Professor Skeat connects the Icelandic skjola, a pail or bucket, with what in Scotland is a skiel or skeel, not at all forms in common use. At one time, however, it did appear among us. When Nansen, after his historic voyage, was entertained by the London Savage Club, the Norse skal was drunk, interpreted rightly enough as a sort of guid-willie waucht or loving-cup. It carries one back to a very different reception of Norsemen, a Scottish one, when the nobles that brought over Anne of Denmark as spouse to James VI. were feasted (1590) in the house of the famous Napier, Master of the Mint, in the Cowgate of Edinburgh. The Provost provided "naprie & twa dozen greit veschell." These were the goblets or skolls (Ger. Schale, cup; cf. scale, shell) which were drained to the king's "rouse" (Hamlet), long known in Scotland by the very name used at the London banquet. In Edmonston's "Shetland Glossary" "scoll" is a round wooden dish.

Skiddaw Gray, a bluish gray colour, a rough gray cloth from Herdwick wool. The Keswick Rifle Volunteers are called