Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/182

 162 The couplet, as near as I can bring it to orthographical stand- ing, will read thus : "Ena, mena, bora — mi — Kisca, lara, mora — di." The force of habit is so strong in our modes of actions, — of seeing, hearing, and doing, — that the endless repetition of those seemingly childish words has taken no further hold on us than the generality of such nursery twaddle would. In this instance the case ought to be widely different ; for this is a veritable phrase of great antiquity — " the excommunication of a human being, preparatoTy to that victim s death. The analysis of the two lines in question will show that a double meaning was clearly involved; the first line laying a ban on the then chief articles of food, or life-producing ele- ments, eggs, butter, bread; the second, or judicial, line foreshadowing death by beating, or, as the line clearly enough expresses it, ^^ beaten to death by sticks.^ Mi and di are the old British ordinals, and stand iov first and second ; therefore, the twofold principle would make it appear as if the criminal not only suffered the deprivation at home of home comforts ] but that death followed with unerring severity." ^ T.W^S. in the ^ Cornishman^ on ^^ Wandering words, '*^. Engine-stack. The lofty chimney of a mine-engine house. Epiphany. A name applied in west Cornwall to the Cuscuta Einthymum^ abundantly growing amongst the furze, " winding its spiral structure in all directions and producing from its reddish hue a beautful con- trast." Dr, Paris, Epping-stock. See Hepping-stock. Erish^ or Errish. See Arrish, Ettaw. A shackle used to fasten two chains, so as to make one. Mousehole. w.f.p.