Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/193

 173 is not correct therefore to call it Flora day, it should be Furry day. It is sometimes called Faddy day, or as Whitaker spells it, Fadi day. Beal (Britain and the Gael) speaks of Davies as referring to old Briton rites, in the words of the Bards, and by a quota- tion from Greek poetry. " Buddy was the sea beach, and the circular revolution was performed by the attendance of the white bands in graceful extravagance, wben the assembled train were dancing and singing in cadence with garlands, and ivy branches on the brow." " On Ida's mountain with his mighty mother, Young Bacchus led the frantic train ; And through the echoing woods the rattling timbrels sound. Then the Curetes clashed their sounding arms, And raised with joyful voice the song. While the shrill pipe resounded to the praise of Cybele, And the gay satyrs tripped in jocund dance, &c," Beal says, (p. 85), "In the month of May, a memorial of something like this, yet lingers in an ancient Cornish town." Whitaker says in a letter to Polwhele, (Polwhele's Biographical Sketches in Cornwall, vol. 3, p. 97), "When you derive Furry from Fer (Cornish) a fair, and now suppose the Fair-o of the song to confirm your conjecture ; I thoroughly concur with you Only I never considered Fer (Cornish) as the word " whence (comes) the Latin Ferial The Latin is the original term, and the Cornish only a derivative from it, Fer (Cornish) being the same with Foire (Irish) and so forming Fair-o or Furry in pronunciation. Gaby. A fool. Gad. A short, wedge-like mining tool, used with a hammer in spKtting rock, &q, Gedn and gad are Celtic Cornish for a wedge. Gaddle. To drink greedily with haste. '*She gaddled it up in no time."