May 27. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



491 



the castle was finished, its inhabitants tyrannised 

 over the whole country, until the time arrived 

 when the Danes were finally expelled from Ire- 

 land. Ballyportree Castle held out to the last, 

 but at length it was taken after a fierce resistance, 

 only three of the garrison being found alive, who 

 proved to be a father and his two sons ; the in- 

 furiated conquerors were about to kill them also, 

 when one of them proposed that their lives should 

 be spared, and a free passage to their own country 

 given them, on condition that they taught the 

 Irishmen how to brew the famous ale from the 

 heather — that secret so eagerly coveted by the 

 Irish, and so zealously guarded by the Danes. At 

 first neither promises nor threats had any effect on 

 the prisoners, but at length the elder warrior con- 

 sented to tell the secret on condition that his two 

 sons should first be put to death before his eyes, 

 alleging his fear, that when he returned to his own 

 country, they might cause him to be put to death 

 for betraying the secret. Though somewhat sur- 

 prised at his request, the Irish chieftains imme- 

 diately complied with it, and the young men were 

 slain. Then the old warrior exclaimed, " Fools ! 

 I saw that your threats and your promises were 

 beginning to influence my sons; for they were but 

 boys, and might have yielded : but now the secret 

 is safe, your threats or your promises have no effect 

 on me ! " Enraged at their disappointment, the 

 Irish soldiers hewed the stern northman in pieces, 

 and the coveted secret is still unrevealed. 



In the South of Scotland a legend, almost word 

 for word the same as the above, is told of an old 

 castle there, with the exception that, instead of 

 Danes, the old warrior and his sons are called 

 Pechts. After the slaughter of his sons the old 

 man's eyes are put out, and he is left to drag on a 

 miserable existence : he lives to an immense old 

 age, and one day, when all the generation that 

 fought with him have passed away, he hears the 

 young men celebrating the feats of strength per- 

 formed by one of their number ; the old Pecht 

 asks for the victor, and requests him to let him 

 feel his wrist ; the young man feigns compliance 

 with his request, but places an iron crow-bar in the 

 old man's hand instead of his wrist ; the old Pecht 

 snaps the bar of iron in two with his fingers, re- 

 marking quietly to the astounded spectators, that 

 '_' it is a gey bit gristle, and has not much pith in 

 it yet." The story is told in the second volume 

 of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, first series, I 

 think; but I have not the volume at hand to refer 

 to. _ The similarity between the two legends is 

 curious and interesting. 



Francis Robert Davies. 



ARCHAIC WORDS. 



(Vol. vii., p. 400., &c.) 



The following list of words, which do not ap- 

 pear in Mr. Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic 

 Words, may form some contribution, however 

 small, to the enlargement of that and of some of 

 our more comprehensive English dictionaries. It 

 falls in with the desire already expressed in "N. & 

 Q. ;" and, if the present paper seem worth insert- 

 ing, may be followed by another. In some few 

 cases, though the word does appear in Mr. Halli- 

 well's columns, an authority is deficient; instances 

 having as it were turned up, and in rather un- 

 common sources, which seemed occasionally worth 

 supplying. It must be observed that the explan- 

 ations given are, in some instances, mere conjec- 

 tures, and await more certain and accurate in- 

 terpretation : 



Aege, age. The Festyvall, fol. cxii. recto, edit. 1528. 



Advyse, to view attentively. Strype's Memorials, 

 under Mary, ch. xxviii. p. 234., folio, or vol. iv. 

 p. 384. edit. 1816. 



Apause, to check. Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vii. 

 647. ; and Merchant's Second Tale, 2093. 



Assemble, to resemble. Bale's Image of both Churches, 

 Part II. p. 378., edit. 1849. 



Beclepe, to embrace. The Festyvall, fol. xxxvi. recto, 

 edit. 1528 : " The ymage — becleped the knyght about 

 the necke, and kyssed bym." 



Bluck, .... (?) " So the true men shall be hunted 

 and blucked." — The Festyvall, fol. xxvi. recto. 



Boystously, roughly. " Salome — boystously handled 

 our Lady." — The Festyvall, fol. lxvii. verso. 



Brince, to introduce, hand out, propino. " Luther 

 first brinced to Germany the poisoned cup of his 

 heresies." — Harding in Bishop Jewel's Works, vol. iv. 

 p. 335., edit. Oxford, 1848. 



Bussing. " Without the blind bussings of a Papist, 

 may no sin be solved." — Bishop Bale's Image of both 

 Churches on the Revelation, ch. xiii. p. 431., edit. 

 Cambridge, 1849. 



Croked. A curious application of this word occurs 

 in The Festyvall, fol. cxxviii. recto : " A croked coun- 

 tenance." 



Daying, arbitration. Jewel's Works, i. 387. See 

 Dr. Jelf's note, in loc. 



Dedeful, operative? " This vertue is dedefull to all 

 Chrysten people." — The Festyvall, fol. clxxii. recto. 



Do, to do forth ; meaning, to proceed with, to go 

 on with, occurs in The Festyvall, fol. viii. verso. 



Domageable, injurious. The Festyvall, fol. cxi. recto: 

 " How domageable it is to them which use for to saye 

 in theyr bargens and marchaundyses, makynge to the 

 prejudyce — of their soules." 



Dyssclaunderer, a calumniator. " To stone hym 

 (Stephen) to deth as for a dyssclaunderer." — The 

 Festyvall, fol. lxx. verso. 



Enclense, to make clean. The Festyvall, fol. lxxxviii. 

 recto. 



Enforcement, effort? Erasmus' Enchiridion, 1533, 

 Rule IV. ch. xii. 



