Transactions. 141 



that of Dumfriesshire. Taunel, a bonfire ; Oe, grandchild ; and 

 even Beltane, denoting "Whitsunday, are quite unknown, so far as 

 I have enquired, to our Tynron shepherds ; while several Dumfries- 

 shire words not current in Renfrewshire are known in the north 

 of England, or may be found in old English books. As to the 

 sentimental notion that owing to the long alliance of Scotland and 

 France we have derived many words from French, that notion 

 must be received with caution. Max O'Rell, in " Friend Macdonald," 

 gives a list of about forty of these words, a list neither complete 

 nor correct, as it can be shown that great part of them are old 

 English words, some still known to the English peasantry, and 

 going back to the days of Chaucer. I fancy that when words 

 become to be despised as vulgar they have a tendency to be put 

 to humbler uses. The words brisket, the " hvQs^.^i" faiph or firple^ 

 the "under Hjd," and graith, "clothes," are instances of this 

 tendency. I seldom hear these words applied to human beings. 

 The brisket of a sheep, the firple of a horse, and graith, equivalent 

 to " harness," are still current. " Dont tell me I have lugs, said 

 the schoolboy ; " naebody but a cuddy-ass has lugs." Another 

 peculiarity in m}- list is one which might be expected ; by far the 

 greater part of the words are monosyllables. Jawbreakers seem 

 to have been avoided by our peasantry. A few words supplied 

 me by correspondents, but which I have not myself heard uttered, 

 are marked " communicated." 



Adderbeads, small round stones supposed to have been formed 

 by adders. Beads from prehistoric graves, made of dark glass. 



Aucd or Avil, not spelt with v in Jamieson, but with w, as 

 Awald or Await. The Dumfriesshire pronunciation agrees with 

 the history of the word. I have heard it used by our shepherds. 

 A sheep lying on its back and unable to right itself was said to 

 have fa'en avil. I believe it was applied to men lying supine 

 when intoxicated, and even a man dying- lying on his back was 

 said to die avil, vide Jamieson. Brachet, the ablest French philo- 

 logist, traces the French word aval, meaning " down stream," 

 to the Latin ad valleni, used of a river flowing vale-wards. Its 

 opposite is ad montem, meaning towards the hUl. The verb avaler, 

 literally " to go aval," signified at first to descend, then became 

 restricted to "to swallow." From aval comes the word avalanche, 



