SOME HOLDERNESS DIALECT FIGHTING WORDS. 277 



A Weltin' is administered by a strap of leather, sewn by shoe- 

 makers on the boot upper. This strip of leather is 

 called a " welt," and the boot sole is sewn to it, It is 

 indeed a severe punishment to be flogged by a wet welt. 

 With malicious cruelty it wreathes round the writhing 

 limbs, and clings as only wet leather can. For some 

 things, many things, " there's nothing like leather." 



A Whack is another punishment that derives its name from 

 the noise it produces. It is what Paddy gave the drum, 

 but 'tis no less painful for all that. 



To Whap is to flog or beat as a punishment ; to conquer an 

 antagonist in a fight ; to surpass in competition. A 

 Whappin' is a flogging, and Whaps is a strong plural : 

 " Thoo'll get thi waps, mi lad, when thi fayther comes 

 whom ! " Another form of this word is Whop and 

 Whoppin'. 



A Whissle is a box on the ear, which perhaps derives its 

 name from the whistling, whew ! it causes. 



A " Wipe ower lugs " is not the gentle thing one might 

 expect from the expression. It needed a poet to tell us 

 that " things are not what they seem ; " and the person 

 who receives a " wipe ower lugs " fails to perceive either 

 the poetry or the humour. 



When a hedger is cutting and preparing thorns to make a 

 dead-fence, he needs thick ones for stakes, and long, 

 supple ones for binders, or yethers ; so he will say of a 

 branch, "If it ween't mak a steeak, it'll mak a yether. " 

 To Yether anybody is to flog them with a yether, and it 

 is not a mean sort of flogging either. 



The list may be concluded by Yark, Yenk, Yuck, all chastise- 

 ments, not as brief as the names themselves. 



A peculiarity of these fighting words is that many, if 

 not all of them, are in common use as adjectives, denoting 

 superlative greatness or extraordinary firmness. The word 

 retains the same meaning, but the figure is changed from 

 warlike strife to the strife of competition and comparison. 



A hawker enters a shop, and rsks, " De yo' want ony 

 rabbits to-day ? " " No ; I think not ! " " Yo' think not ? " 

 " I think not ! " " Why, them rabbits is greeat, big, sooaling 

 rabbits, hauf as big as this coonther ! " Thus we say "a 

 clinking big egg ; a nailin stoory ; a slappin hoss ; a sluggin 

 knife ; a spankin meear ; a switchin ton out ; a thumpin, big 

 lass ; a wallopin, big pig ; a whackin lie ; a wappin crood." 



