154 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



shape of a hook, ties it with string in that curve, and 

 suspends it in his chimney corner to dry crooked. 

 This crooked stick is the fagging-hook used to pull 

 the wheat towards the reaper with the left hand, 

 while he cuts it with the reap-hook in the right. 



Suppose some one wavers and cannot make up his 

 mind. Now he will do this and now he will do that, 

 uncertain and unstable, putting his hand to the plough 

 and removing it again, my Californian at home would 

 call him " wivel-minded." " Wivelly" means undecided, 

 wavering, not to be depended on. It sounds like it. 

 If the labourer gets his clothes soaked, he says they 

 are " sobbled." The sound of boots or dress saturated 

 with rain very nearly approximates to sobbled. But 

 '' gaamze" is the queerest word, perhaps, of all — it is to 

 smear as with grease. Beans are said to be " cherky," 

 which means dry. Doubtless the obese old gentleman 

 in Boccaccio who was cured of his pains — the result 

 of luxurious living — by a diet which forced him to 

 devour beans for very hunger, did think them dry 

 and cherky. They have come up again now in the 

 shape of lentils, which are nothing but beans. It is 

 not generally known that Boccaccio was the inventor 

 of the bean cure. Cat's claws are notoriously apt to 

 scratch. Should a savage cat tear out a piece of flesh 

 from the hand, she is said to " dawk " it out. " Dawk " 

 expresses a ferocious dab and tear combined. A sharp 

 iron nail unseen might " dawk " the skin off an un- 

 wary hand. In ancient days when women quarrelled 

 and fought, they are said to have " dawked " frag- 

 ments from each other's faces with their finger-nails. 

 Such incidents are now obsolete. It has often been 



