226 PRE-SAXON CIVILIZATION IN DORSET. 



There are others which are descriptive rather than poetical. 

 To eat with a good appetite is said to " knock it in honey 

 sweet." Young people when they have finished growing 

 " have couie to the cap sheaf." Great agitation causes one 

 to " shake like a leaf " and when the troubles of life are 

 lessening " one leaves the suds of turmoil and enters the 

 calm of the rinsing water." 



One boy when working by himself is said to be "a boy. " 

 Two boys in the same employment make " half a boy " but 

 three boys working together are said to be " never a boy 

 at all." , 



We find the words which have survived the many changes 

 have been those used more especially by the slaves or captured 

 people, and which show for the greater part the everyday 

 life of the people. 



When children were born they slept in a " cradle." The 

 boys played " truant " and wore their clothes into " clouts." 

 They ate " rashers " of bacon, had famous " pasties " and 

 drank " metheglin " and " beer " still called Cwrw in Welsh. 

 Their houses had " doors " and they used " mops " for cleaning 

 them, and crocks and gridirons (griedio, to scorch) for their 

 cooking. They made "baskets" and kept geese, and some- 

 times fetters (gyve) were necessary. They used a " harrow " 

 on their " arable " land, and their " harvest " was the reward 

 of their toil. They had " kilns," used " mattocks," and hewed 

 " ashlar " stones and made " wrix " or wattle work. 



Great warriors they were with their " gavelocks " and 

 " claymores," also expert sailors in their " coracles." Their 

 hermits were called " mendwy " (Welsh), which is picturesquely 

 translated as " God's slave." 



When a chieftain was ill, they tried to ease his pain with a 

 " fleame " but when he died they bore him to their highest 

 hill and built a " barrow " to mark his resting place, and laid 

 a bell beside him in case he awoke and wanted help. 



They understood the verb " to know " and also the one 

 " to stand." They disapproved of loud speaking, intimating 

 that it was " croaking " like a frog or raven, or " creaking " 



