276 MEETINGS. 



S'tu veur attrappai une bellette, met l'i du sail sous la coue. 

 If you wish to catch a weasel put salt under its tail. 



Nou n'attrappe pas des mouques atou du vinaigre. 

 Flies are not caught with vinegar. 



Qui raarrie Jerriaias ou Jerri aise n'vivra jamais a s'n aise. 



Who marries a Jerseyman or a Jerseywoman never lives at ease. 



L'homme qu'est dans la lune atout un fagot su s'en dos, et s'en 

 "tchien derriere li, i fut mis pour ave fait ds'allumettes au Dimanche. 



The man in the moon, with a faggot on his back and his dog 

 behind him, was put there for making matches on Sundays. 



LA GRAND QUERUE.-THE BIG PLOUGH. 



It has long been the custom for three or four neighbouring 

 farmers to associate together and to help each other to plough their 

 fields for parsnips. They used a large plough, making a furrow 

 about 12 inches deep by about 18 to 24 inches wide. This plough 

 was generally drawn by four oxen, with from eight to ten horses 

 in front, each farmer providing an ox and two or three horses. The 

 owner of the field usually guided the plough ; while often a smaller 

 plough, drawn by a couple of old horses, followed the big one for the 

 purpose of turning the upper soil and weeds down to the bottom of 

 the furrow. Work began about seven o'clock in the morning ; at ten 

 lunch was taken, consisting of bread and butter with cheese or fried 

 •codfish, and good strong coffee. Then at twelve o'clock (noon) the 

 cattle were unharnessed and put to feed. Dinner lasted from one to 

 two o'clock, the fare generally being a large boiled ham, (a "palette") 

 a breast-piece of pork, sometimes a round of beef; three or four, or 

 sometimes as many as half-a-dozen large puddings (" grosses houiche- 

 potes"), with plenty of good cider. Friends and relatives partook 

 of the feast. Between two and three o'clock the party would sit in 

 front of the fire, drinking wine and brandy, gossiping and telling 

 stories. At three o'clock work was resumed, and carried on till six 

 or seven in the evening, with occasional stoppages at intervals " pour 

 prendre une petite goutte," — to take a small drop! For it was a 

 well-known tradition that "I faut prendre une petite goutte pour 

 arousai, ou bien j'nairons pas d'panais," — "They must take a small 

 drop to moisten the field, or else there would be no parsnips." 



It was the custom with some farmers to give a good supper in 

 the evening, instead of the dinner, after which the best part of the 

 night was passed in meiry -making, singing, fiddling and dancing, 

 the festivities very often being carried on until morning. 



The " Big Plough " was first introduced and used on the estate 

 of " Les Fontaines," in the Castel parish. This was in the time of 

 one of the ancestors of the late Mr. Thos. Lenfestey, probably about 

 a hundred years ago. Before the time when the Big Plough was 

 thus first introduced, it was the custom to dig the ground for parsnips 

 about one foot deep. This was done by the farm-labourers and job- 

 men, with a peculiarly shaped spade, which was called " une beque 

 de Guernesi." The old farmers used to say, with regard to digging 



