292 OLD SAIJXFA. 



Chiev cousin, jolie cousine,^ 



Que jamais rien n'von dcfaille! (6) 

 Houlai (7), sans faire la sure mine, 



Dans ma paoute ou dans ma fale (8) — 



Une rialle ! une rialle ! (9) 



L' fume d' la giiche a boncas, (lO) ^ 



Yaisine Anne, jen ai ieiie men aise. (11) 

 Est-che que j'n'en brinotrai pas? (12) 



Est-elle accouare sous la braise? 



Que y la baise, que j' la baise ! 



Moussieu I'ministre, allons ! vite ! 



Si vous pliait, j'avons I'onglie ; (13) 

 Une priere est bientot dite ! 



La nee quiet vraiement su I'frie — (14) 



Ma pouquie, ma pouquie! (15) 



Nou v'cliin atou nos failles; (16) 



Avous oui la cliansonnette ? 

 Metta'i dans nos cliapiaux d' paille, 



S' ou vous en sciaiz (17) une p'tite miette — 



Une piecette, une piecette ! (18) 



O Madame la Justiciaire, 



Au pepin (19) de la vielle annaie, 

 Assize dans vot belle gran' caire, 



Comme une raine d'vant vot fouair — 



Not crastaie, (20) not crastaie ! 



(1) My Christmas box ; (2) drawers ; (3) strong box ; (4) jug ; (5) can ; (6) may 

 you ne'er want anything ; (7) throw ; (8) bosom ; (9) piece of money ; (10) of the 

 steam of cake without any stuff in it; (11) I've had enough; (12) don't you think I 

 should complain ? ; (13) nail-ache : (14) grass ; (15) my pocket ; (16) torches ; (17) if 

 you can spare ; (18) small piece of money ; (19) at the end of the old year ; (20) our 

 glass of something. 



Old Bout de I'An. 



How often has it been my melancholy duty, says a 

 Guernseyman of about sixty years ago, to attend, sometimes 

 as chief mourner, the funeral of Old Bout de I'An. A 

 log of wood, wrapped in a sable cloth, Avas his usual repre- 

 sentative ; when, with great and even classical solemnity, just 

 as the clock struck twelve, the juvenile procession set itself in 

 motion, every member thereof carrying a lantern fashioned 

 out of a turnip, or made of oiled paper. I well remember 

 that awful Saturday night when one of my junior school- 

 fellows was returning from Maitre Laurent's barber's shop in 

 Fountain-street, with his grandfather's cauliflower wig, and 

 how it was snatched out of his hand, much to my consternation, 

 by the leader of Bout de I'An's funeral. Ere the audacious 

 act was settled, le Bout de I'An had undergone the pagan 

 ceremony of incineration at the Gallet d'Heaume (between 

 the South Esplanade and La Vallette). 



About this Sir Edgar MacCulloch, in " Guernsey Folk- 

 Lore," says : — On the last night of the year it was customary 

 for boys to dress up a grotesque figure, which they called " Le 



