14 



THE NATURALIST. 



'THE SEVEN SLEEPERS/ ACCORDING TO 

 MANX TRADITION. 



By J. M. JEFFCOTT, 



Castle tozvn ; Meviber of the Ho7tse of Keys ; and of the Anthropological Instiitite of 

 Great Britain a7id Ireland. 



The supposed ' seven sleepers/ in the Manx tongue called 

 Yji cadlagyn, were cramjnag = snail ; craitnag =■ bat ; cooag = cuckoo ; 

 cloghan-7iy-cleigh — stonechat ; gollan-geayee = swallow ; doallag = dor- 

 mouse ; and gi-aynoge = hedgehog. 



The term craminag is apparently from cramman — lump or bulb. 



Craitnag has seemingly reference to the wrinkled membrane of 

 which bats' wings are formed. The adjective craif7iag/i — belonging 

 to skin, wrinkled, or like a bat, is from craitnyn^ the plural of 

 cracJzaii = skin. 



Cooag is, I believe, an onomatopoeia, as is the English word 

 'cuckoo.' In their aerial gambols cuckoos often utter a sound 

 which cooag' well represents. 



Cloghan-ny-cleigh is the wheatear {Saxicola oenanthe), often, though 

 improperly, in the Isle of Man called the stonechat. It is a well- 

 known summer migrant, while the stonechat {Saxicola 7'iibicola) is a 

 resident species, and is to be seen at all seasons. The clogha7t-ny- 

 cleigh for the most part frequents upland solitudes. It delights to 

 visit old cairns and tumuli. Its alarm note has been compared to 

 the sound produced by the breaking of stones with a hammer. This 

 note, often uttered as it flits from grave to grave in some ancient and 

 haunted cemetery, has caused this beautiful little bird to be associated 

 with the superstitions which belong to the archaic depositories of the 

 dead. 



Gollan-geayee literally means the ' fork of the wind ' — a poetic and 

 very beautiful appellation, indicating the form and character of the 

 swallow. 



Doallag has reference to the supposed blindness of the dormouse, 

 from doal = blind. 



Graynoge implies something causing horror. 



The erroneous belief that the swallow and cuckoo hibernated in 

 torpidity was formerly very general. 



The poet Cowper, in a letter to Joseph Hill of the* 6th March, 

 1794, says, 'I and the swallows shall appear together. They have 

 slept all the winter, but I, on the contrary, have been extremely busy.' 

 The same mistaken notion is indicated in the following lines by him : — 



' The swallows in their torpid state 



Compose their useless wing.' 



Naturalist, 



