Manx

Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx

• attestation: The displeasure of the fairy at being offered the gown is paralleled by that of the fenodyree or the Manx brownie, described in chapter iv (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter II: The Fairies' Revenge)

  "The displeasure of the fairy at being offered the gown is paralleled by that of the fenodyree or the Manx brownie, described in chapter iv."

• attribution: The water-bull or tarroo ushtey, as he is called in Manx, is a creature about which I have not been able to learn much, but he is described as a sort of bull disporting himself about the pools and swa (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "The water-bull or tarroo ushtey, as he is called in Manx, is a creature about which I have not been able to learn much, but he is described as a sort of bull disporting himself about the pools and swamps."

• attestation: The following paper exhausts no part of the subject: it simply embodies the substance of my notes of conversations which I have had with Manx men and Manx women, whose names, together with such other (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "The following paper exhausts no part of the subject: it simply embodies the substance of my notes of conversations which I have had with Manx men and Manx women, whose names, together with such other particulars as I could get, are in my possession."

• attestation: One or two of my informants confused the glashtyn with the Manx brownie (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "One or two of my informants confused the glashtyn with the Manx brownie."

• attestation: Here I may mention that the Manx word for a giant is foawr, in which a vowel-flanked m has been spirited away, as shown by the modem Irish spelling, /owAor (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "Here I may mention that the Manx word for a giant is foawr, in which a vowel-flanked m has been spirited away, as shown by the modem Irish spelling, /owAor."

• attribution: They are called in Manx, sleik beggey, or little people, and ferrishyn, from the English -wovA fairies, as it would seem (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "They are called in Manx, sleik beggey, or little people, and ferrishyn, from the English -wovA fairies, as it would seem."

• attestation: I am inclined to think that the first part of the word fenodyree is not fynney (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "" I am inclined to think that the first part of the word fenodyree is not fynney, the Manx word for ' hair,'but the Scandinavian word which survives in the Swedish j5««) ' down.'"

• attestation: He would have been left alone by the fairies, I was told, if he had only taken care to put a pinch of salt in the fish's mouth before setting out, for the Manx fairies cannot stand salt or baptism (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "He would have been left alone by the fairies, I was told, if he had only taken care to put a pinch of salt in the fish's mouth before setting out, for the Manx fairies cannot stand salt or baptism."

• comparison: Manx fairies seem to have been musical, like their kinsmen elsewhere; for I have heard of an Orrisdale man crossing the neighbouring mountains at night and hearing fairy music, which took his fancy so (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "Manx fairies seem to have been musical, like their kinsmen elsewhere; for I have heard of an Orrisdale man crossing the neighbouring mountains at night and hearing fairy music, which took his fancy so much that he hstened, and tried to remember it."

• attestation: So far I have pointed out next to nothing but similarities between Manx fairies and Welsh ones, and I find very little indicative of a difference (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "So far I have pointed out next to nothing but similarities between Manx fairies and Welsh ones, and I find very little indicative of a difference."

• attestation: May we, therefore, provisionally regard this trait of the Manx fairies as derived from a Teutonic source (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "May we, therefore, provisionally regard this trait of the Manx fairies as derived from a Teutonic source?"

• attribution: Now that most of the imaginary inhabitants of Man and its coasts have been rapidly passed in review before the reader, I may say something of others whom I regard as semi-imaginary — real human beings (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "Now that most of the imaginary inhabitants of Man and its coasts have been rapidly passed in review before the reader, I may say something of others whom I regard as semi-imaginary — real human beings to whom impossible attributes are ascribed: I mean chiefly the witches, or, as they are sometimes called in Manx"

• attestation: Now witches shift their form, and I have heard of one old witch changing herself into a pigeon; but that I am bound to regard as exceptional, the regular form into which Manx witches pass at their ple (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "Now witches shift their form, and I have heard of one old witch changing herself into a pigeon; but that I am bound to regard as exceptional, the regular form into which Manx witches pass at their pleasure being that of the hare, and such a swift and thick skinned hare that no greyhound, except a black one without a single white hair, can catch it, and no shot, except a silver coin, penetrate its body."

• attestation: It is very likely a question which could be cleared up by a local man famihar with the island and all that tradition has to say on the subject of Manx pedigrees (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "and this looks as if they descended from the family physicians or druids of one or two chieftains in ancient times. It is very likely a question which could be cleared up by a local man famihar with the island and all that tradition has to say on the subject of Manx pedigrees.

In the case of animals ailing"

• attestation: One of the best Manx scholars in the island related to me how some fishermen once insisted on his doing the charmer for them because of his being of such and such a family, and how he made fools of th (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "One of the best Manx scholars in the island related to me how some fishermen once insisted on his doing the charmer for them because of his being of such and such a family, and how he made fools of them."

• attestation: It is very likely a question which could be cleared up by a local man famihar with the island and all that tradition has to say on the subject of Manx pedigrees (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "It is very likely a question which could be cleared up by a local man famihar with the island and all that tradition has to say on the subject of Manx pedigrees."

• attestation: One of the best Manx scholars in the island related to me how some fishermen once insisted on his doing the charmer for them because of his being of such and such a family (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "on which I should be glad to learn the opinion of anthropologists. One of the best Manx scholars in the island related to me how some fishermen once insisted on his doing the charmer for them because of his being of such and such a family"

• attestation: It is very likely a question which could be cleared up by a local man famihar with the island and all that tradition has to say on the subject of Manx (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "It is very likely a question which could be cleared up by a local man famihar with the island and all that tradition has to say on the subject of Manx pedigrees.

In the case of animals ailing, the herbs were also resorted to; and, if the beasts happened to be milch cows, the herbs had to be boiled in some of their milk."

• attestation: I allude to what I have heard about two maiden ladies living in a Manx village which I know very well: they are natives of a neighbouring parish, and I am assured that whenever a stranger enters their (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "I allude to what I have heard about two maiden ladies living in a Manx village which I know very well: they are natives of a neighbouring parish, and I am assured that whenever a stranger enters their house they proceed, as soon as he goes away, to strew a little dust or sand over the spot where he stood."

• attestation: I allude to what I have heard about two maiden ladies living in a Manx village which I know very well: they are natives of a neighbouring parish (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "with the result that she at once recovered her sight. A similar question of psychology presents itself in a practice intended as a preservative against the evil eye rather than as a cure. I allude to what I have heard about two maiden ladies living in a Manx village which I know very well: they are natives of a neighbouring parish"

• attestation: Manx stories merge this burning in a very perplexing fashion with what may be termed a sacrifice for luck (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "Manx stories merge this burning in a very perplexing fashion with what may be termed a sacrifice for luck."

• attestation: One more Manx instance: an octogenarian woman, born in the parish of Bride, and now living at Kirk Andreas, saw, when she was a ' lump of a girl ' of ten or fifteen years of age, a live sheep being bu (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "One more Manx instance: an octogenarian woman, born in the parish of Bride, and now living at Kirk Andreas, saw, when she was a ' lump of a girl ' of ten or fifteen years of age, a live sheep being burnt in a field in the parish of Andreas, on May-day, whereby she meant the first of May reckoned according to the Old Style."

• relationship: Lastly, I am convinced that she did hear the May-day sacrifice discussed, both in Manx and in English: her words, ' for an object to the public,' are her imperfect recollection of a phrase used in her (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "Lastly, I am convinced that she did hear the May-day sacrifice discussed, both in Manx and in English: her words, ' for an object to the public,' are her imperfect recollection of a phrase used in her hearing by somebody more ambitious of employing English abstract terms than she is; and the formal nature of her statement in Manx, that it was customary on May-day to burn as a sacrifice one head of sheep {Laa Boaldyn va cliaghtey dy lostey son oural un baagh keyrragh), produces the same impression on my mind, that she is only repeating somebody else's words."

• attestation: The man who told me this, on being asked whether he had ever heard of cattle being driven through fire or between two fires on May-day, rephed that it was not known to him as a Manx custom, but that i (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "The man who told me this, on being asked whether he had ever heard of cattle being driven through fire or between two fires on May-day, rephed that it was not known to him as a Manx custom, but that it was an Irish one."

• attestation: She then had the Manx view of the matter fully explained to her, and she has since found more information about it, and so have I (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "She then had the Manx view of the matter fully explained to her, and she has since found more information about it, and so have I."

• attestation: But so far as 1 have been able to find, the Manx pronunciation is now Hob tfy itaa, which I have heard in the north, while Hoi j'u naa is the prevalent form in the south (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "But so far as 1 have been able to find, the Manx pronunciation is now Hob tfy itaa, which I have heard in the north, while Hoi j'u naa is the prevalent form in the south."

• attestation: First, I may mention that the Manx mummers used to go about singing, in Manx, a sort of Hogmanay song^, reminding one of that usual in Yorkshire and other parts of Great Britain, and now known to be o (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter IV: Manx Folklore)

  "First, I may mention that the Manx mummers used to go about singing, in Manx, a sort of Hogmanay song^, reminding one of that usual in Yorkshire and other parts of Great Britain, and now known to be of Romance origin^."

• comparison: Perhaps a more systematic examination of Manx folklore may result in the discovery of a more exact parallel (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "Perhaps a more systematic examination of Manx folklore may result in the discovery of a more exact parallel."

• attestation: The personal name would be written in modern Manx in its radical form as Boltane, and if it occurred in the genitive in Ogam inscriptions I should expect to find it written Boltagni or Baltagni^ (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "The personal name would be written in modern Manx in its radical form as Boltane, and if it occurred in the genitive in Ogam inscriptions I should expect to find it written Boltagni or Baltagni^."

• attestation: This is pronounced in Manx approximately ^.Santane or Sandane, and would have yielded an early inscriptional nominative sanctanvs, whichj in fact, occ (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "This is pronounced in Manx approximately ^.Santane or Sandane, and would have yielded an early inscriptional nominative sanctanvs, whichj in fact, occurs on an old stone near ILandudno on the Welsh coast: see some notes of mine in point in the Archceologia Cambrensis, 1897, pp. 140-2."

• attestation: Manx has a word quaail (Irish comhdhdit), meaning a ' meeting/ and from it we have a derivative quaaltagh or qualiagh, meaning, according to Kelly's Dictionary, 'the first person or creature one meets (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "Manx has a word quaail (Irish comhdhdit), meaning a ' meeting/ and from it we have a derivative quaaltagh or qualiagh, meaning, according to Kelly's Dictionary, 'the first person or creature one meets going from home,' whereby the author can have only meant the first met by one who is going from home."

• attestation: Some of them scarcely require to be noticed, as there is nothing specially Manx about them, such as the belief that it is unlucky to have the first glimpse of the new moon through glass (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "Some of them scarcely require to be noticed, as there is nothing specially Manx about them, such as the belief that it is unlucky to have the first glimpse of the new moon through glass."

• attestation: Thus a good Manx scholar told me how a relative of his in the Ronnag, a small valley near South Barrule, had carted away the earth from an old burial ground on his farm and used it as manure for his f (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "Thus a good Manx scholar told me how a relative of his in the Ronnag, a small valley near South Barrule, had carted away the earth from an old burial ground on his farm and used it as manure for his fields, and how his beasts died afterwards."

• attestation: Of the other and more purely Manx superstitions I may mention one which obtains among the Peel fishermen of the present day: no boat is willing to be third in the order of sailing out from Peel harbou (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "Of the other and more purely Manx superstitions I may mention one which obtains among the Peel fishermen of the present day: no boat is willing to be third in the order of sailing out from Peel harbour to the fisheries."

• attestation: It seems to me that if the Manx had once a habit of adorning the graves of the departed with white stones, that circumstance would be a reasonable explanation of the superstition in question (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "It seems to me that if the Manx had once a habit of adorning the graves of the departed with white stones, that circumstance would be a reasonable explanation of the superstition in question."

• attestation: His habits of speech point back to a time when the Manx mind was dominated by the fear of awaking malignant influences in the spirit world around him (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "His habits of speech point back to a time when the Manx mind was dominated by the fear of awaking malignant influences in the spirit world around him."

• attestation: This has had the effect of giving the Manx peasant's character a tinge of reserve and suspicion, which makes it difficult to gain his confidence: his acquaintance has, therefore, to be cultivated for (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "This has had the effect of giving the Manx peasant's character a tinge of reserve and suspicion, which makes it difficult to gain his confidence: his acquaintance has, therefore, to be cultivated for some time before you can say that you know the workings of his heart."

• attestation: So, when one knocks at a Manx door and calls out, Vel p'agh sthie? he literally asks, ' Is there any sinner indoors (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "So, when one knocks at a Manx door and calls out, Vel p'agh sthie? he literally asks, ' Is there any sinner indoors?'"

• attestation: Lastly, the fact that a curse is a species of prayer, to wit, a prayer for evil to follow, is well exemplified in Manx by the same words, gwee'^, plural gweeaghyn, meaning both kinds of prayer (Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx > Volume I > Chapter V: The Fenodyree and his Friends)

  "Lastly, the fact that a curse is a species of prayer, to wit, a prayer for evil to follow, is well exemplified in Manx by the same words, gwee'^, plural gweeaghyn, meaning both kinds of prayer."