A Book of Irish Verse Part 31

Page 140. _Mo bhuachaill_, p.r.o.nounced _mo Vohil_, means 'my boy.'

Page 174. The Goban Saor, the mason Goban, is a familiar personage in Irish folk-lore, and the reputed builder of the round towers.

Page 191. _Slainte_, ['your] health.'

Page 207. 'And their step-mother, being jealous of their father's great love for them, cast upon the king's children, by sorcery, the shape of swans, and bade them go roaming, even till Patrick's ma.s.s-bell should sound in Erin; but no farther in time than that did her power extend.'--_The Fate of the Children of Lir_.

Page 222. The wind was one of the deities of the Pagan Irish. 'The murmuring of the Red Wind from the East,' says an old poem, 'is heard in its course by the strong as well as the weak; it is the wind that wastes the bottom of the trees, and injurious to man is that red wind.'

Page 226. _Can Doov Deelish_ means 'dear black head.'

Page 231. The chorus is p.r.o.nounced _Shoo-il, shoo-il, shoo-il, a rooin, Shoo-il go socair, ogus shoo-il go kiune, Shoo-il go den durrus ogus euli liom, Iss go de too, mo vourneen, slaun_, and means--

'Move, move, move, O treasure, Move quietly and move gently, Move to the door, and fly with me, And mayest thou go, my darling, safe!'

Page 232. _Shan van vocht_, meaning 'little old woman', is a name for Ireland.

Page 235. This is not the most ancient form of the ballad, but it is the form into which it was recast by Boucicault, and which has long taken the place of all others.

Page 237, line 2. 'Sinking,' violent swearing.

THE END