cramp, cramped a

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1987
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/15563

cramp a 508 WILD WALES morning-so may the Virgin help ye, good woman!' 'Give me an alms,' said the Beanvore, with a louder voice than before, 'or it will be worse for you.' 'You must excuse me, good mistress,' says I, 'but I have no more meal in the house. Those thirteen measures which you see there empty were full this morning, for what was in them I have given away to unfortunates. So the Virgin and Child help you.' 'Do you choose to give me an alms?' she shrieked, so that you might have heard her to Londonderry. 'If ye have no meal give me something else.' 'You must excuse me, good lady,' says I: 'it is my custom to give alms in meal, and in nothing else. I have none in the house now; but if ye come on the morrow ye shall have a triple measure. In the meanwhile may the Virgin, Child, and the Holy Trinity assist ye!' Thereupon she looked at me fixedly for a moment, and then said, not in a loud voice, but in a low, half-whispered way, which was ten times more deadly: " 'Biaidh an taifrionn gan. sholas duit a bhean shalach!' Then turning from the door she went away with long strides, Now, honey, can ye tell me the meaning of those words?" "They mean," said I, "unless I am much mistaken: 'May the Mass never comfort ye, you dirty quean!' " "Ochone! that's the meaning of them, sure enough. They are _cramped_ words, but I guessed that was the meaning, or something of the kind. Well, after hearing the evil prayer, I sat for a minute or two quite stunned; at length recovering myself a bit I said to the colleen: 'Get up, and run afer the woman and tell her to come back and cross the prayer.' I meant by crossing that she should call it back or do something that would PRINTED ITEM DNE Sup G. M. Story OCT. 16 1987 [check] WK DNE headnote cites EDD, which has Scottish & English evidence. We may wish to cite the Anglo-Irish evidence recorded by George Borrow, _Wild Wales:_ _Its People, Language and Scenery_ [1862] which I've been reading in the edition from (London and Glasgow: Collins, 1978) Ch. 105, p. 508. ...