The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-03-08

y horse. and foretells drowning.
Al of the words mentioned SO iar
are found in old English or oco''isn
Ia and several Of them occur
| IN one of the three Mermaid songs
heard occasionally along The Banks
These songs are now rarely nearu eN-
cept from the older Women ana lHes
seem ashamed to DE cauSnt SiHSihs
them. 1t has been with the d
difficulty that ] lave ever persuaded
them to repeat the words OF an ola
song for me while | TOOK II uo"i.
from their dictation.
nave constantly met with othel
words in the speech Of these good
people, which l was inclined 10 regard
as careless or slovenly pronunclatlons,
believing that Incidence doth much
corrupt our language In this class
I place the pronunciation OF words
with the omission of certain letters,
as, daugher (daughter), Waer IVA
teri, buer (butter), leer, Oetter), and
a host of others; faute ~(fault), fause
(~false). Wanut (Walnut), plead
(pleased); others OF unusual pronun
citation, as trod ttroI), throcked
(t~hronged), leuch Naugh), birk
(birch, sixteenth century rorm). ga
equal, like the French), thocht
| (thought, Scotch spelling. 0. E.),
sweet lsweetheart>, FAINT infant),
wonders (Wondrous). Wharrel (cuar-
rel, in Middle English, but French IN
| origin, know (knoII), fole Good;
and others whose origin is not SO evil
dent, as throddy (plump), sleek. in
| good condition., as applied to q steer
or TO a mullet; cracker (boaster, CT.
Burns and our cracking jokes'); in
which case Mr.. ROoseveits cracker
jack" would not be a bully chap
but q Boosting clown.
There are other words in which
there seems TO be the insertion OF a
latter. oc binoc or hln1cf for bra o..
and still others with which we arr
familiar: but used here in an unfa-
niliar sense. as blabber, "a great
blabber' meaning simply a great
chatterer (goes back to fourteenth
century and miracle plays); blcater,
a chubby child: cant, gossip; cap,
surpass, In 4 AN cap you at that
or Il can cap your story like Our
cap the Climax" or the game Of
Gaping verses: accord, agree, in
Let's accord before we eat
Abash means bring discredit on, and
was used by a student from the coast
IN a speech made in a literary society
at the University OF North Carolina,
in the sentence, Shall we abash our
national honor?'
Abrade ma mean to sicken or
n~auseate, as "Cornbreal and fish
tess when / was really sick from too
much tramping over dunes in an All,
gust sun.
Many OF the words in my list arr
used with meanings other than those
we now associate with them. Fause
mean q tidal creek or a ditch, as
we'll as false. Walnut, used in Warnit.
know and W~arlock-knot, means a knot
in timber or a particular knot in q
rope, a very tight knot, and it is also
used as a verb meaning to tighten, as
the rope IN rigging. Birk also means
a smart young fellow, one who needs
the birch, no doubt; and an interdune
area, wet and grown up with aspen
or switches, was described
to me as briky. Birkie in old Scotch
mas this meaning, and the verb birk
IN Scotland means to answer sharply.
In the brOadest part Of the island nea,
Ruxfon there are knows Of sand coy.
cred with tall pines.
THESE words may be mere sIoyen1Y
RECOMMENDATIONS, but if they are due to
mere Incidence. it is an Incidence that
affected our ancestors when they were
laying the of the English
language, as many Of them date back
TO the age of Chaucer; and they show
as d1Vorse origins and as fine a blend.
ing OF different characters as tho
Eng1ishman himself. Some of thasa
pronuncations are natural musical va
riations.
In q Methodist church at kinna-
keet, on Hatteras Island to the north
OF the cape, q young mother nursing
Two chaidren sung TO them a nar-
maids song
Eofio", follow through the sea.
10 the n1ermaid's melody.
me tune harmonizing very well with
that Of the hymn. f'
oone 1hou of every blessin.
when the congregation was sino;nc
MS was IN 1898, and yet the time VIC
essentially the same as fbat IF .riaus
song in The Tempest.
huI fathOm five thy father lja~
of his bones are coral made