GAELIC NOTES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 7, 14 June 1895, Page 15

GAELIC NOTES.

It is to be feared that the Celtic mind is not altogether free from some taint of cynicism. Take for example the following proverb in Irish Gaelic :— An t£ td, evas 61tar deoch air ; an te ta eios buailtear cos air.

The Gael of Scotland takes also his views of human nature: — Bidh c&'rdean gu leor aig an fhear a bhios fialaidh.

There is plainly in these sayings a common sentiment ■differently expressed. The Irish proverb, however is the more comprehensive.

The English word ' whiskey ' (says the Gaelic Journal for April) •was taken, as most paople know, from the lriah uisge beathadh, water of life. It would seem that when the English form of the word was introduced tbe vi of uisge waa not a digraph, but was pronounced (as yet in Scotch Gaelic) as vi in ruin. Uisge beithaih is hardly ever heard now : the common word is bio'&tlle or bioldilte. This is the French victuailTe or English victuzls, and we have one English phrase whtre the word yet means liquor, " licensed victualler." A victualler is one who sells meat, but a licensed victualler is one who sells drink.

MaC'Talla of April 13 reports the death, at Montreal, of a miser : — Chaocbail seana bhean, aois tbri fichead bliadbna 'sa doich, clo'm V ainm Majre Sutherlan, ann am Montreal, air an t-seachdain &'a chaidh. Bba'san ainm gu robh i gle bhochd, ach 'ouair a chaidh a tigh A rannsachadh an deigh a hk\s, fhuaireadh mv tnhile dolair am f&lach an sid 'eaa so air fheadh.

The number of Gaelic-speaking people in Ireland, according to tbe census of 1891, was 680,157— -made up as follows : —County Galway , 125,57* ; County Cork, 119,720; County Mayo, 110,365; County Kerry, 74,182 ; County Donegal, 62,037 ; Count? Cbre, 46,878 ; County Waterford, 37,479 ; other counties), 103,922. Allowing however for omissions necessarily made in the census returns, tbe total number was in all probability cot lesa than 750,000 According to the report of the Gaelic League, Is m 6 iord, trian na hEireann mend na lire f& n-a bhfail an Ghaednea'g dk labhair'.

The nse of the Roman character ii printing Irish literature (says the Gaelic Journal) is becoming daily more prevaknr,and has been adopted in a number of journals. We cnfeßs personally to a strong preference for the Irish characters — a prffVenco bas-'d on a number of reasons, sentimental and prsc'ical But we have no sympathy whatever with tbos<? who object in toto to Roman typ\ which is just as Irish as it is EDglish, French, Italian, or American. A language is made up, not of strokep, curves, and do-, but of sound"?, wordß, aid idioms.