Subject: in shelter

From: Lenny <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:23:28 +0200

excitement. 'I'm after trying the paper over the fire,' he said, 'and
it burned grand. Didn't I think, when I seen you doing it there was no
good in it at all, but I put a paper over the master's (the
school-master's) fire and it flamed up. Then I pulled back the corner of
the paper and I ran my head in, and believe me, there was a big cold
wind blowing up the chimney that would sweep the head from you.' We
nearly quarrelled because he wanted me to take his photograph in his
Sunday clothes from Galway, instead of his native homespuns that become
him far better, though he does not like them as they seem to connect him
with the primitive life of the island. With his keen temperament, he may
go far if he can ever step out into the world. He is constantly
thinking. One day he asked me if there was great wonder on their names
out in the country. I said there was no wonder on them at all. 'Well,'
he said, 'there is great wonder on your name in the island, and I was
thinking maybe there would be great wonder on our names out in the
country.' In a sense he is right. Though the names here are ordinary
enough, they are used in a way that differs altogether from the modern
system of surnames. When a child begins to wander about the island, the
neighbours speak of it by its Christian name, followed by the Christian
name of its father. If this is not enough to identify it, the father's
epithet--whether it is a nickname or the name of his own father--is
added. Sometimes when the father's name does not lend itself, the
mother's Christian name is adopted as epithet for the children. An old
woman near this cottage is called 'Peggeen,' and her sons are 'Patch
Pheggeen,' 'Seaghan Pheggeen,' etc. Occasionally the surname is employed
in its Irish form, but I have not heard them using the 'Mac' prefix when
speaking Irish among themselves; perhaps the idea of a surname which it
gives is too modern for them, perhaps they do use it at times that I
have not noticed. Sometimes a man is named from the colour of his hair.
There is t