_Black_ means black; in High-German it would be _schwarz_. _De black_ is the black horse; _black up wit_ is black on white; _gif mek kil un blak_, give me quill and ink. _Blid_ is _blithe_, instead of the High-German _mild_. _Bottervogel_, or _botterhahn_, or _botterhex, is __butterfly__, instead of __schmetterling__. It is a common superstition in_ the North of Germany, that one ought to mark the first butterfly one sees in spring. A white one betokens mourning, a yellow one a christening, a variegated one a wedding. _Bregen_ or _brehm_ is used instead of the High-German _gehirn_; it is the English _brain_. People say of a very foolish person, that his brain is frozen, _de brehm is em verfrorn_. The peculiar English but, which has given so much trouble to grammarians and etymologists, exists in the Holstein _buten_, literally outside, the Dutch _buiten_, the Old-Saxon _bi-ûtan_. _Buten_ in German is a regular contraction, just as _binnen_, which means inside, within, during. _Heben_ is the English heaven, while the common German name is _Himmel_. _Hückup_ is a sigh, and no doubt the English _hiccough_. _Düsig_ is dizzy; _talkig_ is talkative. There are some curious words which, though they have a Low-German look, are not to be found in English or Anglo-Saxon. Thus _plitsch_, which is used in Holstein in the sense of clever, turns out to be a corruption of _politisch_, _i.e._ political. _Krüdsch_ means particular or over nice; it is a corruption of _kritisch_, critical. _Katolsch_ means angry, mad, and is a corruption of _catholic_, _i.e._ Roman Catholic. _Kränsch_ means plucky, and stands for _courageux_. _Fränksch_, _i.e._ Frankish, means strange; _Flämsch_, _i.e._ Flemish, means sulky, and is used to form superlatives; _Polsch_, _i.e._ Polish, means wild. _Forsch_ means strong and strength, and comes from the French _force_. _Klür_ is a corruption of _couleur_, and _Kunkelfusen_ stands for confusion or fibs. Some idiomatic and proverbial expressions, too, deserve to be noted. Instead of saying, “The sun has set,” the Holsteiners, fond as they are of their beer, particularly in the evening after a hard day’s work, say, “_De Sünn geiht to Beer_,” “The sun goes to beer.” If you ask in the country how far it is to some town or village, a peasant will answer, “_’n Hunnblaff_,” “A dog’s bark,” if it is quite close; or “_’n Pip Toback_,” “A pipe of tobacco,” meaning about half an hour. Of a conceited fellow they say, “_Hê hört de Flégn hosten_,” “He hears the flies coughing.” If a man is full of great schemes, he is told, “_In Gedanken fört de Bur ôk in’t Kutsch_.” “In thought the peasant, too, drives in a coach.” A man who boasts is asked, “_Pracher! häst ôk Lüs, oder schuppst di man so?_” “Braggart! have you really lice, or do you only scratch yourself as if you had?”