"I do not so _secure_ me in the error."--Act I. Sc. 3. In Du Cange's _Gloss._ is the verb "_Securare_ nude pro securum reddere." In the "Alter Index sive Glossarium" of Ainsworth's _Dictionary_ is the verb "_Securo_, as ... to live carelessly." In the "Verba partim Graeca Latine scripta, partim barbara," &c., is "_Securo_, as securum reddo." The _means_ of the hare in the fable for the race (that is, her swiftness) _secured_ her; the defects of the tortoise (her slowness) proved her _commodity_. F. W. J. * * * * * MANNERS OF THE IRISH. The following are extracts from a MS. volume of the sixteenth century, containing, _inter alia_, notes of the Manners and Superstitions of the {5} Celtic Irish. Some of our readers may be able to elucidate the obscure references: "The Irish men they have a farme, They kepp the bread, And make _boyranne_. They make butter and eatt _molchan_. And when they haue donne They have noe shamm. They burne the strawe and make _loisbran_. They eatt the flesh and drinke the broth, And when they have done they say _Deo gracias is smar in Doieagh_." The next appears to be a scrap of a woman's song: "Birch and keyre 'tis wal veyre a spyunyng deye a towme. I am the geyest mayed of all that brought the somer houme. Justice Deyruse in my lopp, and senscal in my roame," &c. John Devereux was Justiciary of the Palatinate Liberty of Wexford in the early part of Henry VIII.'s reign. That Palatinate was then governed by a seneschal or "senscal." The justice would seem to have been a gallant and _sensual_ man, and the song may have been a little satirical. Among the notes of the "Manners" of the Irish, it is declared that-- "Sett them a farme--the grandfather, father, son, and they clayme it as their own: if not, they goe to rebellion." Will any antiquary versed in Celtic customs explain whether this claim of possession grew out of any Celtic usage of tenancy? And also point out authorities bearing upon the customs of Celtic agricultural tenancy? The next extract bears upon the communication at Vol. vii., p. 332.: "An _Ultagh_ hath three purses. He runneth behind dore to draw his money: one cutteth the throte of another."