The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“After this, the neighbors began to flock in more generally. When any
relation of the corpses would come, as soon, you see, as they'd get
inside the door, whether man or woman, they'd raise the shout of a
keena, and all the people about the dead would begin along with them,
stooping over them and clapping their hands as before.
“Well, I said, it's it that was the merry wake, and that was only the
thruth, neighbors. As soon as night came, all the young boys and girls
from the countryside about them flocked to it in scores. In a short
time the house was crowded; and maybe there wasn't laughing, and
story-telling, and singing, and smoking, and drinking, and crying--all
going on, heller-skelter, together. When they'd be all in full chorus
this way, may be, some new friend or relation, that wasn't there before,
would come in, and raise the keena; of coorse, the youngsters would then
keep quiet; and if the person coming in was from the one neighborhood
with any of them that were so merry, as soon as he'd raise the shout,
the merry folks would rise up, begin to pelt their hands together, and
cry along with him till their eyes would be as red as a ferret's.
That once over, they'd be down again at the songs, and divarsion, and
divilment--just as if nothing of the kind had taken place: the other
would then shake hands with the friends of the corpses, get a glass or
two, and a pipe, and in a few minutes be as merry as the best of them.”
“Well,” said Andy Morrow, “I should like to know if the Scotch and
English are such heerum-skeerum kind of people as we Irishmen are.”
“Musha, in throth I'm sure they're not,” says Nancy, “for I believe
that Irishmen are like nobody in the wide world but themselves; quare
crathurs, that'll laugh or cry, or fight with any one, just for nothing
else, good or bad but company.”
“Indeed, and you all know, that what I'm sayin's thruth, except Mr.
Morrow there, that I'm telling it to, bekase he's not in the habit of
going to wakes; although, to do him justice he's very friendly in going
to a neighbor's funeral; and, indeed, _kind father for you_* Mr. Morrow,
for it's he that was a real good hand at going to such places.
* That is, in this point you are the, same kind as your
father; possessing that prominent trait in his disposition
or character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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