There are very many of these special modes of expression. To spread a report is _to set it aboot_, to scold a person is _to call_ him, to call a person is _to call of_ him, to pour hot water on tea-leaves is _to mash t’ tay_, to be going to the bad is _to be at a loose end_, to leave off doing a thing is _to give ower_, and to give good promise of success is _to fraame middlin_. If an East Yorkshireman wishes to make known that he saw his brother Sam, he will say _Ah seed oor Sam_. Of one who cannot look after himself he will say that _t’ awd chap canna fend for hissen_, and of one who is not getting better from an illness it will be said that _he dizn’t mend onny_. Sometimes the result of the change of expression becomes ludicrous, as it was in the case of the cottager who, telling of a lodger that he prepared his own food and she did his washing for him, explained: _He meeats hissen an’ ah weshes him_. The East Yorkshireman, like many other people, likes making comparisons; but he has his own idea of what forms a fit and proper comparison. Thus, in speaking of the steepness of a cliff he will tell us that it is _as brant as a hoose sahd_, or he will explain that his grandfather is _as deeaf as a yat-stowp_.[68] Concerning a person of whose capabilities he does not think highly, he will tell us that he is _as fond as a billy-gooat_, or _as green as a yalla cabbish_, or even _as soft as a boiled tonnap_. Footnote 68: _Yat-stowp_=gate-post. * * * * * Many other examples of the peculiarities of the East Yorkshire Folk-Speech might be given. What shall we say about them? Shall we smile at what we are pleased to consider mis-pronunciations and awkward attempts to speak the English language? When the farm-labourer, who had been beguiled into buying a ‘solid gold-plated keyless watch jewelled in seven holes’ from a cheap-jack in Beverley Market Place, was told by his companion to _ax_ where the key was, and proceeded to bawl out _Wheer’s t’ kay?_ was he to be laughed at for murdering the King’s English? If we wish to laugh at those who thus speak ‘broad Yorkshire’ let us do so. But at the same time let us remember that what we are pleased to call ‘broad Yorkshire’ is often much truer English than what we ourselves customarily use. A thousand years ago our ancestors called a key _cæg_ (pronounced _kaig_), and used the verb _acsian_ where we should use ‘ask.’ They also used the word _cy_ (pronounced _kee_) for the plural of _cu_ (pronounced _koo_), and the word _cilder_ (pronounced _kilder_) for the plural of _cild_. So really the East Yorkshire farm-labourers are speaking the language of their ancestors much more truly than we who mis-pronounce words and make them into _cows_ and _ask_, and who manufacture such a double plural as the word _child(e)r-en_.