On wiser books them to instruct!
Let droll John their fancy cook.’
[161] Properly Milngavie, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. The common pronunciation of the word is phonetically given as ‘Milguy’ in Morren’s edition. In the modern Glasgow copies the spelling is ‘Mullgay.’
[162] ‘Or the Hottentot gibberish,’ is added in the modern Glasgow editions.
[163] Randall’s and Morren’s editions end here, the former with the lines quoted in p. 168 as preceding the title of Morren’s edition. What follows in the text appears in undated editions published in Glasgow within the last fifty years.
[164] Suggested, apparently, by Proverbs, vi. 26.
[165] Red-headed.
[166] ‘In his teeth,’ according to a modern undated edition.
[167] I.e., off the Mull of Galloway.
[168] A custom which has not yet fallen into disuetude in Irish communities. The popular idea of the use of these articles is simply that the brogues are for the accommodation of the dead man on his journey heaven-wards; the candle to light him on the way; the ‘good hard-headed old hammer’ to raise St. Peter, the venerable porter at the celestial gate; and the money is to pay for tolls. To many persons this explanation may smack somewhat of irreverence, but we are not aware of any more satisfactory explanation of the custom. Divested of its ‘bulls,’ the narrative of Teague is a fair outline of the proceedings at an Irish funeral.