"Clunk" (Vol. viii., p. 65.).—The Scotch, and English, clunk must have different meanings: for Jamieson defines the verb to clunk "to emit a hollow and interrupted sound, as that proceeding from any liquid confined in a cask, when shaken, if the cask be not full;" and to guggle, as a "straight-necked bottle, when it is emptying;" and yet I am inclined to believe that the word also signifies to swallow, as in England. In the humorous ballad of "Rise up and bar the door," clunk seems to be used in the sense of to swallow:
"And first they eat the while puddins, and then they eat the black;
The gudeman said within himsel, the Deil clunk ower ai that."
That is, may you swallow the devil with the black puddings, they perhaps being the best to the good man's taste. True, I have seen the word printed "clink," instead of clunk in this song; but erroneously I think, as there is no signification of clink in Jamieson that could be appropriately used by the man who saw his favourite puddings devoured before his face. To clink, means to "beat smartly", to "rivet the point of a nail," to "propagate scandal, or any rumour quickly;" none of which significations could be substituted for clunk in the ballad.
Henry Stephens.
Picts' Houses (Vol. viii., p. 392.).—Such buildings underground as those described as Picts'
houses, were not uncommon on the borders of the Tweed. A number of them, apparently constructed as described, were discovered in a field on the farm of Whitsome Hill, Berwickshire, about forty years ago. They were supposed to have been made for the detention of prisoners taken in the frays during the Border feuds: and afterwards they were employed to conceal spirits, smuggled either across the Border, or from abroad.
Henry Stephens.
Tailless Cats (Vol. ix., p. 10.).—The tailless cats are still procurable in the Isle of Man, though many an unfortunate pussey with the tail cut off is palmed off as genuine on the unwary. The real tailless breed are rather longer in the hind legs than the ordinary cat, and grow to a large size.
P. P.