Blair Collection > Beside the fire

1 84 NOTES.
anyone, what he ought to do is to shake a pinchful of the ashes of the airc-
luachra upon the wound, and he will be cured thereby ; and so, if worldly
prosperity wounds the conscience, what you ought to do is to put a poultice
of the same prosperity to cure the wound which the covetousness by which
you have amassed it has made in your conscience, by distributing upon the
poor of God all that remains over your own necessity." The practice which
the fourth-centurj' Latin alludes to, is in Ireland to-day transferred to the dar-
daol, or góévius olens of the naturalists, which is always burnt as soon as
found. I have often heard people say : — *' Kill a keerhogue (clock or little
beetle) ; burn a dar-dael."
Page 59. Boccuch (bACAc), literally a lame man, is, or rather was, the
name of a very common class of beggars about the beginning of this century.
Many of these men were wealthy enough, and some used to go about with
horses to collect the " alms " which the people unwillingly gave them. From all
accounts they appear to have been regular black-mailers, and to have extorted
charity partly through inspiring physical and partly moral terror, for the satire,
at least of some of them, was as much dreaded as their cudgels. Here is a
curious specimen of their truculence from a song called the bACAch burohe,
now nearly forgotten : —
IfbACAch me cÁ am(\ aoii choif, pubhAlpAibh me 50 fpéiiAeAiiiAiL,
CeAnnócliAibh me biAeioin i ^-CifL-CAinnigh bo'n bh|\Aoif,
CuippeAt) COCA có|\ui5uhe jbeufCA, A'f búcbA buinlie Aip m'Aon choif,
A'f TiAch iTiAich 1T10 i'hbjlie hmh A'f euiDAijh o chAiLL mo chofA
•púbhAb!
ni'lbACAch 11Á |-eA|A-inÁlA o SligeAch 50 Ciiiii-q-Aibe
Ajuf Ó bheub-Ati-AdiA 50 bAibe-tuixihe ha miblie,
tlAch bh].niil, AgAm ttaoi Áp-o-cln'o]', A^uf c|\óiii AiiAgliAitth ha ]\Áiche,
no iniiieóchAinn a g-ciiAniliA le bACA ^lAf •OAtVAijh.
I am a boceugh who goes on one foot, I will travel airily,
I will buy frize in Kilkenny for the breeches (?)
I will put a well-ordered prepared coat and yellow buckles on my one foot
And isn't it good, my way of getting food and clothes since my feet lost their
walk.
There is no boccuch or bagman from Sligo to Kinsale
And from Ballina to Ballybwee(Athboy) in Meath,
That I have not under high rent to me — a crown every quarter from them —
Or I'd pound their bones small with a green oak stick.