Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/175

156 GRAMMAR swearing, and is a good deal less offensive. Venjens, a borrowed English word, may be substituted for Mollath. 1 One finds Mil venjens warnas ! and even Venjens en dha 'las ! But all these last expressions represent unusually violent states of mind, and cannot be recommended for general use ; for if one were to use up such expletives as these on matters of little moment, there would be nothing left for state occasions. The expressions Malbe, Malbew, Malbew dam, Malbe dam, found in The Creation and in St. Meriasek, are considered by Prof. Loth to be maledictions referring to the French expression Mai beau or Beau mat, a euphonism for epilepsy, so that Malbe dam has no connection with the similar sound of part of it in English, but only means " Epilepsy to me ! " The seventeenth and eighteenth century speakers of Cornish sometimes wished to express contempt or dis- like by abusive terms. These often take the form of epithets added to the word pedn, head. Thus, Pedn bras, literally "great head," is equivalent to the impolite English "fat-head"; Pedn Jowl, devil's head; Pedn mousaky stinking head ; these three are given as common terms of abuse by Carew. When the late Mrs. Dolly Pentreath was at all put out, she is reported to have used the term Cronak an hagar deu (The ugly black toad), and there are several equally uncomplimentary epithets scattered up and down among the Dramas. But these words do not accord with the polite manners of those who belong to the most gentlemanlike race, except the Scottish Highlanders, in all Christendom, and those Cornishmen who require that their conversation should be a little more forcible than "yea " and " nay" (for which, by the way, there is no real Cornish) are recommended not to go beyond Re Varia, Ren Offeren, and an invoca- 1 Vengeans yth glas ! is used by the wife of the smith who makes the nails for the Cross in the Drama of The Passion (1. 2716).