Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/375

14 THE DIALECT OF seen. At Bretton it was fonnerly the belief that if a young woman went into a laithe and set both the doors open, the man she was to have would pass through at 'midneet.' Watchers used to sit in Almondbury church porch, who expected or pretended to see all the funerals or weddings whidi were to take place during the ensuing year. These persons were naturally detested ; they would say they saw the fonersils of those against whom they had a spite ; often with ill results. And sometimes they caused as much annoyance by managing to see weddings. It was believed that if a person went once to watch, he was under a spell to continue the practice year after year, duly as St. Mark^s Eve came round. Boh, the interjection : when spoken of as a substantive sometimes called hoffy of which the following is an illustration. A man had undertaken to train a foal, and he instructed his son to lie in wait under a hed^, and spring out and say Boh ! in order to startle the animal. This he accomjmshed pretty effectually, for the father was thrown sprawling upon the road. On rising, he exclaimed, * Nay, lad, that was too gi-et a hoff for a foiL' Boison. See Boson. Bole, or Booal, the trunk of a tree. Bokh, to kill by over-feeding. * Tha'll holsh- that if tha' doesn't mind.* Chiefly used with respect to rabbits. Bonny, pretty; fair; beautiful. Also used ironically: 'That's a honny come up,* «. c, a pretty affair. Booin, a word used for a cow-stall. Booin, i. e. boon. *To pve a hooin^ b to assist a farmer gratis to get in his crops. Halliwell says ' hoon days ' are those on which a tenant is bound to work for his lord gratis. Booltins on. In making oat-bread there is much waste of meal, &c. This is swept up, and sometimes given to the pigs, and is known by the name above. Boose (pronounced hoois), the place where the cow lies ; an ox-stalL Boose-seal (pronounced booisseal), a piece of wood or chain going round the neck to tie or *seal' (as it is called) tiie cow or ox to the stall. [N.B.— A seal is a rope (A.S. edl, Du. zeel, G. eeil): nothing to do with sealing.-'W. W, 8.] ^ S^ ^ Boose-stake (pronounced boois-staJce), a stake in the mistal or stable to which cattle are tied. Boson, a badger. * Paid for a pair of hawnons,' -^Old Churchwarden's Accounts. By some, as at Lepton, called bauson. * He's as silly as a hauson;' *he's a gert bauson,* &c. By others called boison, as given to me here. In one glossary it is spelt bawson, and by Halfiwell boson. It must, however, be observed, if the true word were boson, the Almondbury pronunciation might be boison; and if the true woid were buwson, then the local pronunciation would be boson.