, when
the old man lost patience (as he did once in every ten minutes) and
interposing usefully in our discussions.

For there were endless discussions as to the meaning of words, and
nothing could be more curious than to see the old man's endeavour to
give in English not merely a bare rendering, but the colour of every
phrase. It made me realise as nothing else could have done, how fine was
his feeling for the shade of a word, and I cannot describe his
dissatisfaction with the poor equivalents he could find. He was happy
enough when the debate drifted into an exposition--always addressed to
his son--of the uses of some rare word in the Irish, the manner of
exposition being by citation of passages from other songs, or phrases
that might occur in talk. I have listened to many a professor doing the
same thing in Greek and Latin, but to none who had a finer instinct for
the business. Kelly's vexation came when he had to "put English on" a
word for me, and the obvious equivalent was not the right one. Sometimes
I could help; sometimes he arrived by himself at what satisfied him,
though once at least it was droll enough. We were at the lines where
Connlaoch, dying, says to his father: "If I could give my secret to any
under the sun, it is to your bright body I would tell it." The trouble
was about the phrase "bright body," for the word "cneas" means literally
"skin," but is used (just like [Greek: chros] in Homer) to signify
"person." What James wanted to convey to me was that the word was not
the common one for "body," and at last he smote his thigh. "Carkidge,"
he cried, "it's carkidge (carcase), 'It is to your clear carkidge I
would tell it.'" A man with less instinct for literature would have said
"body" at once, and never trouble more; but James knew at once too much
and too little, and I give the instance to show how an Irishman
unlettered in English may be deeply imbued with the true spirit of
letters through a literature of his own.

There were, however, several passages where I could get no clear account
of the meaning, and in some I have since found by comparison with the
text which O'Halloran provided for Miss Brooke that Kelly had got the
words twisted. For instance, the first stanza opens simply:--

"There came to us a stout champion,
The hearty champion Connlaoch."

But of the next two lines I could get no clearer rendering than that "he
just came in full through these people for diversion and for f