‘Grimes oxtercogged [went arm in arm, was intimate] with the fairies often. He’d be in conversation with them and people wud hear him talking till them, but he’d always deny it. Many a time going till the well he was aheared tellin’ them to keep off him. He was a wee bit of a man: she was six foot, and he’d even deny it to her.’
‘Cows were sometimes elf-shot when I wus wee. I mind a man cud cure the bother. He’d take a bit of kindled turf from the fire be the tongs an’ move it from side to side an’ say a bit of a prayer. It wus then put under the cow’s nose an’ she wus soon better.’
‘Me gran’father minded a fight at the graveyard gate between two funerals that arrived tillgither. It wus a hell of a scrap by he’s account. They went for each other like Turks, all because of a notion that the corp that was through the gates first wud hev the other bludy fella to chop and carry him.
People wur quare in them days – why if oul weemin had water till throw out at night they’d be afeared to do it in case it wus hurtful till some one, but whether it wus ghosts or fairies they wur afeared of I haven’t a notion. An’ if he went for a walk in the graveyard an’ tripped on a grave it wus bad, but heaven help ye if ye spread yer length in such a spot. Ye might just as well go home an’ make yer will.
Many a grave wus hoked [reopened] in the oul’ days, an’ not be people wantin’ bodies for doctors at all, but be people wantin’ skins for charms. It’s a pity till God ye wurn’t here in me gran’father’s time. He knowed it all.’
How can you let speech like this die out? When did you ever hear such verbs as ‘oxtercogged’ and ‘elf-shot’? Eh?