Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl (29 page)

duidín:
traditional white-clay Irish peasant pipe

foolscap:
writing paper used in seventeenth-century England

gewgaw:
a bright, glittering treasure in the knickknack realm

glowworm:
lightning bug

gob:
mouth, throat

hibber-jibber:
babbling hyperactivity, madly disorganized

High Brazil:
an island said to be visible from the West coast of Kerry

on the clearest of days: the island St. Brendan went in search of

hog’s meat:
what swine eat (including grasses, plants, grubs, as well as

slop) in Barbados

hoorson:
a curse: son of a whore

housheen:
a little cottage or cabin

iasc:
fish

Jihad:
Holy War, whether internal or external, through the word or

the sword

kine:
cattle

loblolly:
West Indian slave rations of boiled cornmeal

lus-more:
a field herb, related to mullein

Mam:
the Irish vernacular for one’s mother: Mom/Mama

navvies:
sailors

nuss:
vernacular for nursing a child

og:
young

olagon:
the wailing tradition of Irishwomen, after a death

oncet:
Irish vernacular for “once”

ould:
Irish vernacular for “old”

phuca/puca:
a ghost

poteen:
traditional Irish homebrew

redshanks:
European-Barbajians, so called due to the effect of the sun

on their skin

Samhain:
the late autumn day of the dead, All Souls’ Day

Sassenach:
Irish word for the British

Sí/siogue:
the fey people; the ancient inhabitants of Ireland who now

live in the earth, the old forts, and the mountains

smallclothes:
undergarments

spailpin:
a wandering farm laborer

tawhid:
an Islamic community

Tir na nOg:
“Land of the forever young”; home of the sí, where life

is beautiful and happy forever

trepan:
to procure slaves through ensnarement or entrapment, for exam

ple, by the clandestine administering of drugs or alcohol, or by sex

ual seduction

umma:
the brother- and sisterhood of all who are practicing Muslims

wee’n:
North West/North Irish word for a child, like Scots “bairn”

Zhenna:
the Muslim heaven, the beautiful garden from which Adam

and Eve were expelled