[Loch-ruadh] Today's word, Feb. 7

[Sonja Crocker]

February 7, 2002

cousin-Betty
A deranged woman.  Cousin Tommy is applied to a man in that melancholy situation.
--William Carr's Dialect of Craven, 1828

Feast Day of St. Ronan, who is remembered for having driven the "prince of darkness out of Innerleithen, Peebleshire, a picturesque Scottish county south of Edinburgh, in the seventh century.  From that time, deranged individuals were dunked in local St. Ronan's Well and then confined overnight in the nearby ruins of St. Mulvey's chapel.  If the subject was able to sleep after this treatment, it was thought, a cure was imminent.  Ronan's heroics have long been celebrated via St. Ronan's Games, a weeklong July festiveal of contests and fair-frolicking.



--

_______________________________________________
Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com
http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup

Win a ski trip!
http://www.nowcode.com/register.asp?affiliate=1net2phone3a