upon the gridiron, and then he roasts it, turning it from one side to the
other just in the nick of time, before the soft satin skin could be
blistered. However, on turning it over the eleventh time--and twelve
would have settled the business--he found he had delayed a little bit of
time too long in turning it over, and there was a small, tiny blister on
the soft outer skin. Well, Finn was in a mighty panic, remembering the
threats of the ould giant; however, he did not lose heart, but clapped
his thumb upon the blister in order to smooth it down. Now the salmon,
Shorsha, was nearly done, and the flesh thoroughly hot, so Finn's thumb
was scalt, and he, clapping it to his mouth, sucked it, in order to draw
out the pain, and in a moment--hubbuboo!--became imbued with all the
wisdom of the world.'

* * * * *

Here I interrupted the jockey.

'How singular,' said I, 'is the fall and debasement of words; you talk of
a gang, or set, of shorters; you are, perhaps, not aware that gang and
set were, a thousand years ago, only connected with the great and Divine;
they are ancient Norse words, which may be found in the heroic poems of
the north, and in the Edda, a collection of mythologic and heroic songs.
In these poems we read that such and such a king invaded Norway with a
gang of heroes; or so and so, for example, Erik Bloodaxe, was admitted to
the set of gods; but at present gang and set are merely applied to the
vilest of the vile, and the lowest of the low,--we say a gang of thieves
and shorters, or a set of authors. How touching is this debasement of
words in the course of time; it puts me in mind of the decay of old
houses and names. I have known a Mortimer who was a hedger and ditcher,
a Berners who was born in a workhouse, and a descendant of the De Burghs,