ALMONDBURY AND HUDDERSFIELD. 31 Cousin (not pronounced coz'n, or euz^Uj as in standard English, but distinctly cuzin^ the i being well sounded. See Letter I. In this case the Yorkshire pronunciation is the more precise). When first cousins marry there is a saying here that the union will be healthless, wealthless, or childless. I heard this many years ago, but have no means of knowing how old the idea may be. Such marriages are not forbidden by the Mosaic law, neyeruieleBs there seems to be an impression that they are not expedient. Combe, in his Consiittdion of Man, ch. v. § 2, says, ' Another organic law of the animal king- dom deserves attention, namely, that by which marriages between blood-relations tend decidedly to the deterioration of the physical and mental qualities of the offspring ; ' and much more to the same purpose. Coverable (pronounced cooverahle), used for recoverable (of money risked, owed, &c.). See 'Posit, 'Liver, 'Plain, &c. Cow, pronounced edd, Cowbanger, one who looks after cows. Cower (pronounced caar), to crouch down. Halliwell spells it coure. Hunter, who spells cower, as above, says, ' To cower down is to reduce the height as much as possible while still standing on the feet.* He gives a reference to 2 Henry VL, Act III. sc. iL :
- The splitting rocks cowered in the sinking sands. *
It is also expressively employed to signify the act of bankruptcy, but is then used without the word down, Cowlady, the lady-cow, or lady-biid. The following is the local
- nominy ' :
< Cowlady, Cowlady, hie thee way whum I Thy haase is afire, thy childer all gone ; All but poor Nancy set under a pan, Wavin' {%. e, weaving) gold lace as fast as sho can.' Note the employment of poor Nancy in the ^neral labour of the dis- trict; not that mey weave gold lace, though, if the flittering equipages of people who were labourers half a generation since be taken into account, the idea of gold weaving is not so fanciful after all, and the local verifier has not gone so much out of the way as poets are wont to do. Cowlick, a mess for cows, composed of chopped roots, grains, bran- meal, &c. Classing (probably crousiiig), said of female cats caterwauling at the time of breeding. I have heard this word often, but seen it in no book. See Orou«e. Crack, to boast. Found in Shakespere's Love's Labour's Lost,
- Siche wryers and wragers gose to and fro For to crdk,*
' Prima Pastorum,' Toumeky My$terte»,
