The following passage is from a wee book I am currently reading. I thought some might find it interesting.
" ...the old man would translate or begin the story in English with many pauses. He would hold a match in his broken clay pipe or a piece of glowing sod, then puff, hold the pipe in one hand, talk, draw on the pipe - to find it had gone out. Time and again the pipe went out; intent on the story he used it to emphasize words. The 'baccy was pared from a hard black piece of plug or twist, ground slowly between the palms and rammed down in the bowl; some of the last pipe's ashes were placed on top, then a tin cover with a hole in the top. The pipe was cleaned by sticking the bowl in the red turf glow."
On Another Man's Wound by Ernie O'Malley
" ...the old man would translate or begin the story in English with many pauses. He would hold a match in his broken clay pipe or a piece of glowing sod, then puff, hold the pipe in one hand, talk, draw on the pipe - to find it had gone out. Time and again the pipe went out; intent on the story he used it to emphasize words. The 'baccy was pared from a hard black piece of plug or twist, ground slowly between the palms and rammed down in the bowl; some of the last pipe's ashes were placed on top, then a tin cover with a hole in the top. The pipe was cleaned by sticking the bowl in the red turf glow."
On Another Man's Wound by Ernie O'Malley
