Manfihester Memoirs, Vol. Ixvi. (1922), No. 3 3 



There were both individual and tribal taboos (the Gaelic 

 '^ gets'' or '■'■ geas '' — plural ^easa). It was ^ezs to Cuchullin 

 to eat dog-'s flesh ; the first part of his name, Cu, signifies 

 " dog." He was the '' dog " of Culann, the Irish Vulcan. 



Among- the ancient geasa or taboos still surviving is Scot- 

 land none is of g-reater interest and importance than the one 

 which forbids pork as food. The geas, or prohibition, has 

 long^ since reached its final stage, surviving as a mere preju- 

 dice. Thousands of living Highlanders refuse either to keep 

 pigs or to eat pork in any form. They despise pork as keenly 

 as do the Hindus, the Jews, the Moslems and the modern 

 Greeks of Northern Arcadia. Lord Leverhulme, who has seen 

 or thought he has seen possibilities of development in the 

 Lewis, recommended pig-rearing to the crofters and introduced 

 swine into the island. In 1920 there were eig^ht pigs in Lewis, 

 which has a population of about 30,000; in 1921 there were 

 only two. A native of Barra informs me it was a common 

 saying in his boyhood that there had never been more than 

 two pigs on his island ; these had been washed ashore from a 

 wreck and were promptly committed to the deep again. In 

 my boyhood I heard pork referred to with aversion. Like 

 mackerel, it was supposed to cause disease. I have eaten pork, 

 but for the past few years the prejudice of my boyhood has 

 revived to such an extent that I cannot any longer partake of 

 pork in any form. 



Ben Jonson had some knowledge of the Scottish pork 

 taboo. In his '"A Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies," 

 a gipsy approaches the masqued King- James and says : — 



'' Here's a gentleman's hand. 

 I'll kiss it for luck's sake : you should, by this line. 

 Love a horse and a hound, but no part of a swine." 



One of the g-ypsies had previously barred the inclusion of 

 " grunters," and Gifford, the annotator, explains this as '^ a 

 side compliment to the King who hated pork in all its 

 varieties." On another page, the Gypsies having- made a 

 reference to " a sow's baby in a dish," the annotator states in 

 a footnote : — 



'' Three things to which James had a great dislike, and 

 with which he said he would treat the Devil were he to invite 

 him to a dinner, were a pig, a poll of ling with mustard, and 

 a pipe of tobacco for digesture " (16, vol. vii, 372, 380, 420). 



