Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixvi. (1922), No. 3 7 



The Rev. Alexander MacGreoor, an Inverness clergvman, 

 tells (20, 17) of a Skyeman, named Farquhar, who had ''a 

 superstitious dislike to bacon or pork." He had dinner at the 

 Manse every Sunday. 



'' It frequently happened that the servant's dinner con- 

 sisted of pork or bacon, the look of which Farquhar could 

 not bear, and yet he often dined on it. The servants, know- 

 ing- his prejudices, had beforehand prepared a quantitv of 

 the lean parts of the meat for the old man which they passed 

 off as mutton and which he never suspected. When par- 

 taking of it, however, he frequently said, to the no small 

 amusement and tittering- of the domestics : ' Bu tu fein an 

 fheoil, mhaith, cheart, agus cha b'i a' mhuc ghrannda, 

 shalach ' (' Thou art the good right meat, and not the filthy 

 unclean pig ')." 



One of the oldest Scottish literary references to the Scottish 

 pork taboo is that of Bishop Leslie in his History (1578) in 

 which he says (Dalrymple's version) : — 



"As swyne flesh is uset in uthir countries of quhilke our 

 cuntrie people has lytle plesure." 



The fishermen of Cromarty, in my boyhood, refused to put 

 to sea if when walking- towards their boats they met a pig- or 

 a hare. If one happened to ask a fisherman " Where are you 

 ^oing ? " he would exclaim : " Is that what you're saying? " 

 turn on his heel and make for home again. 



A middle-aged native of Wick, resident in Edinburgh, 

 informs me that in his youth the Caithness fishermen forbade 

 mention of a minister or a pig when at sea. If, in the course 

 of conversation, a minister had to be mentioned he was 

 referred to as '* could-iron gentleman," while a pig was '' the 

 €ould-iron beastie." 



The fishermen of a past generation in Newhaven (near 

 Edinburgh) were greatly enraged when the mischief-making 

 youngsters of Leith shouted after them, '' There's a soo at 

 the boo" (''There's a sow at the bow of the boat"). At 

 Oban boys were wont until recentlv to enrage men from the 

 island of Lismore by imitating the bleating of sheep. I have 

 seen in the eighties of last century a Lismore boat turned back 

 to the pier and its occupants coming ashore to chase the boys. 

 The miners of Prestonpans, East Lothian, shared the fisher- 

 man's prejudice against pigs. They refused to descend a 

 coal mine if on w^alking towards it they met a pig. 



