6 DANIEL WILSON ON THE RIGHT 
the left hand. Whatever etymology we adopt for this word, the depreciatory comparison 
between the left and the more favoured de&ia, or right-hand, is obvious enough in the 
oxaics, the left, the ill-omenéd, the unlucky ; oxazorns, lett-handedness, awkwardness ; 
like the French gauche, awkward, clumsy, uncouth. The Greek had also the term derived 
from the left arm as the shield-bearer ; hence £7° aozida, on the left, or shield side. 
The Gaelic has supplied to Lowland Scotland the term ker, or carry-handed, in com- 
‘mon use, derived from lamh-chearr, the left hand. In the secondary meanings attached to 
ker, or carry, it signifies awkward, devious; and in a moral sense is equivalent to the 
English use of the word “sinister.” To “gang the kar gate” is to go the left-road, 7. e., the 
wrong road, or the road to ruin. There is no separate word in the Gaelic for “right 
hand,” but it is called /amh dheas and lamh ceart. Both words imply “ proper, becoming, 
or right.” Ceart is the common term to express what is right, correct, or fitting, whereas 
dheas primarily signifies the “south”, and is explained by the supposed practice of the 
Druid augur following the sun in his divinations. In this it will be seen to agree with 
‘ 
the secondary meaning of the Hebrew yamin, and to present a common analogy with the 
corresponding Greek and Latin terms, hereafter referred to. Deisal, a compound of dheas, 
south, and il, a guide, a course, is commonly used as an adjective, to express a lucky or 
favorable occurrence. The “left hand” is variously styled /amh chli, the wily or cunning 
hand, and lamh cearr, or ciotach. Cearr is wrong, unlucky, and ciotach is the equivalent of 
sinister, formed from the specific name for the left-hand, ciotag, Welsh chwithig. According 
to Pliny,’ “The Gauls, in their religious rites, contrary to the practice of the Romans, 
turned to the left.” An ancient Scottish tradition traces the surname of Kerr to the fact 
that the Dalriadic king, Kynach-Ker or Connchad Cearr, as he is called in the “Duan 
Albanach,” was left-handed ; though the name is strongly suggestive of a term of reproach 
like that of the Saxon Ethelred, the Unready. 
Milton, in one of his Sonnets, plays in sportive satire with the name of another left- 
handed Scot, “Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp.” The person referred to under the first 
name was the Earl of Antrim’s deputy, by whom the invasion of Scotland was attempted 
in 1644, on behalf of the Stuarts. The name is scarcely less strange in its genuine form 
of Alastair MacCholla-Chiotach ; that is, Alexander, son of Coll, the left-handed. This was 
the elder Macdonnel, of Colonsay, who was noted for his ability to wield his claymore 
with equal dexterity in the left hand or the right; or, as one tradition affirms, for his skill 
as a left-handed swordsman after the loss of his right hand: and-hence his soubriquet of 
Colkittock, or Coll, the Left-handed. The term “carry” is frequently used in Scotland as 
one implying reproach, or contempt. In some parts of the country, and especially in 
Lanarkshire, it is even regarded as an evil omen to meet a carry-handed person when 
setting out on a journey. Jamieson notes the interjectional phrase car-shamye (Gaelic 
sgeamh-aim, to reproach) as in use in Kinrosshire, in the favourite Scottish game of shintie, 
when an antagonist takes what is regarded as an undue advantage by using his club, or 
shintie in the left hand. All this, while indicating the exceptional character of left-hand- 
ness, clearly points to a habit of such frequent occurrence as to be familiarily present to 
every mind. But the exceptional skill, or dexterity, as it may be fitly called, which usually 
pertains to the left-handed operator, is generally sutficient to redeem him from slight. The 


1 Hist. Nat., lib. xxviii. c. 2. 
