STRANGE CATTLE. 105 



on one another ; and as hostility among the clans was the rule rather 

 than the exception, every species of depredation was practised, 

 cattle-lifting raids, however, being accounted the most honourable 

 of all, and in the conduct of which the best gentlemen of the clan 

 might without a blush take an active part. The " lowing of kine," 

 geumnaich bhd, occurring in this lullaby, was an old toast of the 

 cattle-lifting times, that the late Dr. Macfarlane of Arrochar told 

 us, he himself had often heard when a young man at baptismal 

 feasts and bridals on Loch Lomond side. The secret of it is this : 

 The geumnaich, or " lowing," implied that the cattle were strangers 

 to the glen, whilst those that belonged to the glen itself, and were 

 the bona fide property of the clan, if such there were, were quiet 

 and staid and well-behaved, as decent cattle should be. The cattle 

 " stolen or strayed," as the advertisements have it, " lowed," and 

 were troublesome ; while those born and bred in the glen were 

 content to graze in peace, and to " low " only when they deemed it 

 absolutely necessary. " The lowing of kine," therefore, was a toast 

 that meant neither more nor less than success to the cattle-lifting 

 trade ! As ancient Pistol says 



" ' Convey,' the wise it call ' Steal ! ' fob, a fico for the phrase.' 



