58 ANFMAT. 



Kh/mo/o^i/. — From Laliii anitiia, lilt* ; ;iiul the words hcalhuch, etc., 

 all mean life, from hith, hcatlui or heo, and all intimately eonnected 

 with hi, to be. In Welsh, the word is htjd, and has, strange to say, 

 the meaning of irorld, which explains the Oaelic idiom " Duine air 

 bith," Latin vita, Gteek /?to9. The term Binnc-bhcathach as used 

 refers to the horns, and reminds us of the Bible expression 

 " Binnean an Teampuil." It is in fact another form of hcinn, 

 mountains. In Welsh it appears as peann, a head or anything 

 coming to a point, headlands, for instance, ;; taking the place in 

 Welsh of our c — comp. clnnn and Wtlsh p/anti. In that case it is 

 argued that bcinii, peann, and ceann are but one word. In Welsh 

 we have also the word " erthyl," signifying an animal born before 

 its lime, which is thought to be cognate with "earail," progressive, 

 advanced, etc. Among many corrupt spelling of Gaelic names are 

 " Achnabeochan," Achadh nam beothaichean, the field of the 

 beasts, and "Blarintow," Blar an damh, the field or plain of 

 the ox. Among the old Egyptians the word anima meant the 

 wind, which is supposed to be just the breath or life of an animal. 

 Among animals, one speaks of Ealt, ealta, as a covey of birds, a 

 drove of cattle, a trip of goats, a rout of wolves, a pace of asses, 

 a sounder of swine. 



Lore, etc. — An ancient Celtic belief existed that human spirits 

 entered into animals such as the wolf, seal, etc., the latter especially, 

 as can be gathered from many existing tales, being represented 

 as human beings under an enchanter's spell — " Mac no clann righ 

 fo gheasan " (a king's son or children under spells). See the tale 

 " Eachsais Ulair," etc., etc. Attributes also pertained to animals, 

 such as to the horse, generosity ; the lamb, gentleness, quietness ; 

 the lion, kingliness or royalty ; the pig, sordidness ; and the wolf, 

 tyranny. 



All animals are good foretellers of a change in the weather, 

 rain, etc. ; see Rev. Norman Macleod's interesting article, entitled 

 " Comharraidhean air caochlaidean na side." Animals are said 

 to listen to everything that is said — notably the cat — and watch 

 the expression of the speaker's face, by which they even read his 

 thoughts. It was apparently necessary to attribute the power of 

 " human spirits " being in animals to account for the human form 

 of thinking, thus perverting our observation by attributing to 

 them such human form of thinking. A dog's consciousness there- 

 fore is one of smell rather than sight, a world of the former alone 

 is his world. Still, as Martin Tupper has it, "all things testify 

 with one sad voice that man is a cruel master." In "Finn's 

 Pastimes " Ossian tells of his father's love for beasts and his 

 delight in nature generally. 



AH animals have their leader, that of a flock or a herd being 

 called "Ceannard" or "Ceanniuil," more properly " Snaodaire." 

 This (according to Skene) accounts for the Celts and Highlanders 



