66 CATTLE 



fastnesses of the island, where they remain to this day. A 

 specimen of the sh(»rt-horncd Celtic ox — now said to be extinct — 

 was miearthed near Kirkintilloch from a Uonian camp the other 

 day. Doubts therefore exist whether the Chillingham cattle, 

 before referred to, are not merely the descendants of the larger 

 cattle imported by the Saxons, and not the direct descendants of 

 the aboriginal British urm. The Chillingham cattle are invariably 

 white in colour with black muzzle, the horns fine and nobly 

 proportioned, white with black tips, ears reddish brown, eye 

 fringed with long eyelashes, bodies symmetrically formed with 

 straight level backs, their fine shoulders enabling them to trot 

 like match horses with amazing rapidity. The average weight of 

 a bull is 560 lbs., a steer 570, and a cow 420. 



In Silva Gadelica we read of certain cattle which fought so 

 desperately for three days that their horns fell off, these were 

 called adharca luchna, luchna's horns. It is also said, their horns 

 fell off from grief. In the Ossianic poems there is not a single 

 allusion to cattle or the pastoral state. 



In regard to cattle and horses, etc., the term colpachadh is 

 used in the Highlands ; sometimes it is thought erroneously 

 spelled coilpeachadh, which means the process by a tenant, or 

 others, of placing a superfluity or overstocking of one kind of 

 stock, and an understocking of another kind against each other. 

 This may vary in different places, but one list, referring to the West 

 Highlands, may be given. 



As one example of the system — Bo le h-al varies, in one case a 

 cow is said (for souming purposes) to consist of only the cow and 

 her calf, to which she is entitled for a year and a day. In another 

 district it means the cow and her three immediate descendants, 

 viz., the calf, one-year-old stirk, and a two-year-old quey ; in a 

 third, five animals, viz., the latter and her three-year-old heifer. 

 At four years the first calf is not included in the sowm, but classed 

 with the cows. Coilpeachadh, or equalising, is also as follows : — A 

 cow = 8 calves, 4 one-year-old stirks, 2 two-year-old queys, 1 three- 

 year-old heifer, and 1 stirk, 8 sheep, 12 hoggs, 16 lambs, or 16 

 geese. If two cows are without calves, 1 one-year-old stirk, etc., 

 goes with them, if four, 2 one-year-old queys are equivalent. Two 

 cows or heifers are called in Ireland Oircne and are equal to six 

 sheep in grazing. Another name for a sum or soum of cows or 

 cattle is Ball. A cattle-grazing right, Carmichael says, is Coir- 

 sgoraidh, which is just scoring-right; while a cattle-market is 

 "an tlas." Airncis is also a term for cattle, as airneis-posta stood 

 for a marriage-portion or gift, Erca luchna, luchnas Kine, frequently 

 referred to throughout ancient Celtic tales. Land manured by 

 cattle is called "toghar," while a common for cattle is "caoimi- 

 neach " (co iomaineach) ; a familiar legal term is davoch (Dabhoch), 

 which just means a farm or portion of land pasturing about 320 

 cattle (see Cow). 



