CATTLE 87 



Another example is that one horse is = each or any of the 

 following, viz., 2 cows, 8 calves, 4 stirks, 8 two-year-old queys, 

 13 one-year-old queys or one-year-old stirks, 8 sheep, 12 hoggs, 

 16 lambs, 16 geese. Other equivalents are fixed, such as two 

 sheep = 3 one-year-old hoggs, one sheep to 1 two-year-old hogg, 

 etc. 



Four years is the recognised age at which a horse or cow is 

 mature, till which time they were never worked nor allowed to 

 breed, if under proper control, giving as a very good reason that 

 the animal lasted longer and bred better when so treated. The 

 first day of winter (old style) was held at the date on which 

 animals had their names changed, thus the foal becoming a 

 filly, loth or lothag, the calf a stirk, gamhainn, and the lamb a 

 ewe, othaisg. Martin mentions the word " calpach " as a duty 

 payable by tenants to landlords. 



It was considered exceedingly unlucky to count or attempt to 

 count a herd of cattle, especially when driving them to a shelling. 

 Counting on Friday anywhere is peculiarly unlucky. Old Irish 

 Gaelic terms for a cattleshed are Airge, and the place where 

 cattle are pounded Air-les lias lios or les-bo, another term is 

 Babhan. In Scottish Gaelic equivalents are ar-thigh (stock- 

 house) and ar-lios (stock enclosure). The word airneis, now 

 generally used for furniture, harness, etc., also means cattle. Other 

 terms for penfold are " eachdarra or eachdarran " and " fang," 

 "angar" is also a term for a cattle stall, " sain-slabhraidh " 

 means special cattle, sain, healthy, etc. The word Airnis is 

 used for cattle in the Irish Gaelic psalm civ., v. 14. Places 

 where cattle taken to in summer are called Gearraidhean (Lewis), 

 the stone-built huts bothan, and the timber-roofed airidhean. A 

 wooden collar for cattle is "dail" while the withy or twig 

 rope thereto attached is " dailgheach," used while grazing in a 

 circumscribed space, such hard feeding being named "fosradh." 

 In ancient Ireland a homestead was constituted as a "rath" by 

 having a dweUing-house, an ox stall, a hog sty, a sheep-pen, and 

 a calf-house (Book of Rights). 



Of course, as will be well known, many places derive their 

 names from cattle, e.g., Tanera (tain rath), which means the isle 

 enclosure or circle of the cattle or herd. Immeran, a place 

 supposed to be Immeraine or immer-thain, perhaps iomair 

 thain, the moving cattle, a drove ; or it may mean iomaire 

 thain, the cattle ridge. In Lewis and Harris an enclosure 

 for cattle is called both hua'ile and cuithe. Cattle are fond of 

 seaware, and the Isle of Lingay used to be famous for the ex- 

 cellence of the beef of the cattle there owing to their being 

 fed largely on seaware. The flesh when salted was exported 

 in their own hides. In a poem attributed to St Columbcille 

 the following quatrain occurs, showing a custom, which is now 

 extinct so far as known, referring to some sanatory or antidotal 



