And 



COW 99 



Bog-reed, wild skerret, branches and fingers (or twigs) 

 Black cow, brown cow, crooked horned, brindled. 

 Progeny of the one red hornless cow 

 That never left the fold alone. 

 White-headed cow, O white face ! 



Bo na braighe meanbh-bhric 



Blarag (brown-star), donnag (brownie or brown one), 



Ciarag (dusky), riabhag (brindled), 



Odhrag (dun), gris-fliionn (black and white). 



Agus an t-adhan (no distinctive colour). 



The fairy cows have calves with short ears, as if the upper part 

 were cut off with a knife, and slit in the top — corc-chlucisach, 

 knife-eared — and said to be the offspring of a water bull. 

 Carmichael calls this Torc-chluasach, and says the word tore applied 

 to the cattle whose ears are notched. The word tore he explains 

 as a notch or mark (like the king's broad arrow) made in ground 

 to distinguish allotments. A term for a shaggy-headed cow 

 (though seldom used), is " Pab-cheannach." A cow's tail should 

 be bushy, and the hair thereof is called "ron," from which the 

 term "ruinnseach " ; the Scottish term "runt," may also be derived 

 herefrom. In an Oran sith, or fairy song, the inference can be 

 drawn that Mull cows are supposed to have a peculiar (gentle) low, 

 according to the following lines — 



Leasbagan beag odhar thu 

 Beiridh bo an nuallan 

 Nuallan na bo muiligh thu. 



In Cormac's glossary under the word " Fir," find (fionn, or 

 white), we are told "this then was the appearance of the cows 

 of Echaid Echel from Alban, which Curui captured," viz., white 

 cows with red ears, bo-find oi-derg. Another name for cow, or kind 

 of, was echtge, supposed to be derived from a place of that name 

 near Clare, Ireland. History (or tradition), tells of a famous 

 cow called Glas Gaihhnann, which was possessed by one Maclneilig 

 and stolen by a famous pirate named Balar, who had a basilisk eye. 

 (See Cockatrice.) It may not be out of place here to refer to 

 the fairy or magical discovery of the cow pox, breac-a-chruidh, 

 which worked such wonders, after being learnt from the dairy- 

 maids of Scotland, and, it is said, also from the dairymen of 

 England, who were free from the curse of small-pox during its 

 ravages. If the cows thus cured small-pox, they themselves were 

 not exempt from troubles of various kinds, real and imaginary ; 

 in Irish records numerous entries relate to such, the Irish Gaelic 

 word for " murrain," for instance, is given as Maelgarbh, which we 

 take to mean mialgarbh, coarse louse or insect or beast, some 

 such being the cause not the result, according to our Irish friends* 



