108 COW 



'I'his word " farluogh," givtii elsewhere as tharlaogh, past, 

 without or off calf, means an extra-uterine conception better 

 known in the Islands than on the Mainland. 



Another incantation, invocation, or charm, is, or was, used when 

 a cow calved, viz. : — 



" Mart a sid air breith," arsa Peadar, 

 "Tha mi 'faicinn gum beil," arsa Pal, 

 Le ( " Mar thuiteas an duilleach o'n chraoibh 

 clieilc. \ Gu 'n tuiteadh an sile gu lar." 



Both 



{ 



" A cow newly calved," said St Peter, 

 " I observe that," said St Paul, 

 " As the leaves fall from the tree 

 May her milk (drop) freely flow." 



The foregoing may appear somewhat irreverent to the 

 modern reader, but the time in which it was the custom to use 

 such familiarities in all good and devout faith must be taken into 

 consideration. 



Referring to what has been said as to the first, biestings, etc., 

 milk, bainne nois, or nos or nuis, that is said to be the three first 

 milkings. Milk is liable to be affected by evil disposed persons 

 and by witchcraft, charms, etc., and requires an antidote or casg, 

 cosg, or cungaidh-leigheis, as milk is said to be "blinked" or 

 " eyed," i.e., " luidh an droch shuil air," when it does not produce 

 butter. A charm-cure for milk thus affected, or held up, is to 

 boil three rows of pins and needles, unsullied, in milk for half 

 an hour; this must be comparatively modern. Milk is also 

 preserved against witchcraft by the herb ragfoot, " caoibhreachan " 

 being kept under some dish in the dairy. Drinking the milk of 

 one-coloured cow, Whitley Stokes says, was supposed to have 

 prolific properties. In Ireland the first milk got from a cow at 

 milking is called "fore-milk." A common practice with dairy- 

 maids when milking is to squirt the first few drops on the ground, 

 this, in Ireland, is said to be done as an offering to the fairies, and 

 not attributed to any utilitarian or sanitary purpose. A rich kind 

 of cheese is made from biestings milk, as told in Lebor na h- 

 Uidhri ; when this milk is kept it should be put into a special 

 dish, pan, or measure, of old called " Lestar lulaic," biestings basin 

 (Ir.). All milk sold or given away should have a grain or two of 

 salt put into it, for luck (?). Further reference is made to Mr 

 MacKenzie's book on Celtic charms, etc., against witchcraft. One 

 of many modes followed for curing the rash (Ruaidhe) in cows or 

 cattle was to take a stone from a march burn, or burn bounding 



