122 DEER 



(Ir.), sithioiui (lit. venison); Tallin (hind): rdlaichc, ullaiclie, 

 utlaiche (old hart). 



Beste (Ritson), brocket, broket (two years); Hack; Calf, (first 

 year) ; Deire (A. S.) ; Foowne (fawn), fora (A. S.) ; Great Stag 

 (fifth year) ; Hart (sixth and seventh year), havering (gelded 

 buck — Durham) ; Knibbler (young) ; Leish-deer (roe, or female) ; 

 Pricker, pricket (with first horns), pygarg ; Rascal (young), 

 resigne ("full grown), rha-deor (Old Eng.); Soare (fourth year — 

 Harrison), sorell (young buck — Palsgrave), sownder, spade, spaire 

 (three year hart), spittard, spittare (two-year-old hart — Harrison), 

 spylard (ten-year-old hart), stag, stagon (fourth year), stanbucca, 

 stonebuck, subulon, (young hart — Topsell) ; Venison ; Wild-doer 

 (A. S.) ; Yell (dry hind). 



The most general term for deer, Jiadk, just means " wild," and 

 the terms for fallow deer, dabhas, dabhasg, and damhasg mean 

 just danih sheasg or damh seasg. The English word " Roe " is 

 just a corruption of the Gaelic word "ruadh," while the word 

 " hart " means " horned," from " heru," the word " sownder " appears 

 in Scott's Anliquarij, "of fawns, sownders, bucks, and does." 



"Binnich nan allt" is a term applied to roedeer, while 

 " Fiadh-fhal or lann " is a deer park or enclosure ; the paunch or 

 intestines being " Gairbh," while we find " Brag " given as a herd 

 of deer. The word "allaidh " as sometimes used for a " wild" or a 

 deer is properly an adjective, "os-allaidh" a deer, meaning a wild 

 ox or animal also. 



The deer pertains, so far as this work is concerned, essentially 

 to the Celt. It is difficult to say when the Celt did not hunt 

 and slay the deer, and weave song and tale around his own and 

 his dogs' exploits in connection therewith. The animal itself has 

 by no means been left in the background, and volumes might be — 

 nay, have been — written and printed on the various details of each. 

 Our mythical and fairy lore, our topography, etc., is replete with 

 accounts of this noble "wild." Fairy women sometimes assumed 

 the shape of deer. The island of Jura is said to be " Dyr-ey," or 

 Deer Island, though subsequent research reveals the statement 

 that it was named from two brothers named Dih and Rah, meaning 

 without grace or prosperity ; these brothers were said to have been 

 Danes, but, if so, the words are Gaelic dith and rath. Both the 

 red and fallow deer have now taken kindly to the hills and valleys 

 of New Zealand, and have antlers from forty to forty-six inches 

 in length from tip to base, with a breadth of span up to forty- 

 one inches. A bone is said to exist in the heart of a deer. The 

 word " braicheam," signifying a stag, also a buffalo or wild ox, is 

 found in the Dinnsenchus of Rennes as follows : " Chunncas 

 braicheam 's bru agus baigliu (or baiglin) eatorra, sochraide 

 rodech (robh teachd) a mag (magh), agus brech gam marbhadh " ; 

 I beheld a stag and a doe, and between them a fawn (J) a 



