198 PIG 



means pig firstling, sometimes exacted as a tribute by the lord 

 of the manor. " Banbhradh " means swine (coll. from banbh) ; a 

 pig of special excellence was spoken and written of as " Muerime," 

 and Muc Slanga (W. S.) ; another word which Whitley Stokes 

 says is " an epithet for pig," and obscure to him, is "midisi " ; this 

 appears to be a diminutive of " miadaigh," viz., miadasaigh, a little 

 pig. Muc-classa or glassa is said to mean a fatted pig (? closach, 

 dead carcass), inference that pig is fat before being made a 

 carcass. 



The youngest pig in a litter is, inter alia, called "Doreneed," 

 and the smallest "Anthony." Daniel, etc., the favourite or 

 "Anthony," was supposed to be dedicated to St Anthony, the 

 patron of swineherds. Sir David Lindesay of the Mount, Lord 

 Lyon King-at-Arms, wrote " Heir is a rellik, the gruntill of Saint 

 Antoni's sow, quhilk bare his haly bell." Grunkle, gruntle, 

 gruntill means the snout, and here it refers to all that the 

 devil — who had stolen the sow — could return the Saint ; 

 Beelzebub, Lucifer, and the other fiends having eaten the rest 

 of it. Bacon (or even sometimes salt pork) is called tindiu, tinne 

 or tinni, tinniu, i.e., " fired." Strange though it may appear the 

 word "tinne" also means a bagpipe. 



Place words in connection with this animal are numerous. 

 The Sow of Athole and Boar of Badenoch may be referred to, 

 they are near each other, and one place near is called "Corrie 

 bhoite." Banff is from "banbh," the Irish word for a sucking 

 pig ; in Colonsay we have " Torr-na-baine " or bainbhe, the hillock 

 of the sucking-pig; the Isle of Muck means the isle of whales or 

 sea-pigs, a whale in Gaelic being "muc mhara," or sea-pig. In 

 Ireland, of course, such names are more numerous, though many 

 are so corrupted as to be hardly recognisable, e.g., Mucknoe is 

 misnamed altogether, as in Irish Gaelic it is "machaire," a plain; 

 a certain loch however perpetuates the power of pigs to swim, 

 bearing as it does the name " Loch-muc-snamha," the loch of the 

 swimming pigs, while in County Clare we find " Muc Inis," pig 

 island, to or whence pigs may have swam. Indeed this word is said 

 to be an old name for Ireland generally, as the Tuatha de Danann 

 changed it into the semblance of a pig, when opposing the Children 

 of Mileadh, the invaders. Halliday and O'Mahoney think, how- 

 ever, this word should be " Muich-Inis," isle of mist or fog, while 

 Coney calls it "Muig." In Tome II. of Revue Celtiqiie we read 

 of the " Slanga-pig," which, like the mucca Debrend, or pigs of 

 Debriu, and the mucca Mannaan, or pigs of Manannau Q Isle of 

 Man), the Irish Neptune, were magical swine, and reappeared as 

 often as they were killed and eaten. The last slanga-pig 

 distributed among the men of Ireland is said to have satisfied 

 twenty-five battalions. In the tale of "The Pigs of Angus," as 

 given by Lady Gregory, these are king's sons transformed by 

 witchcraft. The pig, as is well known, is no favourite among 



