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PIG 199 



genuine Celts, in fact it used to be detested, though the march 

 of time has somewhat modified this. A certain Farquhar Beaton, 

 in the Isle of Skye, was noted far and wide for his abhorrence of 

 pork ; he, however, has been known to eat it unawares, to his 

 intense chagrin and disgust when discovered. This hatred, it is 

 said, was justified by his having known of a domesticated pig 

 having devoured an infant from the cradle, in the absence of all 

 in the house. Of old the only northern district in which pigs 

 were kept was Caithness. The Campbells, however, with a few 

 others, who even boast of it in their coats-of-arms, are not so 

 strait-laced. The Phrygians had a " swine " as their emblem or 

 coat-of-arms. An epithet or helpname (foir-ainm) for one of 

 thirty Pictish Brudes, Skene tells us, was " Urcint," i.e., uircean, a 

 little pig. Pigs were at one time, in the Highlands at least, 

 endowed with diabolical properties, having, it is said, five marks on 

 the foreleg called the devil's marks ; their bite is much dreaded, and 

 thought to be incurable, producing cancer or some similar trouble. 

 Fishermen consider the word " pig " should never be pronounced 

 at sea; pork soup, however, is considered a remedy for many 

 diseases, even consumption. Pigs for curing should be killed 

 during the increase of the moon, otherwise the flesh — like 

 others — will not keep well ; pig's blood is vulgarly supposed to 

 remove warts ; a pig fit for killing, i.e., a fat or fatted pig, as 

 above referred to, is termed 7mic glasach. Even to dream of 

 swine, it is said, augurs something coming to cause much annoy- 

 ance. 



The word " Sean-rahair," grandmother, is a playful term or 

 epithet applied in some parts of the Highlands to a brood-sow. 

 The leader among or of a drove or herd of swine is termed 

 ceann-cula, cula-cheann, speil-cheann or speile-cheann. Banbhan, 

 or a little pig, was the name of an Irish scribe who died in 686. 

 In the article " Cow " reference has been made to the " Borumha," 

 which included "thrice and fifty hundred swine." In the tale 

 of " Manus," pig's music is described as follows : — " 'S e bu cheol 

 taimh dhaibh beuchdail mhuc, is ranaich thorc ; a mhuc bu mhotha 

 ag itheadh na muice bu lugha 's a mhuc bu lugha 'deanamh mar 

 a dh 'fhaodadh i." Their lulling music was the squealing of pigs, 

 and the roaring of boars ; the bigger pig eating the smaller pig, and 

 the smaller pig doing as it be^t could. This " music " was heard 

 while cleaving the dashing, splashing, light blue, light-red Scandi- 

 navian sea. The singular feature here is how, unless very near 

 shore, such sounds could have been heard, also the fact that whales 

 are sea-pigs in Gaelic has to be borne in mind. "The Sow's tail to 

 Geordie," is a well-known poem expressive of the then intense 

 Jacobite hatred of the Hanoverian dynasty, now not so much in 

 evidence. Some superstitions as to pigs exist : for instance, 'tis 

 only for Campbells deemed a good omen to meet a pig, a matter 

 of indifference to any one else, though decidedly bad if seen with 



