374 MACKEREL— MINNOW 



garum it furnished. The opah, tunny, or storr-mackerel is beauti- 

 fully coloured. The late Rev. Arch. Clerk said that (Jod created 

 all the fishes except the mackerel. The devil, or " Muisean," wished 

 to try his hand at fish-creating, and so formed the mackerel ; hut 

 he had after all, as might be expected, to apply to God to put life 

 into it. This may have given rise to the belief, as stated in 

 " Folk-Lore," that a Celt will not eat mackerel, as it turns into 

 "mauchs," i.e., maggots, en route to his stomach or in the alimentary 

 canal. The stomach of a mackerel seems always clean, which 

 gives rise to the saying : — 



*' Cho glan ri goile rionnach." 



As clean as a mackerel's stomach — i.e., perfectly clean. 

 Glacar rionnach 'us boirionnach le dearg. 



A mackerel and a woman are caught by red (the latter by 

 the " redcoats "). 

 Sitheadh rionnaich aon de na tri sithean a's iuaithe 's a chuan 

 mhor. 



Rush of mackerel, one of the three swiftest rushes in the 

 great ocean. 

 Tha rionnach air an athar, bidh latha math am maireach ann. 

 There's a mackerel-sky ; 'twill be a fine day to-morrow. 

 Clouds like variegated streaks on real mackerel called 

 ^' breacadh-rionnach." 



medusa: or JELLY-FISH.— Beothachan, beothaichean, 

 buinne-beo ; Muirtiachd, muirtiughachd ; Sgeith-an-roin or na 

 muice-mara. 



Blovers, blue-slutter ; Cruden ; Donal' blue ; Follieshat, fyke ; 

 Galls; Loch-liver; Morge ; Roother ; Scadder, scalder, schnap, 

 scoudre, sculder, sea-anemone, blubber, nettle, paps, sealch's 

 bubble, stinging blood-sucker ; Whale-blubs, whale's food. 



Muirtiachd is said to be from muir and tachd, sea choke, but 

 it is thought more correctly to be muir tiughachadh, sea thickening. 

 Coille-bionain is the term for the minute life in the sea, which 

 produces the well-know^n phosphorescence. 



A saying is attributed to a mermaid, whose sealskin dress or 

 covering had been stolen from and recovered by her. It had been 

 .stolen by an admiring youth, who surprised her with it off, and 

 who married her. The remark or saying was made by her to him 

 as a farewell gift, and warning against swallowing foreign bodies 

 which might prove hurtful. 



" Na h-ol an saile 'm feasd gun sioladh 

 'S ioma biasd tha 's a chuain. " 

 Never drink sea water without filtering. 

 There's many a beast in the ocean. 



MILLER'S THUMB (see Goby). 



MINNOW. — Bioran-deamhnuidh or donais, burdag ; Dairbeag, 



