384 SCALLOP— SEA-SERPENT 



The scallop-shell attracted the attention of the Christians, who 

 decided that it, or a sembhince thereof, should be worn by those 

 who had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was the cognis- 

 ance of St James. 



When this shell was used as a drinking vessel, the hin^e was 

 frequently bound with silver, with a projecting ridge to hold it 

 by. The mode of progression of this fish in the water is singular, 

 being by "shooting" water through two orifices at each side of 

 the hinge. May this not have suggested the turbine ? Maighdeag 

 properly means the empty shell. 



SEA-LOUSE.—Mial-mara. Eng. Mary-floo. 



SEA-MONSTER.— Bladmall, bladmhial or mhiol, bledmall, 

 bledmhial or mhiol ; Mial, mial-mor-mara. 



Nikir (A. S.). 



Though sea-monsters, etc., are generally regarded by the 

 hard-headed sceptic as more or less mythical, the belief in them 

 is very ancient and difficult to kill — if it deserves such a fate. 

 The above word " bladmall " and its variants has been come 

 across in several publications taken from very ancient sources, 

 among these being " Saltair na Rann," as so ably rendered by 

 Whitley Stokes, in which it is referred to no less than three 

 times, as follows : — 



*' Ocus lonas fiadcach clainn 

 Diatanic abru bledmaill. " 



*' Nuall nam bledmall m-beccedach 

 Nam biasta m-belderg m-birach." 



*' Biasta bledmaill beccaichfit 

 Tochiret gaire garga. " 



The first of the above quotations apparently refers to Jonah, as 

 having come out of the belly of the bledmall. Here it falls to be 

 statedithat "blad" means a mouth, and "mall" or "mial," any 

 animal ; the second quotation may be rendered " the roar of the 

 bellowing bledmalis, the horned, red-mouthed beasts " ; while the 

 last seems to say, " Note, or lo ! the bledmall beast raising, or 

 uttering, a fierce roir (laugh)." " Birach," of course, means sharp- 

 pointed, but also means horned. Though horns on a sea-monster 

 are, so far as we know, not recorded as being common to 

 any of the kind, it is given on the off-chance of its being 

 correct ; the " mouth-animal " seems a meaning of this word, and 

 answers closely to the whale. Whitley Stokes supplies us also 

 with a name for a water-sprite, viz., ludcorp or luchorpan, likely 

 lugh or luth chorp, strong body. 



SEA-SERPENT. — Cirein-croin, craigean, cuartag-mor-a-chuain; 

 Mial-mor-a-chuain ; Nathair-thraghad ; Uile-bheisd-a-chuain. 



Deal-fish ; Krakenback ; Lath-fish ; Needle-fish ; Pipe-fish ; 



