RIGHTHANDEDNESS. 211 



In Scotland the older Gaelic has supplied the term ker or carry- 

 handed, from lamh-cTiearr^ the left hand. There is no separate word 

 in the Gaelic for right hand, but it is called lamh dheas and lamh 

 cheart. Both words imply proper, becoming, or right, dheas, ^efw^j 

 chearr, xdpra, certus. Ceart is the common term to express what is 

 right, correct, or fitting, whereas dheas primarily signifies the south, 

 and is explained by the supposed practice of the Druid augur follow- 

 ing the sun in his divinations. In this it will be seen to agree with 

 the secondary meaning of the Hebrew Yamin, and to present a common 

 analogy with those of corresponding Greek and Latin terms hereafter 

 referred to. Deisal, a compound of dheas, south, and Oil, a guide, a 

 course, is commonly used as an adjective, to express a lucky or favour- 

 able occurrence. The left hand is variously styled lamh chli, the wily 

 or cunning hand, and lamh chearr, or chiotach. Cearr is wrong 

 unlucky, and chiotach is the equivalent of sinister, formed from the 

 specific name for the left-hand, ciotag, Welsh chwithig. There is no 

 corresponding equivalent to express the right hand. According to 

 Pliny [Hist. Nat. lib. xxviii. c. 2), "The Gauls, in their religious 

 rites, contrary to the practice of the Romans, turned to the left,'' 

 though the precise directions most favoured in Roman augury are sub- 

 ject to variable interpretation . 



Adopting the Gaelic cearr, the lowland Scots use the term ker, or 

 carry, for left-handed. In the secondary meanings attached to it, 

 it signifies awkward, devious, and in a moral sense is applied in the 

 same way as sinister in English. To ^' gang the car gate" is to go 

 the left road, i. e., the road to ruin. An ancient tradition, referred to 

 by the elder Scottish historians, traces the surname of Kerr to the fact 

 that the Dalriadic king, Kynach-Ker or Connchad Cearr, as he is called 

 in the Duan Albanach, was left-handed. In some parts of Scotland, 

 and especially in Lanarkshire, it is an evil omen to meet a carry-handed 

 person when setting out on a journey. Jamieson notes the interjec- 

 tional phrase car-shamye, (Gaelic sgeamh-aim, to reproach,) as in use 

 in Kinross-shire, in the favourite Scottish game of shintie, when an 

 antagonist takes what is regarded as an undue advantage by using his 

 club, or shintie, in the left hand. All this, while it indicates the 

 exceptional character of left-handedness, clearly points to a habit of 

 such frequent occurrence as to be familiarly present to every mind. 



The idea of weakness, uncertainty, unreliability, attaching to the 

 left hand, naturally leads to the tropical significance of unreliable, 



