THE BEAR. 23 



As regards the former existence of Bears in the 

 Highlands, a shadow of their memory, says Stuart * 

 is preserved in their Gaelic name, Magh-Ghamhainnfi 

 and the traditions of some remote districts which 

 retain obscure allusions to a rough, dark, grisly 

 monster, the terror of the winter's tale, and the 

 origin of some obsolete names, in the depths of the 

 forest and the dens of the hill. \ Hence Ruigh-na- 

 beiste, the monster's slope, Loch-na-beiste, the monster's 

 lake ; for beist in Gaelic signifies generally, not, as 

 might be inferred from its similarity to the English 

 word, a mere animal (which is beafhach or ainmhidh), 

 but something beyond an ordinary creature, a mon- 

 ster, a beast of prey. Thus, in the above instances, 

 we believe it to have been derived from the myste- 

 rious and exaggerated recollection of the last solitary 

 Bear which lingered in the deep recesses of the forest, 

 the terror of the hunter and of the herdsman. 



Thompson states that although he is not aware of 

 any written evidence tending to show that the 

 Brown Bear was ever indigenous to Ireland, a tradi- 

 tion exists of its having been so. It is associated 

 with the Wolf as a native animal in the stories handed 

 down through several generations to the present 



* "Lays of the Deer Forest," ii. p. 215. 



f Literally " the paw-calf," from mag, a paw, and ghamainn, a 

 yearling calfl The name is now often corrupted into math-ghamainn 

 the calf of the plain, which has no meaning, for bears are not 

 characteristically inhabitants of plains ; but the implied allusion to 

 the size and colour of a calf, with the distinction of the paw, is 

 descriptive of the beast. 



X Traditions of this kind will he found in the story of ' The Brown 

 Bear of the Green Glen,' related in Campbell's " Popular Tales of the 

 West Highlands," vol. i. pp. 164-170. 



