22 



tairmeal (Armstrong) — cair, dig; meal, enjoy; also mall; Welsh, 

 moel, a knob, a tuber — i.e., the tuberous root that is dug ; corra- 

 meille (Macleod and Dewar). Cbrlan in Killarney. 



"Is clann bheag a trusa leolaicheann ' 

 Buain corran cos nam bruachagan." — Macintyre. 



Little children gathering . . . 



And digging the bitter vetch from the holes in the banks. 



Corra, a crane, and meillg, a pod, the crane's pod or peas. 

 Welsh: pys y garanod, crane's peas; garan, a crane. "The 

 Highlanders have a great esteem for the tubercles of the roots ; 

 they dry and chew them to give a better relish to their whisky. 

 They also affirm that they are good against most diseases of the 

 thorax, and that by the use of them they are enabled to repel 

 hunger and thirst for a long time. In Breadalbane and Ross shire 

 they sometimes bruise and steep them in water, and make an 

 agreeable fermented liquor with them, called cairm. They have 

 a sweet taste, something like the roots of liquorice, and when 

 boiled are well flavoured and nutritive, and in times of scarcity 

 have served as a substitute for bread " (Lightfoot). 



Bitter vetch — and sometimes called "wild liquorish" — seems 

 to be the same name as the French " caramel" burnt sugar ; and 

 according to Webster, Latin, " carina mellis," or sugar-cane. The 

 fermented liquor that was formerly made from it, called cairm or 

 atirm, seems to be the same as the " courmi" which Dioscorides 

 says the old Britons drank. The root was pounded and infused, 

 and yeast added. It was either drunk by itself or mixed with 

 their ale — a liquor held in high estimation before the days of 

 whisky; hence the word " cuirm" signifies a feast. That their 

 drinking gatherings cannot have had the demoralising tendencies 

 which might be expected, is evident, as they were taken as typical 

 of spiritual communion. In the Litany of " Aengus Cdile De," 

 dating about the year 798, we have a poem ascribed to St. Brigid, 

 now preserved in the Burgundian library, Brussels. 



" Ropadh maith lem corm-lind mor, 

 Do righ na righ, 



1 Leolaicheann, probably Trollius europceus (the globe flower), from ul, 

 blachan, drink, drinking. Children frequently use the globe flower as a 

 drinking cup. Scotch: luggie go-wan. Luggie, a small wooden dish; or it 

 may be a corruption from trol or trollen, an old German word signifying 

 round, in allusion to the form of the flower, hence Trolhus. 



