HISTORY of the SOCIEfr. 33 



Isl. Skal, Jhaal, Jkylldi, Aiemsm, Jkala, Germ, Jchale, SuioGoth. 

 and Dan. Jkaal, all fignify a cup, a bowl, or drinking vefTel. 

 From the Gothic nations, this word feems to have pafTed to the 

 Celtic. For, in the Comiih, Jkala has the fame meaning, being 

 rendered by Lhuyd patera. Ruddiman, in his Gloffary to 

 Douglas's Virgil, mentions the verb to Jkole or Jkolt, as ufed 

 Scot. Bor. in the fenfe of pocula exinanire. This verb has un- 

 doubtedly been formed from the noun. In the North of Scot- 

 land, alfo, Jkiel ftill denotes a tub ; thus a wafhing-tub is called 

 a wafhing-Jkiel. The tubs ufed by brewers for cooling their 

 wort, are in like manner called Jkiels. It affords a ftrong pre- 

 fumption that this is originally the fame word with Jkoll, Jkull, 

 immediately under confideration, that the goblet employed by 

 the inhabitants of the north for preparing their ale for imme- 

 diate ufe, is called kalt-Jkaal. This feems to intimate, that our 

 ufe of the term, with refpect to the operation of brewing, con- 

 tains an allufion to its more ancient appropriation. " Kaitjkaal, 

 eodem tropo illis quo Sueonibus eft. patera, in qua frigidus cere- 

 vifiae potus inaeftate, et calidus in hieme fieri folet." Loccenii 

 Antiq. Sue-Goth. p. 96. 



It may be added, that Jkiel is ftill ufed in Orkney as the name 

 of a flaggon, or wooden drinking veffel with a handle. 



Skull is a term of general ufe in Scotland for a bafket of a fe- 

 mi-circular form. It was ufed in this fenfe fo early as the time 

 of Dunbar : 



" Fifh wyves cry Fy, and caft down Jkulls and Jkeills." 



Evergreen, ii. p. 59. ft. 23. 



It is probable that Jkiel was ufed by him as if it had been fyno- 

 nymous, becaufe of the alliteration. Or, from the refemblance 

 with refpect to form, it may actually have been ufed in the 

 fame fenfe in his time. Eng. Skillet, a fmall kettle or boiler, 



E 2 might 



