Blair Collection > Carmina gadelica > Volume 2

NOTES 255
Cuat, a lover, a sweetheart, a bosom friend. The word is common in the Western
Isles.
Cu^Jasach, cu-fasaich, wolf, lit. wilderness dog.
Cugallach, precarious, unstable, uncertain.
' Is cugallach an t-sealg, Precarious is the hunting.
Is cearbadach an t-iasg, [amalacli Unreliable the fishing,
Cuir do mhuinighiu anus au talamh, Place thy trustauce in the land,
Cha d' fhag e fear falamh rianih.' It never left man empty.
This sentiment is characteristic of the Celt, who is a man of the land
primarily and a man of the sea secondarily — a landsman of choice and a
seaman of necessity. Nevertheless, when the Celt does take to the sea, pro-
bably he is unexcelled as a boatman, as a mariner, or as a navigator. It is
computed that two-thirds of the seafaring men of the Clyde are Celts and of
Celtic descent, and probably these will compare favourably with their class
elsewhere. An impression prevails in many places that the islesmen of the
West are not boatmen equal to the coastmen of the East. That is not my
experience, extending over a long period of close observation of both. Of the
two the islander is the more daring, more active, and more expert boatman.
This was man}' times acknowledged to me by East Coast men fishing on the
West Coast.
The East Coast man is a fisherman by choice inherited through many
generations and many centuries ; the West Coast man is a fisher from com-
pulsion, and recently when driven from the land. The sea of the West Coast
is more tidal, more stormy, and more dangerous than that of the East Coast,
and the natives do not take to it from choice. They have many sayings
against it : — -' Is corrach gob an dubhan ' — Unstable the point of the fish-hook.
' Is math an cobhair an t-iasg. Good is the help of the fishing,
Ach is don an sobhal an t-iasg.' But a bad barn is the fishing.
Cugan, food, choice food, dainty.
' Cha tig cugan air cuid cait." No cream comes on the cat's portion.
'Cugan a chait chaothaich.' The choice food of the wild cat.
Cugar, cugarbhad, male cat, male wild-cat, hero, gallant, champion. ' Cugarbhad
Mor righ nan cat,' — Great Cugarvad, king of the cats, is the title of a weird
story full of graphic scenes and elliptical runes, interesting to the mythologist
and the grammarian.
Cu-gearr, short dog, wolf ; from ' cu,' dog, and ' gearr,' short. Several names are
applied to the wolf, as ' cu-faol,' ' faol-chu,' ' madadh-alla,' ' alla-mhadadh,'
wild-dog; 'cu-coille,' ' coille-chu,' wood dog; ' madadh-mor,' 'mor-mhadadh,'
big dog ; ' blad,' mouth ; ' bladair,' mouther.
In 1427, Parliament passed an Act calling upon all barons to exterminate
the wolf. It was not, however, till 1743 that the wolf became extinct in