Blair Collection > Vestigia celtica

ethics of our own childhood, savours to the
morahst too much of
The good old rule,
The simple plan,
That he shall take who has the might.
And he shall keep who can.
But to the mind and habits of the primitive
Celt this transition seems to have been
neither strange nor uncongenial. That
such, indeed, was the case his speech still
bewrayeth him. Thus, an cu again (aig
mi) = the dog at me = my dog ; an cu agad
(aig tu) = the dog at thee = thy dog ; an cu
aige (aig e) = the dog at him ■= his dog ; an
cu aice (aig i) = the dog at her = her dog ;
an en againn (aig sinn) = the dog at us =
our dog ; an cti agaibh (aig sibh) = the dog
at you = your dog ; an cu aca (aig iad) = the
dog at them = their dog. Similarly also we
say «;^ cu aig Seicmas = the dog at James
= James' dog.
In written Gaelic the idea of ownership
is no doubt also expressed by using the
genitive case of the owner, as cu SJicwnais
= James' dog. But in the ordinary collo-