Blair Collection > Gaelic names of beasts (mammalia), birds, fishes, insects, reptiles, etc

86 CATTLE
fastnesses of the island^ where the}^ remain to this day. A
specimen of the short-horned Celtic ox — now said to be extinct —
Avas unearthed near Kirkintilloch from a Roman camp the other
day. Doubts therefore exist whether the Chillingham cattle,
before referred to, are not merely the descendants of the larger
cattle imported by the Saxons, and not the direct descendants of
the aboriginal British urim. The Chillingham cattle are invariably
white in colour with black muzzle, the horns fine and nobly
proportioned, white with black tips, ears reddish brown, eye
fringed with long eyelashes, bodies symmetrically formed with
straight level backs, their fine shoulders enabling them to trot
like match horses with amazing rapidity. The average weight of
a bull is SfiO lbs., a steer 570, and a cow 420.
In Silva Gadelica we read of certain cattle which fought so
desperately for three days that their horns fell off, these were
called adharca luchna, luchna's horns. It is also said, their horns
fell off ivo\\\ grief. In the Ossianic poems there is not a single
allusion to cattle or the pastoral state.
In regard to cattle and horses, etc., the term colpachadh is
used in the Highlands ; sometimes it is thought erroneously
spelled coUpeachadh, which means the process by a tenant, or
others, of placing a superfluity or overstocking of one kind of
stock, and an understocking of another kind against each other.
This may vary in different places, but one list, referring to the West
Highlands, may be given.
As one example of the system — Bo le h-al varies, in one ease a
cow is said (for souming purposes) to consist of only the cow and
her calf, to which she is entitled for a year and a day. In another
district it means the cow and her three immediate descendants,
viz., the calf, one-year-old stirk, and a two-year-old quey ; in a
third, five animals, viz., the latter and her three-year-old heifer.
At four years the first calf is not included in the sowm, but classed
with the cows. Coilpeachadh, or equalising, is also as follows : — A
cow = 8 calves, 4 one-year-old stirks, 2 two-year-old queys, 1 three-
year-old heifer, and 1 stirk, 8 sheep, 12 hoggs, 16 lambs, or 16
geese. If two cows are without calves, 1 one-year-old stirk, etc.,
goes with them, if four, 2 one-year-old queys are equivalent. Two
cows or heifers are called in Ireland Oirciic and are equal to six
sheep in grazing. Another name for a sum or soum of cows or
cattle is Ball. A cattle-grazing right, Carmichael says, is Coir-
sgoraidli, which is just scoring-right ; while a cattle-market is
" an tlas." Airneis is also a term for cattle, as airneis-posta stood
for a marriage-portion or gift, Erca luchna, luchnas Kine, frequently
referred to throughout ancient Celtic tales. Land manured by
cattle is called "toghar," while a common for cattle is "caoimi-
neach " (co iomaineach) ; a familiar legal term is davoch (I)abhoch),
which just means a farm or portion of land pasturing about 320
cattle (see Cow).