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

94 COW
position and value in the annals of history^ tradition, or myth, than
the hos communis or common cow. Among the Eastern nations,
the cradle of our Celtic race, it M^as and still is held in the utmost
veneration, nay sacred ; and when money, or other consideration
for value or loss, real or estimated, came into demand, the cow
was the means adopted in almost every instance. Latterly a
Highlander's, or more correctly speaking a Celt's, whole wealth
consisted of cows or cattle, being what he most valued or prided
himself upon, the glory and joy of life it is said being " a fine fold
of cows." With cows his rents were paid, when such came to be
exacted, with cows his daughters were portioned and his sons
established in life. The Ilomans even called their term for money
pccunia, from pecus, flock or herd of cows, etc. As it is impossible
to give here more than the briefest sketch of " cow-history " in
general (as it is our object throughout to confine ourselves to the
Celtic side of the subject), as found among the Celtic race which
inhabited so great a portion of the world, especially Great Britain
and Ireland, which latter country claims to have got her stock of
cows originally from three sacrtd ones which rose up from the
sea, a white, a red, and a black, bo-finn, bo-ruadh's bo-dhubh.
An etymology, which to us seems somewhat far-fetched, is that given
for the word fearb or ferb, being fer or feur beo— grass alive, i.e.,
that which lives or is alive on grass, while a word for milk is " fir "
(? fior), i.e., true, pure, white ; the following remarks are submitted
as collected from authentic Celtic sources. In Ireland (as Skoie
tells us in Celtic Scotland) ranks were distinguished from their
respective possession of cattle. The Bo-aire class had six grades ;
the lowest aire, the Og-aire, or young lord's property, was reckoned
by seven cows with their bull, seven pigs with a boar, seven sheep,
and a horse for work and riding. The land required for these seven
cows was called a cowland, and the lord left one cow at the end of
the year in payment for it. A cow's grass is clcitinn, while the ferns
used for littering is " easradh." The next grade was the Jithech
or Athrcha, he had ten cows, ten pigs, and ten sheep. The next
was the Bo-aire febh.sa (superior Bo-aire) who had land of the value
of forty-two cows, and possessed twelve. The next, the Briighfer
(village lord) had land of the value of three times seven cumals or
cumhals equal to sixty-three cows and possessed twenty, two bulls,
six bullocks, twenty hoggs, twenty sheep, four house-fed hogs,
two sows, and a riding horse. A still higher grade was termed the
Fcrfotlila (fear fojiath, man under chief, or lieutenant) ; while the
highest was the Aire-coisring (coisrigie, consecrated or sacred).
In Ireland, cows were used as fees for burial of different grades
of Aireach or nobles, as follows : Ocaireach, three cows or their
equivalent ; Bo-aireach, five ; Aireach-deasa, ten ; Aireach-ard, fifteen ;
Aireach-treisin, twenty ; Aireach- foirglnl , thirty ; and High (a king),
forty-two or their equivalents. Ciinial or citmhal was the term for
the price of three cows ; and was thus fixed and named in the old