#scottis

Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham, Thomas Gainsborough (1777). Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh

Cù-Sìth: The Cù-Sìth is a spectral dog or wolf that lives in the Highlands and the Hebrides. The name comes from Scottish Gaelic. A similar beast exists in Irish mythology, the Cu Sidhe and also has similarities to the Welsh Cwn Annwn, or the Hounds of Annwn in English. In Scottish and Irish legend the Cù Sìth, which means 'fairy dog,' was said to have a dark-green, shaggy coat and to be about the size of a large calf. Green was a traditional colour worn or attributed to denizens of the fairy realm. Its eyes were large and had a fiery glow and its tail was long and curled and sometimes it was braided. It was said to have paws the size of a man’s hand. The beast was said to roam the wild moors and highlands, making its lair in rocky clefts and crevices. The Cu Sith was feared as a harbinger of death.  In a similar way the Grim Reaper appears at death to lead the soul to the afterlife, so the Cu Sith takes the soul to the fairy realm, or underworld. The hound is said to have hunted silently for its victim but would sometimes rend the air with three blood-curdling yowls that carried for a great distance and even far out over the sea. Who ever heard the howling of the beast had to reach a place of safety by the third howl or be killed by the sheer terror. When this was heard men would lock up women who were nursing babies. This was to prevent the Cu Sith from stealing them away to the fairy world where they would be made to give up their milk to feed the children of the daoine sìth, or the fairies who were often believed to be the forefathers of the gods and goddesses of nature. They were said to live in fairy mounds which was the visible aspect and entrance of their realm which was a kind of parallel universe existing alongside the world of human beings.

From the loins of a fisherman From the harbour of Crail he went sailing And his first born son left the rolling sea Went into the earth to make his living No light of the sun did he ever see And the coal it broke and scarred him And in his heart was the chilling fear That same day the mine would take him But far freedom's fight in the H.L.I. On a foreign field he was taken And the pension left in his daughter's hand Had to love and feed the children Oh Caledonia Caledonia Oh Caledonia She quartered at a Rose Street Inn She favoured the capitals gentlemen And from shame she saved the family name Made a husband of a lover From their union come a rhyming man With his band he crossed the oceon And the pride of Caledonio Made his name

The lamb’s eye view

John Barrowman's Scottish Accent :)

Not for the first time, we had to check that this really came from "Better Together", not some cybernat satire site, but again it's bona fide hypocrisy par excellence. This really is what the No ca...

---Eddie