The ritual of the Hogmanay guisers - the Procession of the Bull - is one of the most ancient and curious pagan survivals in Scotland. The hide of a bull, with horns, hooves, and tail attached, was kept in the rafters throughout the year and taken down on Hogmanay. One of the gillean Callaig or Hogmanay lads was enveloped in the hide, and each of his companions provided himself with a staff - usually a caman or shinty stick - to the end of which was secured a piece of sheepskin known as the casein-uchd, the Hogmanay breast-strip.
"The casein-uchd," says Dr. Carmichael, "is a strip of skin from the breast of a sheep killed at Christmas, New Year and other sacred festivals. The strip is oval, and no knife must be used in removing it from the flesh. Two such strips were placed face to face to form a bag. Probably this was the ulim, the sacred bag for alms."
Dr. Maclagan describes it as "a narrow strip, abut three inches wide, cut from lip or neck along the belly to tail." This, presumably, was the custom in Argyll.
The skin of a cow, a goat, or a deer was occasionally substituted, and in Mull the principal singer of the party carried a singed sheep's tail.
Towards midnight (to return to the Outer Hebrides), the band set off on a round of the township, the man in the hide leading, whilst his followers "kept beating the hide with their staves, making a noise like the beating of a drum, and shouting their rune, Caluinn a Bhuilg, Hogmanay of the Sack -
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Strike the hide,
Strike the hide.
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Beat the skin.
Beat the skin.
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Down with it!
Up with it!
Strike the hide!
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Down with it!
Up with it!
Beat the skin.
Hogmanay of the Sack,
Hogmanay of the Sack.
The Silver Bough, Volume 3: A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals - Hallowe'en to Yule. F. Marian. McNeill.