Sorry folks
Posted: Monday, 10 November 2008 |
Comments
Thank goodness about the bonfire! I was about to call the SSPCA... :-)
Jill from EK
I'm very glad it was dry round your end...
Flying Cat from dry at both ends
What an array of misunderstandings! But it does make for interesting reading.
Barney from Swithiod cooling off
How are Swampy and Claire? Was there a good turnoot for the bonfire, who did you burn?
Sunny from Cyprus
Pick a planner, any planner...
Flying Cat from A Wicker Plan
Cat Bonfire eh? According to Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary, under the entry "taghairm" it can mean, and I quote, "Ancient means of divination said to be one of th emost effectual ways of raising the devil, and getting unwanted wishes gratified. The performance consisted in roasting cats alive, one after another for some days, without tassting food: which if duly persisted in, summoned a legion of devils, in the guise of black cats, with their master at their head, all screeching in a way terrifying to any person of ordinary nerves. And another variant is: 鈥淭he divination by taghairm was once a noted superstition amongst the Gael and in the northern parts of the Lowlands. When any important question concerning futurity arose, and of which a solution was, by all means, desirable, some shrewder person than his neighbour was pitched upon, to play the part of prophet. This person was wrapped in the warm smoking hide of a newly slain ox or cow, commonly an ox, and laid at full length in the wildest recess of some lonely waterfall. The question was then put to him, and the oracle left in solitude to consider it. Here he lay for some hours with the cloak of knowledge around him, and over his head, no doubt to see the better into futurity; deafened by the incessant roaring of the torrent; every sense assailed; his body steaming; his fancy in a ferment; and whatever notion had found its way into his mind from so many sources of prophecy, it was firmly believed to have been communicated by invisible beings who were supposed to haunt such solitudes.鈥 So there.
MM from Mull
MM I am shocked, SHOCKED that you would disseminate such treacherous information. I'm going to lie down in a darkened room now...
Flying Cat from in a fluff
Sorry FC! It all sounds quite grim doesnt it? I wonder if that sort f thing ever DID happen, or is it like the Wickerman? ie the stuff of legend but no real foundation in hard facts. I can just imagine what Mrs Slocombe would have to say about that type of incident!!!!
MM from Grace Brothers
Aw, what the old folks used to get up to when there wuz no TV to watch! MM, very interesting indeed. You notice the common themes ... prolonged constant noise and sensory deprivation ... folks, I feel funny if I don't get ma porridge regular like.
Barney from Swithiod shazam!
I particularly liked the phrase "wrapped in the warm smoking hide of a newly slain ox or cow". It made me come over all shivery...
Flying Cat from beef advertisement
This is a wee coment for sunny swampy and clare are no longer together
natures hairdryer from arran
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