Gàidhlig / English
Banais-chullaich

Banais-chullaich

Posted by Abi on Thursday 10 November

The phrase banais-chullaich was collected in 1970 on the isle of Raasay and it means ‘a collection of wailing cats at night’ Maybe they have just heard the latest news from America?

Cats appear often in the sayings we have on the DASG website, and they are not very complimentary of the poor things.
This saying was collected in North Uist and it is about somebody who is very uncharitable and selfish:

‘Chan eil an sin ach an deur ga iarraidh air a’ chàt’ [used about someone who would not share or give what was his own to anyone else like the saying says the cat does not leave a drop for anyone else.]

This saying was collected in South Uist in the 1980s for somebody who is not fond of hard work:

Miann a’ chait ’san traigh, ’s cha toir e fhein as e. [Applied to someone who desired something but was not prepared to get it himself. Literally, although the cat likes fish it does not hunt it himself.]

Have you ever heard these sayings? Or do you have any others to do with cats? You can leave a comment under our blogs and we have pages on Facebook and Twitter.

 
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