Gàidhlig / English
Ialtag

Ialtag

Posted by Kate on Thursday 31st August
Last week, we were alerted to the fact that a bat was circulating the rooms in the Department of Celtic and Gaelic, here at Glasgow University.

There was a bit of a debate as to how we might catch her, and there was a host of different equipment on each floor of the building; a fishing net, gloves, shoeboxes. Perhaps, the bat was seeking to inspire us to write a wee ditty about her. There’s no doubt she is a wonderful animal.

There are many different words for the bat in each district of the country. In the Fieldwork Archive, you find that dialtag is the word for her in Rossshire, Mull and Raasay. They say ealtag in Islay. We also find compound nouns, such as dealtag anmoch, or the late bat, as said in Badenoch. The bat was known at ealtag-leathraich in Arran, or the leathery bat. Dwelly’s dictionary gives us another: iall-theannaidh, or darting bridle or leather thong. When you see her flying, you can well understand how she got this name.
 
Of course, we already know why our bat was in the building with us. In Collection of Gaelic Proverbs and Familiar Phrases, the proverb tells us:

“The bat has come in, showers follow immediately.”

The same wisdom was shared in Mac-Talla (Vol 11), where we see that it is joined by each animal in their restlessness:

“…if we see the bat come in…the pigs running with fodder in their mouths…the cattle licking their front hooves…you hear the mice crying with a strange uproar in the dark crevices… we may look to the rain.”

Rob Donn, the great bard of Sutherland, was not so generous to the bat when he made reference to her in his poetry:

“..he is the lowly creeping thing, he is no bird or mouse, He is the rascal of the bats.”

I don’t expect many people in general readily give the bat much praise, particularly as she is asociated with dark places, and that comhachag a’ bhròin, or the owl of sorrow, is not far behind her before showers. I think she is beautiful, and she does splendid work gobbling up all those midgies. Welcome wee bat!

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