Note 57 — Part II.

It was customary among country folks, and is so still in some districts of Scotland, to kill a fat animal at Martinmas of each year, and salt it for the winter’s provision. Even people in urban districts, though they had not a cow nor an ox, had a pig which they had been fattening for a year, and which was then considered ready for the sacrifice. Hence the term ‘winter mairt.’ The word ‘mairt,’ or ‘mart,’ ultimately came to denote a person who lived in ease and prosperity.