Note 100 — THE BOOK OF THE DEAN OF LISMORE.

Yellow was the favourite colour of the ancient Celt. “Falt buidh,” yellow hair, is an object of the highest admiration, and the longer and more waving the locks, the greater the admiration. The account the Celt gives of himself is somewhat different from that given by his neighbours, who would paint him a wiry, thin, black-haired, black-eyed man. Tacitus gave a different description; and any man who travels the Highlands of Perthshire, where, perhaps, we have the purest Celtic blood in Scotland, will have ample evidence of the accuracy of the Roman historian. With reference to the admiration of the yellow colour among the Celts, it is interesting to trace how it intermingles itself with the vocabulary of the language; thus, a fine day is a yellow day. The name given to Beltin day, the opening of summer, is, “la buidhe Beallteine,” yellow Beltin day; and anything propitious is called yellow, as, “is buidhe dhuit e,” it is yellow or propitious for you; and a man satisfied after a meal is called “buidheach,” yellow or satisfied.