A story from Co. #Donegal tells of a family with 10 children who were slowly starving in a lean winter. While the parents debated one night what they could do to scrabble together some food for their offspring, they heard the noise of lowing. Outside, in the dire storm, they found a red-speckled cow that they brought into the byre. The next day the cow gave birth to a female calf and began to give forth milk abundantly. Worrying over whose animal had wandered onto their land, the family asked around the region, but no cow was reported missing. The cow stayed with them for years, having a calf each year and filling the buckets with sweet milk. One day the man, exasperated at finding the cow munching in a field of new oats and forgetting to be grateful for his good fortune, raised his staff to her. Gathering all her little herd together, the cow disappeared and was never seen again.
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`
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RT @PIE_Animals@twitter.com
… as well as cows: #Vedic pr̥śni- ‘speckled’ and as a substantive pr̥śni- f. ‘cow’ (and also the name of the mother of the #Maruts), #MiddleIrish erc ‘speckled, dark red’ (*perk̑-ó-) and as a substantive erc ‘a spotted or red-eared cow’.
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