[Sca-cooks] cattle

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Interesting stuff. I presume the word is related  to "chattel".

Just to be clear, in one case, the animals in question are  said to give 
milk, so I believe we're talking about beef. And the cattle raid of  Louth 
also appears to be about the familiar bovine:

"A multitude of  places, throughout Ireland, are named after cattle. 
Legends upon the subject of  "cow lore" are current amongst the peasantry; and 
stories relating to bulls,  cows, and calves are interwoven with Irish 
Fairy-mythology, and interest chiefly  from their topographical references. Several 
of the early Irish Saints—like the  Druids—were credited with the 
possession of magical cows. Cattle raids and  forays afford fruitful themes for early 
romances, the most celebrated production  being the Tain I", L'uailyne, or 
the cattle raid of Louth, the so called  Nibeluwjai Lied of Irish History. 
It has been remarked that even the  celebrebrated abduction of Dervorgil 
partakes, when examined by the light of  modern investigation, more of the 
nature of a cattle foray than a romance, or  love passage, between an Irish 
Princess aged 44 and a King in bis 62nd  year."
http://books.google.com/books?id=vRyBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA127&dq=%22The+Cattle+Raid
%22+Louth&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9RtFUZOmFdC4qQG4loH4Cw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%
22The%20Cattle%20Raid%22%20Louth&f=false

Jim  Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

Newly translated from Pierre Jean-Baptiste  Le Grand d'Aussy:
Eggs, Cheese and Butter in Old Regime France 

In a  message dated 3/16/2013 6:19:49 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, 
johnnae at mac.com  writes:
OED goes into the Etymology of course
:  Middle English catel  , < Old Northern French catel (= central Old 
French chatel , Provençal captal  , capdal ) < late Latin captāle , Latin capitā
le , neuter of the adjective  capitālis head-, principal,  used subst. in 
mediæval times in the sense  ‘principal sum of money, capital, wealth, property
’; compare modern  English  = stock in trade. Thus Papias has ‘capitale , 
caput pecuniæ,  capitis summa’, the Catholicon ‘capitale , pecunia’.