Is ithi lochad coa lloss.

Is ithi lochad coa lloss.

(it is * eating * of a mouse * with its * tail-end)

Eating a mouse includes the tail!

In a memorable scene in “Cath Maige Mucrama”, the king of Alba serves Lugaid Mac Con (who is incognito) and his men whole raw mice for dinner, and threatens them with death if they do not eat them! One poor man vomits every time he starts to put his mouse in his mouth, which prompts Lugaid, who has already complied, to order his man to get it down, tail and all. By this strategem the king is able to discover which one of the men is Luagaid, since he is necessarily the one who would have the authority to enforce such a revolting mouthful.


Topics: Proverbial Sayings