This is the third day of summer, and its name is almost the only part of the beliefs concerning it, that now survives. The writer searched far and wide for an explanation of the name, and only once heard one that was satisfactory. It was on this day that the fallen angels were expelled from Paradise, and on it people should avoid doing any kind of evil. If caught in the act, they will be similarly expelled from the regions of forgiveness, and be visited with “judgement without mercy.” If it falls on a Friday, it is unlucky to go on a journey.
Pennant says about it, “The fourteenth May is unlucky, and the day on which it falls.”
Caingis, WHITSUNTIDE, PENTECOST.
This and Martinmas are the two principal term days in Scotland, at which half-yearly servants enter on their duties, and at which removals take place. At Whitsunday term (old style) especially, the 25th of May, the towns of Scotland present an animated appearance from the number of removals, or changes of residences. The streets are crowded with household goods being removed from one house to another. Tenants at will are removed and leases expire at this term.
In Lorn, and the districts to the south of it, along by Lochfyneside, the term is called Feill Breunain. St. Brendan the Elder, from whom the name is derived, was abbot of Clonfest in Ireland A.D. 578. His day is May 16-28. Kilbrandon parish (in Gaelic Sgìreachd a Chuain, the parish of the ocean) in the west of Argyllshire, derives its name from him, and there is a farm in the island of Mull of the same name. History records that the saint with 14 companions once made a voyage in search of Paradise, and in stormy weather, when the sea is rough and the sky inclement, and the earth is hid with driving showers [it excites a smile], that he came north in the hope of finding it. There are days indeed in summer in the Hebrides, when a glory covers the sea and sky and the hills “that encircle the sea,” when he might think that he was on the way.[70]
In Sutherlandshire, people reckon by the Feill Chelzie, a market held on Tuesday of the term, deriving its name from a wool manufactory, now discontinued, called New Kelso, near Loch Carron.
The names Caingis, Whitsuntide, and Pentecost, are modifications of one and the same word. Pentecost became pencas in Cornish, in Gaelic (which represents p of the Welsh dialects by c) caingis (Kinkis), as pascha became W. pâsk, Gael. Càisg (Kasg). The Gaelic c or k sound is represented in the Saxon tongue by wh. Thus we have cuibhle (cuile), wheel; cuip, whip; ciod, what?; cuilein, whelp; co, who?; cuist, wheesht! be quiet!; caoin, whine; etc. So cencas has become Whitsun. The feast has no name in the languages of Western Europe, but such as are derivations of the Greek word. The English name has been thought to be an exception, and to be, therefore, of modern origin. From the light thrown upon it by the Celtic languages, we infer that it is of the same origin as the rest.
Caingis is reckoned to be “at the end of a fortnight of summer.”