Saimhoir Terms:
Mother
A breakfast griddle cake from Inish Thuaidh, sprinkled with molasses.
The Lesser Gods A fairly large denomination coin
An assembly held on regular occasions to transact the private and publ the Tuath
A Bunus Muintir term, a younger person adopted by an Elder as his or
A stone mill using for grinding grain and corn King
The nobility
The name the blue seals call themselves
The test which allows a Holder to fully open all of Lamh Shabhala's cap fatal
The Eldest, the oak trees of Doire Coill and the other Old Growth fores
"Sister"
A meat stew
The "Traveling," an itinerant group of peddlers of anything, from orph to hard goods
The Heir-Apparent
A constellation used for navigation, as the snout of the badger always p north
The title "Lord"
Kingdom
Turf cuttings, peat
The Banrion Thuaidh's ship: "Loneliness"
Literally "Water Ghost," a race of intelligent creatures living in fresh-w sometimes antagonistic to humans
Nearly transparent, small and sentient herd creatures, once thought to be entirely mythical, nocturnal
Bradan an The "Salmon of the Mage-Lights," the analogue of a cloch na thrintri
Chumhacht
Bull Adult male seal, bulls are less common, and are "shared" by several ad
Adult female seal
Cow
Haul out Land-cousin
May the currents bring you fish Milk-mother
The term for leaving the water for the shore Those humans with Saimhoir blood in their ancestry
A common polite greeting
The cow who suckles a youngling, not necessarily the same cow who gave birth to the infant. In Saimhoir soci-ety, the young suckled by another cow. There is generally a stronger attachment to th than the birth-mother (unless, of course, they happen to be the same).
A seal who has shared the milk of the same mother
Milk-sister/bro
ther
Nesting Land
Saimhoir
Seal-biter
Sister-kin
Inish Thuaidh, only on this island the Saimhoir breed, on the northwest shores
The name the blue seals call themselves
The shark, which feeds on seals
A term of endearment
The cloch na thrintri A human
Sky-stones
Stone-walker
Sweetfish
Any of the small fish that make up the bulk of the Saimhoir’s diet
WaterMother
Winter Home
The chief god of the Saimhoir. It is possible, though not proved, that th is simply another manifes-tation of the human’s Mother-Creator
The peninsula of Talamh an Ghlas, where the currents
are warmer and the fish more plentiful during the coldest months
The Daoine Calendar:
The Daoine calendar, like that of the Bunus Muintir, is primarily lunar-based. Their "day" is considered to start at sunset and conclude at sunrise.
Each month consists of 28 days; there is no further separation into weeks. Rather, the days are counted as being the "thirteenth day of Wideleaf" or the "twenty-first day of Capnut."
The months are named after various trees of the region, and are (in translation) Longroot, Silverbark,
Wideleaf, Straightwood, Fallinglimb, Deereye, Brightflower, Redfruit, Conefir, Capnut, Stranglevine, Softwood, and Sweetsap.
The solar year being slightly more than 365 days, to keep the months from recessing slowly through the seasons over the years, an annual two-fold adjustment is made. The first decision is whether there will be addi-tional days added to Sweetsap; the second proclaims which phase of the moon will correspond to the first day of the month that year (the first day of the months during any given year may be considered to start at the new moon, quarter moon waxing, half moon waxing, three-quarter moon waxing, full moon, three-quarter moon waning, half-moon waning, or quarter moon waning). The proclamation is announced at the Festival of Gheimri (see below) each year — any extra days are added immediately after Gheimri and before the first day of Longroot. All this keeps the solar-based festivals and the lunar calendar roughly in line.
This adjustment is traditionally made by the Dralodoiri of the Mother-Creator at the Sunstones Ring at Dun Laoghaire, but the Inish Thuaidh Dralodoiri generally use the Sunstones Ring near Dun Kiil to make their own adjustments, which do not always agree with that of Dun Laoghaire. Thus, the reckoning of days in Talamh an Ghlas and Inish Thuaidh is often slightly different.
The year is considered to start on the first day of Longroot, immediately after the Festival of Gheimri and any additional days that have been added to Sweetsap.
There are four Great Festivals at the solstices and
Marks that true winter has been reached and that the slow ascent t warmth of spring has begun. Generally a celebration touched with a soml cause the rest of winter must still be endured.
equinoxes.
Lafuacht:
(in the first week of Straightwood)
Fomhar
(in the second week of Brightflower)
Meitha
(in the third
week of Capnut)
Marks the time to prepare for the spring planting to come and the birthing of animals. This festival was an appeal to the Mother-Creator and the Mi lesser gods) to make the crops grow and the live-stock fertile. A time c prayer.
Marks the height of the growing season. In good years this was the and happy festival, celebrating the plenty all around.
Gheimhri Marks the onset of autumn. This is a date fraught with uncertainty
(in the fourth as the crops are harvested and the colder weather begins. Though t
week of often spreadsover more than one day, it is also laden with solemn r
Sweetsap) ceremonies to placate the gods who awaken with the autumn chill.
The following is a sample year with corresponding Gregorian dates.
However, bear in mind that this is only an approximation and will differ slightly each year.
1st day of Longroot = September 23 (New Year’s Day)
1st day of = October 21
Silverbark
= November 18
= December 16
= 7th day of Straightwood (December 22)
= January 13
= February 10 = March 10
= 11th day of Brightflower (March 20)
= April 7
= May 5 = June 2
= 19th day of Capnut (June 20) = June 30
1st day of Wideleaf
1st day of Straightwood
Festival of Lafuacht
1st day of Fallinglimb
1st day of Deereye
1st day of Brightflower
Festival of Fomhar:
1st day of Redfruit
1st day of Conefir
1st day of Capnut
Festival of Meitha:
1st day of Stranglevine
1st day of = July 28 Softwood
1st day of = August 25 Sweetsap
Festival of = 28th day of Sweetsap
Gheimhri: (September 21)
History:
Time of Though details and sometimes names vary, similar tales Myth are shared by both the Bunus Muintir and Daoine people, which indicate a common mythological base and possibly a shared tribal ancestry. The following tale is just one of many, and is the primary Daoine Creation Myth. The Mother-Creator had intercourse with the Sky-Father, and gave birth to a son. But their son was sickly and died, and she laid him down in the firmament, and his skeleton became the bones of the land. In time, the Mother-Creator overcame her grief and lay again with the Sky-Father, and gave birth to Seed-Daughter. Seed-Daughter flourished and in time became as beautiful as her mother, and she attracted the attention of a son of the Sky-Father, Cloud. From that triple union came the plants living in the soil that covered her brother, the Earth. Seed-Daughter was also coveted by Darkness, and Darkness stole her away and took her in violence. When Seed-Daughter escaped from Darkness and came back to Cloud and Rain, sorrowing, she was heavy in her womb, and from her time of confinement would come all the Miondia, the Lesser Gods. The Miondia spread out over the lands, and from their couplings emerged the animals in all their varieties. After the rape by Darkness, Seed-Daughter could conceive no more. She wept often, sometimes fiercely, which we see even now in the rain that falls.