19 Jan 2006
Cattle raids kill 38 in Kenya

'Twas the headline that caught my eye here - it's not often you hear of cattle raids these days! But in times past, they were far more common, as cattle were the basis of all wealth. And for some of us, they still are. By far the biggest single asset I own is my herd of Highland cattle.

Our modern English was 'fee' comes from Old English 'feoh' - cattle. It's speculated that our modern word 'feud' meaning 'skirmish' or 'continuing fight', especially between neighboring families, is related to the same root - would that imply that the root cause of human conflict is cattle? Hmmm...

'Feoh' is ultimately derived from the Indo-European root word *peku-, which came more or less directly into Latin as 'pecunia' and from there to English as 'pecuniary' - of or relating to money or wealth.

The most famous epic of the Celts is known as Táin Bó Cúalnge - the Cattle Raid of Cooley, about the efforts to steal a prize bull from the province of Ulster.

Our own, more recent history is fraught with rustlers and one incident of more or less open warfare: the Johnson County Cattle War.

It's still going on here, too, although few folks are killed in the US today over cattle.

At least 38 people are killed in northern Kenya, after cross-border cattle raids from Ethiopia and Sudan, police say.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

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