The Progress of the Salty Coo
Bos Taurus Salsus (after Linnaeus)
By Mark Zygadlo
Even with the benefit of hindsight over the 13 years of questions and theories about the meaning and significance of the Salty Coo within Nithraid, she remains obstinately bovine and resistant to explanation. She is without question the focal point of the ritual element of the celebration centred around the race. Every year she is salted anew, carried through the town at shoulder height and despite being eyeless, she watches the celebration of the river from an elevated place and is finally herself committed to the receding tide.
Even her spontaneous appearance during the initial conversations about Nithraid suggests that she has always been here, elemental, waiting, somehow willing us to invent her. Whimsical as this may sound in a world determined to explain all mystery, the evidence of people’s response to her seems equally determined that something inexplicable should remain. Part of her fascination is her ambiguity: yes, she does represent the traditional exports from the catchment, part of the river-borne trade which built the town and supported all life here, but now that the river is no longer the main commercial or cultural artery, what is its significance and how should we understand it? How should we live with it?
Perhaps the Salty Coo most significantly symbolises this question. She is inanimate yet represents a livelihood. She refers to the past yet seeks a future. She is eyeless yet demands a coherent vision. She is a land animal yet represents the river. She is mute… yet speaks.
Nithraid RIVER FESTIVAL 