[1] Gheibh baoth ’guidhe ach cha-n fhaigh a h-anam trÒcair.

[2] Prov., p. 143.

[3] Is mairg is mÀthair do mhacan baoth, dar is ann air Di’rdaoin bhios a Bhealltainn.

[4] In Germany it was a common belief that witches met on the night before first May (i.e. Beltane night) on the mountain called the Blockberg, to dance and feast with devils.

[5] The crook or pot-hanger seems to have been an important article of the witch’s paraphernalia. A shepherd in Mull, coming in late from the hill, with his feet wet, placed his stockings to dry on the pot-hanger. An old woman present pulled the stockings down again, saying to the shepherd, “Don’t do that; remember you are a person that travels the hill night and day.” (Cuimhnich gur duin’ thus’ tha siubhal a mhonaidh latha ’s a dh’oidhche.) He never could ascertain what she meant.

[6] The ancient churn was broader at one end than the other, and its narrow end, or mouth, was secured with a prepared sheepskin covering, called fÙileach in Mull, iomaideil in Morven and on the mainland generally. The cross or hoop, that secured this covering in its place, should also be of mountain ash. The churn was worked by the small end being lifted up and let down repeatedly.

[7]

The rhyme was composed by the bard Ailein Dall.

[8] De’n riabhach thug a’ so sibh?

[9]

[10] The tale has this much truth in it, that one of the ill-fated Spanish Armada was blown up in Tobermory Harbour, A.D. 1589. The wonder would be, in those days when public news travelled slowly or not at all, if the history or object of the Spanish fleet should be known in the Highlands, or that it should be known to the Mull people that there was any ship in the fleet but the one that came to their own coasts.

[11] A family of this name has had down to the present day a reputation for witchcraft. The last of them was known to the writer as a poor woman of much shrewdness and inoffensive character. She professed great skill in healing cattle by means of charms and such-like white witchcraft.

[12] CÙl a’s aghaidh mo spÒige ri Macillduinn.

[13] Tha m’iteagun’s m’atagun ag atadh ris na h-eibhleagun.

[14]

“An do mharbhadh Maol Meanachan nan cat? Mar bhi na h-uile oidhche fhuair mi biadh ’us bainne na d’theaglach, bhiodh do sgÒrnan fada riabhach ann am Ìnein. Innis do Bhruc Riabhach gun d’eug Bladrum.”

[15] Mhami, mhami! tha mo sheanair ag Éiridh.

[16] Cotta, Short Discovery of Unobserved Dangers, 1612. Quoted by Beand, iii. 3.

[17] The author wrote this chapter in 1874.—Ed.

[18]

[19] Al. Early on Sunday, to a level stone on the shore.

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28] Others say his servant man saw her first, a tradition which finds a ready explanation for the whole account, in an attempt to discourage Hugh by means of a prevailing superstition.

[29] After his victory Dowart made prisoner of his brother, Lochbuy, and sent him to Kerneburg, a stronghold of which the Dowarts became heritable keepers, on one of the Treshinish Islands, near Staffa, west of Mull. He sent “Black Sarah Macphie” (MÒr dhu nic a PhÌ), from Suidhe, in the Ross of Mull, the most ungainly woman he could get, so ugly that she was nicknamed “The Pack-saddle” (an t-srathair), to take care of him. Black Sarah, however, became the mother of Murcha Gearr, who ultimately made himself master of his paternal acres.

[30] Campbell of Islay’s West Highland Tales, ii. 83.

[31] An old man in Aharacle, in the north of Argyleshire, was shaved, his face was washed, his hair combed, and his personal appearance attended to in anticipation of his speedy dissolution. When an attempt was made to cut his nails, he told his friends to let them alone: “They are, he exclaimed, but slight weapons for myself, seeing I don’t know where I am going to.” (’S beag an t-armachd dhomh fhÌn iad, ’s gun fhios ’am cean’ tha mi dol.)

[32] MacGlumag na mias, o liath tarrang shÌoda, burrach mÒr.

[33]

[34] North Morar is known as MÒrair mhic shimidh and South Morar as MÒrair mhic DhÙghaill.

[35]

[36]

[37] Fhaic thu ’n t-sean bho liath, ’s i gun bhiadh, a thÀillear.

[38] SgÒrnan fada riabhach, ’se gun bhiadh, a thÀillear.

[39] ChÌ-sa, mhic, chÌ-sa, mhic, chÌ-sa sid ’s fuaigheam so an drÀsda.

[40] Gairdean fada riabhach ’s e gun fheÒil gun bhiadh, a thÀillear.

[41] SpÒg mhÒr liath gun fhuil, gun fheÒil, gun fhÉithean, ’s i gun bhiadh, a thÁillear.

[42] SpÒg mhÒr liath, ’s i gun bhiadh, a thÀillear.

[43] In connection perhaps with this is the saying, “Ask everything of a Cameron, but ask no butter from a Cameron” (Iarr gach ni air Camsrhron ach, ach na iarr Ìm air Camsrhronach). The clan are also called “The soft Camerons of the butter” (Camsrhronaich bhog an ime).

[44] This is the origin, at least an illustration, of the saying, “Take a wife from hell, and she will take you to her own house” (Thoir bean a ifrinn, ’s bheir i gu tigh fhein thu).

[45] It was in the house of this man, tradition says, that Allan Breac, the true murderer of Colin Campbell of Glenure, when making his escape, stayed the night after the murder. James Stewart of Ardsheal was hung in chains for the murder in 1752.

[46] The excessive use of wine by the West Highland chiefs is borne witness to by the distich:

[47]

[48]

[49]

[50]

[51] Highland Society’s Dictionary, sub voce.

[52] Am fear nach dean a Nollaig sunndach ni e chÀisg gu tursach deurach.

[53] Chaneil Nollaig gun fheÒil.

[54]

[55]

[56]

[57]

[58]

[59]

[60]

[61]

[62]

[63]

[64]

[65] Campbell’s Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands, p. 296.

[66]

[67] This derivation has been derived from, and others have been confirmed by Lhuyd (ArchÆologia Britannica, publ. at Oxford, 1707). The work is folio size, and contains many curious and sensible philological observations. Its principal defect is, that what is valuable is buried in pages of uninteresting glossaries.

[68]

[69]

[70] In the Hebrides, the name St. Brendan’s Eve for the Whitsunday term is entirely unknown. It is told of a Tiree man of the last generation, that he was promised a croft, or piece of land, by the then chamberlain of the island, who was a native of the mainland, and said, “Your name will be put on the rent-roll on St. Brendan’s Day.” The Tiree man went home and consulted his godfather (goistidh) as to what day the factor meant. “I really don’t know,” said his godfather, “unless it be the day of judgment.”

[71]

[72] Campbell’s Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands, p. 260.

[73]

[74]

[75]

[76]

[77]

[78] V. page 293.

[79] When hid in her vacant interlunar cave, i.e. when she is waning and late of rising, the dark period of the night is called rath dorcha (dark circle). “Son of the moon’s dark circle” (mhic an rath dorcha) is an expression of mild objurgation.