1A slightly anglicised lection of the Gaelic word PÀras = Paradise, Heaven. "Pharais," properly, is the genitive and dative case of PÀras, as in the line from Muireadhach Albannach, quoted after the title page. "Mithich domh triall gu tigh Pharais"—"It is time for me to go up unto the House of Paradise."
2 A tall, cream-white marguÉrite, native to the Outer Isles and the Hebrides, is known to the Islanders as the Moonflower.
3 "Sorcha, my bonnie lassie," "Yes, Alan, my darling."
4 "Ah, my fair one, my dark-haired lass, joy be on you!"—"And joy on you, my loved-in-secret."
Infra: Domnuill-dubh instead of Donncha-dubh: i.e. "should be called Black Donald instead of Black Duncan." It is a play upon words: for "Black Donald" is the Highland colloquialism for Satan.
5 "Bad end to you! Bad death to you! Ay, and may a death of woe be on you! Evil to you, evil to you!"
6 A pretty and common onomatopoeic saying, which I remember first hearing as a lullaby, when I was a child of three or four.
7 "Serpent-soul, serpent-soul!" Pronounce Àn' um nÀa-rach. Nathrach is the genitive of nÀthair (pronounced nha'er, or a'er nasally).
8Paidir is literally a Pater: i. e., a Paternoster, "Our Father."
9 "Alas, my soul is oppressed within me!" ... "if it be ordained!" ... "if God prolong my days!"
10 "Grief, my grief! O grief, my grief, ochone, arone! Sorrow upon me, my heart is broken!"
11 "Dhonas's a dholas ort"—"Bas dunach ort": i.e. "Evil and sorrow to you.... A death of woe be yours! God against thee," etc.: this dreadful and dreaded anathema runs in the Gaelic—"Dia ad aghaidh 's ad aodann, bathadh air muir is losgadh air tir, crogan sgithhich eadar do chridhe 's t' airnean": from which it will be seen, by those who know Gaelic, that I have not translated literally either "crogan" or "airnean."
12Mios crochaidh nan con. This month is the period from the middle of July till the middle of August.
13 "Where is the hearse?" Eilidriom (pronounced like a-ee-drem, is used in Skye and the isles, rarely if ever on the mainland. Snaoimh (bier) is the common word, though when a hearse is actually meant, it is alluded to as the carbad-mhÀrbh, "the death-chariot."
14 In many parts of the Highlands it is still the wont of children at Beltane (May Day) to light fires in woods or on rocky spurs, and there cook eggs, or play other pranks, sometimes very fantastic ones. These meaningless observances are a survival of the days of Druidic worship. Beltane means the sacred fire. Baal, beal, or bel is not the actual Gaelic word for the Sun, or the Sun-god: though the Druids may have had Baal from the Phoenician mariners who came to Ireland. The ancient Celtic word is bea'uil, "the life of everything," "the source of everything." Beal (pron. bel) and teine, "fire," give "Beltane"—the Festival of the Sun.
15 Pron. Ke-an! Ke-an! Keen-al-us! Doov-ach-us! To Celtic ears, not unlike the wailing cry of the plover. The words, moreover, mean For long, ever! Melancholy! Gloom! The word feadag (pron. Faad'ak), in the ensuing sentences, has two meanings—a plover, and a flute. The binn fheadag is "the shrill voice of the plover." Murdo turns the word both ways: feadag, the bird, and feadag, a flute; the flute made of wind and shadow that sometimes is heard on the hills when a (tamhasq) tavask moves through the gloom of night.
16 The "mircath," or war-frenzy, is mire-chath, the "passion of battle," as the "mirdeeay" is mire-dheidh, the "passion of longing." The word Darthula—infra—is a later Gaelic variant of Dearduil (almost identically pronounced), the Scoto-Gaelic equivalent of the Erse DeirdrÊ, the most beautiful woman of old.
17Deasiul: "the way of the south [i.e. of the sun] (to you!)" From deas, the south, and seol, way of, direction. The common Gaelic exclamation for luck, in the Highlands at any rate. Many old crofters still, on coming out of a morning, cry "Deasiul!"
