The Peat-Fire Flame : Folk-Tales and Traditions of the Highlands & Islands
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I ItlACGReGOR 0/^. 317 THIS is a comprehensive collection of the best folk-tales of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Many of these tales have been collected orally by the author and appear now in print for the first time. In the outlying parts of the Hebrides where only Gaelic is spoken by the older inhabitants these tales could only be collected by one who is familiar with the language, and the Author is well qualified for the task he has under- taken. He has been a collector all his life and. Highland born, familiar with Gaelic since he could speak. With the passing years the sources for oral col- lection of these old tales are becoming fewer and less accessible and as there has been a growing interest in Celtic literature and Celtic music in recent years the time would seem ripe for a new one-volume collection of folk-tales. The book is illustrated with reproduc- tions from the Author^s own photographs. THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME ! By the Same Author: SOMEWHERE IN SCOTLAND. THE HAUNTED ISLES. SEARCHING THE HEBRIDES WITH A CAMERA. OVER THE SEA TO SKYE. A LAST VOYAGE TO ST. KILDA. BEHOLD THE HEBRIDES WILD DRUMALBAIN : THE ROAD TO MEGGERNIE AND GLEN COE. SUMMER DAYS AMONG THE WESTERN ISLES. HEBRIDEAN SEA PIECES. ETC., ETC. THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME FOLK-TALES AND TRADITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS By Alasdair Alpin MacGregor (Author of Summer Days among the Western Isles; Somezvhere in Scotland; &c.) With 56 Illustrations from Photographs by the Author. THE MORAY PRESS EDINBURGH & LONDON FIRST PUBLISHF.D It THE MORAY TRESS 126 PRINCES STREET, EDtNEURGII 182 HIGH HOLBOKN, LONDON, W.C.I PRINTED IN SCOTLAND BY THE DUNEDIN PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH AND BOUND BY WILLIAM HUNTER & SONS, EDINBURGH FOR GRANT & MURRAY LIMITED 120 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH To THE Elusive KENNETH MACLEOD. " The Most Distinguished Faery of Modern Times," In Recollection of His Esteem for the Brownie dwelling on Cara, and of the small hours spent over the Manse fire at Gigha, In the Kingfdom of the Isles. ; PREFACE THE purport of this volume is to set forth a series of Folk-tales and Traditions in a form in which they may make a popular appeal, and, incidentally, be saved from oblivion. With the science of Folk-tales I have not concerned myself : nor have I included tales and traditions that might be ascribed to a period regarded as mythological. But I have endeavoured to make my collection and selection as representative as possible. I am well aware that this work may lay itself open to the criticism that certain chapters lack easy continuity, and that much of the material is too compendious and detached but this is almost unavoidable where, for purposes of clarity and ready reference, an attempt is being made to allow each folk-tale and tradition to stand on its own merits. I hope, however, that compensation for any such defect will be found in the manner in which I have sought to correlate the text and the illustrations. With the exception of the illustrations showing the Faery Flag, Rory Mor's Horn, and the Dunvegan Cup, which was given to me many years ago by my friend, the late Canon R. C. MacLeod of MacLeod, all the illustrations are from photographs taken by myself with a 3a Kodak, on Kodak film (chiefly panatomic), and with a sky or a colour filter. Here and there I have inserted, with minor alterations, some of the folk-tales and traditions to be found in my earlier works. In most cases such inclusions are the result of my own labour and research. However, the great bulk of the volume consists of fresh, unpublished material, much of which has come my way when wandering at various times through the Highlands and Hebrides with a notebook and a camera, and with a ready ear for the traditionary fragments that remain unchronicled, and that to-day are passing so rapidly out of memory. To the Editor of Chambers's Journal I am indebted for permission to include the chapter on Folk-tales and Traditions of the '15 and the '45, to the Editors of the Manchester Guardian, S.M.T. Magazine, and Passing Show in respect of most of the material contained in the chapters on the Seal-folk, the Brownie, and the Glaistig; and to my good friend, Walter MacPhail, Editor of the Edinburgh Evening Nezvs, for odds and ends that have been contributed by me to his paper at varying intervals during the past decade, and that now are appropriately incorporated in this volume. To Miss Mary Wilson, Black Hill House, Strathtay, I am grateful for two or three Perthshire tales of the Second-Sight and of Ghosts; to Miss M. Wright Craig, Inverness, for several notes on Bell-lore and the like; to my own kinsfolk in the Outer Hebrides for some of the most precious fragments this book contains ; and to my late father for the incomparable background of my childhood. And I would be ungrateful, indeed, were I not to make mention of the hospitality of my leal, open-handed friend, A. B. MacKay, since it was over his generous fireside in Cathcart, Glasgow, during the small hours, that much of the material embodied in the succeeding pages was set down, and gradually fashioned into book- form. Alasdair Alpin MacGregor. 14, Paulton's Square, Chelsea, S.W., 3. June, 1937. ; CONTENTS 'TER PAGE I. Faeries : Their Propensities and Activities 1 Concerning Faeries in General; The Men of Peace and the Women of Peace; Released from Faeryland; The Faeries of Pennygown ; The Wizard of Reay and his Book of Magic; The Faeries of the Seely Howe ; How the Faeries Persecuted Luran ; A Faery Tale of Sandray; A Faery's Desire; The Faery Cup of Raasay; Red Donald of the Faeries; Dancing in Faeryland; A Host of Faeries ; The Faery Dyers ; Faery Arrows; A Faery Spade; A Perpetual Baking; The Faeries of St. Kilda ; The Faery Flag; Faery Millers; The Little Folk of Sandwick Hill; A Stag's Weight ; The Secret Commonwealth ; Two Tiny Boys with Green Vests; Engaged to the Clerk to the Faeries. II. Faery Music 29 Faery Bagpipes on the Isle of Muck; A Faery Orchestra; Black MacKcnzie of the Pipes; Big Donald, King of the Faeries ; Robin Og and the Faery Pipes; Faery Music among the Moonlit Snows ; The Silver Chanter of MacCrimmon. III. Faery Dogs and Faery Cattle ... 37 Imprints on the Sand ; Lair of the Faery Dog Faery Dogs in Benbecula; The Oracular Tooth of the Faery Dog ; Faery Cows ; A Small, Red Cow Sea-Cows at Luskentyre ; Faery Cattle in the Isle of Skye; Red-eared Sea-Cattle; The Sea-Cattle's Croon. IV. The Brownie 44 The Little Old Man of the Barn; A Colonsay Brownie; The Invisible Herdsman; Letting in the Brownies ; The Brownie Rain ; Some Family Cara ; The Little One of Kintyre ; The Brownie of Berneray; The Eighth Part Measure of a Carle; Brownies of the Great Glen; The Mag Mulloch of Tullochgorm ; The Brownie of Rothiemurchus A Brownie in the Northern Isles; A Faery-sprite of Good Works; The Loireag of Ben More. XI ; CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE V. The Glaistig 59 The Glaisti<i; of Inxerawe House; The Glaistig at Island House; " A Lump of a Lassie"; The Ell- maid of Dunstaffnage ; The Glaistig at Dunollie; The Water-imp of Lochaber ; The Glaistig of Ard- nadrochaid ; An lona Glaistig; "A Grey Stone overgrown with Lichen"; A Strathglas Glaistig. VI. The Water-Horse and Kindred Monsters . 67 Shieling of the One Night; The White Horse of Spey; The Black Steed of Loch Pityoulish; A Water-horse disturbed . by Boulders ; A Skye Widow's Strange Experience ; The Water-horse in Bracadale ; A Legend of the Monach Isles Loch Arkaig's Water-horse ; The Fate of John Maclnnes in Glen Elg ; The Dragging of Loch nan Dubhrachan ; The Water-bull ; A Water-bull slain on St. Kilda ; Two Breadalbain Traditions ; The Great Monster of Loch Awe ; The Loch Oich Monster; The Three-legged Monster of Loch Hourn; Beast of the Charred Forests; Colann the Headless; The Sea-Serpent. VII. The Spirit-Multitude 88 The Spirit-AIultitude in Benbecula ; Wraith of a " Spanish Princess ; The War is against Clan " Ranald ; Black Donald of the Faery Throng The Invisible Host ; Carried away in an Eddy of Wind. VIII. The Seal-Folk 95 The Seal-folk in Ireland ; A Donegal Tradition The MacPhees of Colonsay; Clan MacCodrum of the Seals ; Fiona MacLeod and the Seal-man " " A Voice of Supernatural Beauty ; logan and his Host; The Seal-folk Tradition in Shetland; The Trows of Orkney; Mermaid Traditions; A Mermaid's Burial on Benbecula; Children of the Mermaid ; The Mermaid of Kessock ; Seal-folk and Finn-folk ; Kayakers in Greenland ; The Battle o' the Bays. IX. Storm-Kelpies 116 The Gizzen Briggs ; Fate of the Rotterdam; Kelpies of the Corrievreckan ; The Blue Alen of the Minch; A Blue Man Captured. X. Bird Lore 122 The Oystercatcher ; Legend of the Duck and the Hen ; The Happy Hog ; Two Black Crows ; The Swan of Good Omen; "The Cuckoo of 111 Omen; Clan MacAndy of the Widgeons ; The Language of the Widgeons ; A Legend of Eilean Donan. xii CONTENTS CHAPTER P'^GE XI. Animal Lore 131 " " The Elusive Feolacan ; The King Otter ; The Legend of the Beetle; The Last Wolf; A Fox's Sagacity; Three Kindly Kidlings; A Keg of Butter. XII. Well Lore 144 "The Well that Sallied from One Place to Another"; Wells for Wind-Seekers; The Wells of Skye; Well of the Trout; The Wells of St.