should like to have _this_ or _a copy_ back if it is not troublesome.
My first manuscript is not easy to read, and I have worked this from it.
Fairy:--“’S e mo leanabh mìleanach
Seachd Maìleanach
Seachd Dhuanach,
Gual na lag; ’s lag na luineach
Nach d’ fhàs “nacach.”
[Reciter don’t understand gnathach, common.]
Mother:--Se mo leanabh ruiteach (colour ruddy)
Reamhar molteach
Miuthear mo luachair
Ohog ri mnathan
M’ eòin ’us m’ uighean
On thug thu muine leat
’Us maire leat
’Us mo chrodh lùigh
’Us mo lochraidh leat.
Mother:--Bha thu fo ’m chrios an uire
’S tha thu ’m bliadhna
Gu cruinn buanach
Air mo guailain
Feadh a bhaile.
Fairy:--Thug go gu gŏrach (fat, Reciter)
Mnath ’n òg a bhaile
Lan _shaochail_[36] uimach
Thug go gu gŏrach
Le ’n ciabhan dhonna
Le ’n ciabhan troma
[He said at first somewhere, “Le ’n ciochan corrach”? place.]
Thug go gu gŏrach
’S le ’n suilean donna
Mother:--Se sin Leoid
Na lorg ’s na luireach
Se Lochlan bu duchas dhuit
O fire fire nì mi uimad
Cireadh do chinn
Ni mi uimad.
Fairy:--Fire fire nì mi uimad
Cha tu an uan beag
Ni mi uimad
Crodh ’us caorich
Ni mi uimad.
Mother:--Fire fire ni mi uimad
Breachan chaola
Ni mi uimad
Fire fire ni mi uimad
A bhog mhiladh (? fileadh. Oh soft soldier, soft mine own)
O bhòg ’s leam thu
O bhog mhilidh bhog
Mo bhrù a rug
O bhog mhilidh bhog
Mo chioch a thug
O bhog mhilidh bhog
Mo gluin a thog
O bhog mhilidh
Bho ’s leam thu.
Fairy:--B’ fheàrr leam gu faic mi do bhuaille
Gu àrd àrd an iomal sleibhe
Còta geal cateanach[37] uaine
Mu do ghuailain ghil ’us léine.
Nurse:--B’ fhearr leam gu faichean do sheisearach
Fir na deance (?) a cuit shil
Gu rò do cheol air feadh do thalla (land or hall)
Leann bhi ga gabhail le fìon
Bhog mhilidh bhog
’S leam thu.
And so she says a verse each day, and if that would not do, she came
the next and made another, and the little lad made out the song which
he sat and heard. When the child was baptized she went away and never
came back again.
* * * * *
N.B.--I have set the verses to each character as best I could, not
knowing much about it except the last two, these the reciter placed.
NOTES:
_The Fairy Song_ in the MS. is most difficult to read. It was written
phonetically, and is now in some places indistinct. The following
transliteration and translation by Mr. Duncan Mac Isaac, of Oban,
show a probable reading, and this may be enough, in view of the
spell-words of the fairy, whose mystic diction appears to have been
of a conservative quality, and to have affected the responses of the
infant’s mother.--[A. C.]
Fairy--’S e mo leanabh mì-loinneach
Seac maoileanach
Seac ghuanach,
Guailne lag, ’s lag ’n a lùireach
Nach d’ ùisinnicheadh.
Mother:--’S e mo leanabh ruiteach
Reamhar moltach
M’ iubhar mo luachair
A thog ri mnathan
M’ eòin is m’ uighean
O ’n thug thu m’ ùine leat
Is m’ aire leat
Is mo chrodh-laoigh
Is mo laochraidh leat.
Mother:--Bha thu fo ’m chrios an uiridh
’S tha thu ’m bliadhna
Gu cruinn buanach
Air mo ghualainn
Feadh a’ bhaile.
Fairy:--Thuth gò gugurach
Mnathan òg a’ bhaile
Làn shòghail uidheamach
Thuth gò gugurach
Le ’n ciabhan donna
Le ’n ciabhan troma
Thug go gugurach
Le ’n cìochan corrach
’S le ’n sùilean donna.
Mother:--’S e sin Leòid
’N a lorg ’s ’n a lùireach
’S Lochlann bu dùthchas dhuit
O fire fire nì mi umad
Cìreadh do chinn
Nì mi umad.
Fairy:--Fire fire nì mi umad
Cha tu an t-uan beag
Nì mi umad.
Crodh is caoraich
Nì mi umad.
Mother:--Fire fire nì mi umad
Breacain chaola
Nì mi umad
Fire fire nì mi umad
A bhog mhìlidh
O bhog ’s leam thu
O bhog mhìlidh bhog
Mo bhrù a rug
O bhog mhìlidh bhog
Mo chìoch a thug
O bhog mhìlidh bhog
Mo ghlùin a thog
O bhog mhìlidh
Bho ’s leam thu.
Fairy:--B’ fheàrr leam gu faic mi do bhuaile
Gu àrd àrd ’an iomall sléibhe
Còta geal caiteineach uaine
Mu do ghualainn ghil is léine.
Mother:--B’ fheàrr leam gu faicinn do sheisreach
Fir na deannaige a’ cur sìl
Gu robh do cheòl air feadh do thalla
Leann ’bhi ’g a ghabhail le fìon
Bhog mhìlidh bhog
’S leam thu.
Fairy:--He is my ungraceful child,
Withered, bald, and light-headed,
Weak-shouldered, and weak in his equipments,
That have not been put to use.
Mother:--He is my ruddy child, plump and praiseworthy;
My yew-tree, my rush, raised to women;
My bird and my eggs, since thou hast taken my time with thee,
My watchful care, my calved-cows, and my heroes with thee;
Last year thou wast under my girdle,
Thou art this year neatly gathered
Continually upon my shoulder
Through the town.
Fairy:--Hooh go googurach,
Young women of the town, fond of delicacies and dresses,
Hooh go googurach,
With their brown ringlets, with their heavy tresses,
With their abrupt breasts, with their brown eyes.
Mother:--That is a Mac Leod by heredity
In his coat of mail;
Thy nativity is Scandinavian;
O pother, pother, the combing of thy head,
I’ll do that about thee.
Fairy:--Pother, pother, I’ll do about thee;
Thou art not the little lamb
I’ll make about thee,
Cattle and sheep I’ll make about thee.
Mother:--Pother, pother, I’ll do about thee,
Narrow plaids I’ll make about thee,
O pother I’ll make about thee, thou soft warrior,
O tender one, thou art mine, thou soft soldier,
The fruit of my womb, thou soft, tender warrior,
My breast that took, thou soft champion,
Reared upon my knees, thou tender champion,
Since thou art mine.
Fairy:--I’d prefer to see thy cattle-fold
High, high on the shoulder of the mountain,
A white coat, ruffled green,
About thy white shoulders, and a shirt.
Mother:--I’d prefer to see thy team of horses,
And the men of the handfuls sowing seed,
And that thy music would be through thy hall
Accompanied by ale and wine;
Thou tender champion,
Thou art mine.
The late Campbell of Islay in the following letter, extracts of which
will be given, alludes to Mr. Campbell’s intention of publishing at no
distant date.
NIDDRY LODGE, Jan., 16, 1871.
I thank you for your letter of the 10th which reached me on Saturday,
on my return to Tiree.
I shall be very glad to assist a namesake and a Highland minister
who is engaged in literary work, in which I take a special interest
myself. I now repeat my message, and ask you to place my name on the
list of subscribers, if you have one. I shall be very glad to read
your book. I am not publishing more Gaelic tales, but I am collecting,
and I may some day publish a selection or an abstract or something
from a great mass which I have got together. If you have anything
to spare from your gatherings perhaps the best plan would be to
employ some good scribe, etc. etc. etc. If you have any intention
of publishing I beg that you will not think of sending me your
gatherings. But anything sent will be carefully preserved.
Superstitions are very interesting, but I should fear that the people
will not confide their superstitions to the minister. Amongst other
matters which are noteworthy are superstitious practices about fowls.
These prevail in Scotland, and are identical with sacrifices by the
blacks amongst whom Speke and Grant travelled--so Grant told me.
Anything to do with serpents has special interest because of the
extent of ancient serpent worship, for which see Ferguson’s great book
on Tree and Serpent Worship in India and elsewhere. The connection
between tree and well worship in India and in Scotland generally, and
generally in the old world, is well worth investigation; also anything
that is like the Vedic forms of religion, at which you can get by
reading Wilson’s Translation of the Rigveda Sanhitâ, and the works of
Max Muller. Anything belonging specially to the sea is interesting.
The Aryans are supposed to have been natives of Central Asia, to whom
the sea must have been a great mystery.
Now it is a fact that all the Aryan nations have curious beliefs and
ceremonies and practices about going to sea, _e.g._--you must not
whistle at sea; you must not name a mouse _Luds_ in Argyll but _Biast
tighe_; you must not say the shore names for _fine_ or _low_ when at
sea, but use sea terms; all that is curious and very hard to get at.
Even to me they will not confess their creed in the supernatural. I
have a great lot of stuff that might be useful to you, and I shall be
glad to serve you, because there is a certain narrow-minded spirit
abroad to which reference is made in the paper which I send herewith.
It is highly probable that I may be out in the west in spring or
summer.
Yours very truly,
J. F. CAMPBELL.
The following letter refers to the longest and most complex tale orally
preserved in the Highlands, ‘The Leeching of Kian’s Leg.’ The version
which Islay mentions is still unprinted. It is preserved with a portion
of his MSS. in the Advocate’s Library at Edinburgh, and a summary of
its contents has been published by me in _Folk-Lore_, Vol. I., p.
369. Mr. Campbell’s fragmentary version was printed and translated by
him, ‘Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 1888.’ Another
fragmentary version, collected by the Rev. D. MacInnes, will be found
in Vol. II. of this series. The oldest known MS. version, alluded to
in this letter, has been edited and translated by Mr. Standish Hayes
O’Grady in _Silva Gadelica_, from a 15th century MS. A re-telling of
the story, based upon all the versions, will be found in Mr. Jacob’s
_More Celtic Fairy Tales_.--A. N.
May, 4, 71. NIDDRY LODGE,
KENSINGTON.
MY DEAR SIR,
I sent you a _Times_ review of Clerk’s Ossian the other day to amuse
you; also a paper with an account of fighting in Paris, where I was at
Easter.
I got your letter and parcel of May 1, last night, and I have just
read the story. It is extremely well written, and the language is
vernacular and perfectly genuine: as I have now got 20 volumes, and
half another, I am able to judge. Yours is a version of the story
of which I sent you the abstract. If ever I publish the story I see
that I must fuse versions, and select from the majority of various
readings, under the name of “The Leching of Khene is legg.” The story
is mentioned in the Catalogue of the Earl of Kildare’s library amongst
the Irish Books, A.D. 1526 (Harleian MSS., 3756, Brit. Museum). I gave
this information to Kildare, who has been hunting high and low to find
out what was meant, they could not tell him in Ireland. I met him at
Lorne’s marriage and lent him my copy, 142 pages from oral recitation.
Now you send me 19 more pages, and 3 of another version, 22. Between
us we have already recovered something of a story 345 years old at
least.
Therefore Tradition is respectable; a comparison of versions gives a
fair measure of the power of popular memory, so that written Gaelic
folk-lore is a kind of measure for other and older written traditions.
But as all that is old in history was tradition at first, the study
is worth trouble as I judge. The more we can get written the better
pleased I shall be. I am exceedingly obliged to you, and hope to thank
you in person some of these days.
I am,
Yours truly,
J. F. CAMPBELL.
NOTES:
[31] In the oldest known version of the Exile of the Son of Usnech
(preserved in the 12th century MS., the Book of Leinster) when Noisi
sees Deirdre for the first time, he exclaims, ‘’Tis a fair heifer
passing by me.’ She answers, ‘Where the bulls are there must needs be
fine heifers.’ This is one of the passages relied upon by Prof. Zimmer
in support of his contention that old Irish literature is so extremely
‘naturalistic’ in its treatment of sexual matters that we must needs
suppose the Aryan Celts were polluted by a rude and more archaic
population. I confess I see nothing in either the earlier or the
present passage but the simplicity of a race living, 2000 years ago, as
it still in part does, very close to nature, and accustomed to frank
speaking about natural matters. The whole of this tradition is simply
the fitting into a local frame of incidents which are commonplaces in
the folk-tales.--A. N.
[32] The helm was worked by being caught by the shoulders of the
steersman as it worked backwards and forwards (_’g a cheapadh le
’shlinneanan a null ’s a nall_).
[33] _A’ chama-dhubh_, the bone of the animal between the knee
and shoulder-point (_na bha de’n chnàimh eadar an glùn agus an
t-alt-lùthainn_).
[34] This discussion is doubtless concerning the spot where tradition
says the bristle of the boar wounded Diarmaid when he measured the
length of the dead beast.--A. C.
[35] Hector MacLean, Ballygrant, Islay: now dead.--A. C.
[36] Suobhcail or saobh chiall.
[37] Hairy, rough, shaggy.
_Archibald Sinclair Printer Celtic Press, 10 Bothwell Street, Glasgow._
_A SELECTION FROM_
MR. DAVID NUTT’S LIST OF WORKS
ON
Celtic Antiquities and Philology.
=Beside the Fire: Irish Gaelic Folk Stories.= Collected, Edited,
Translated, and Annotated by DOUGLAS HYDE, M.A.; with Additional
Notes by ALFRED NUTT. 8vo. lviii, 203 pages. Cloth. 7s. 6d. The Irish
printed in Irish Character.
⁂ One of the best recent collections of Irish folk tales.
BY WHITLEY STOKES, LL.D.
=On the Calendar of Oengus.= Comprising Text, Translation, Glossarial
Index, Notes. 4to. 1880. xxxi, 552 pp. Nett 18s.
=Saltair na Rann= (Psalter of the Staves or Quatrains). A Collection
of early Middle-Irish Poems. With Glossary. 4to. 1883. vi, 153 pp.
Nett 7s. 6d.
=The Old Irish Glosses at Wurzburg and Carlsruhe.= With Translation
and Index. 1887. 345 pp. Nett 5s.
⁂ The oldest dated remains of Gaelic or any Celtic language.
=Cormac’s Glossary.= Translated and Edited by the late JOHN O’DONOVAN,
with Notes and Indexes by W. S. Calcutta. 1868. 4to. The few remaining
copies, nett £1 10s.
⁂ One of the most valuable remains of old Irish literature for the
philologist and mythologist.
=The Bodley Dinnshenchas.= Edited, Translated, and Annotated. 8vo.
1892. Nett 2s. 6d.
=The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas.= Edited, Translated, and Annotated. 8vo.
1893. Nett 2s. 6d.
⁂ The Dinnshenchas is an eleventh-century collection of topographical
legends, and one of the most valuable and authentic memorials of
Irish mythology and legend. These two publications give nearly
three-fourths of the collection as preserved in Irish MSS. The bulk of
the Dinnshenchas has never been published before, either in Irish or in
English.
BY PROFESSOR KUNO MEYER.
=Cath Finntraga.= Edited, with English Translation. Small 4to. 1885.
xxii, 115 pp. 6s.
=Merugud Ulix Maicc Leirtis.= The Irish Odyssey. Edited, with Notes,
Translation, and a Glossary. 8vo. 1886. xii, 36 pp. Cloth. Printed on
handmade paper, with wide margins. 3s.
=The Vision of Mac Conglinne.= Irish Text, English Translation
(Revision of Hennessy’s), Notes and Literary Introduction. Crown 8vo.
1892. liv, 212 pp. Cloth. 10s. 6d.
⁂ One of the curious and interesting remains of mediæval Irish
story-telling. A most vigorous and spirited Rabelaisian tale, of equal
value to the student of literature or Irish legend.
BY ALFRED NUTT.
=Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail=, with Especial Reference to
the Hypothesis of its Celtic Origin. Demy 8vo. xv, 281 pp. Cloth. 10s.
6d. net.
‘Une des contributions les plus précieuses et les plus méritoires qu’on
ait encore apportées à l’éclaircissement de ces questions difficiles et
compliquées.’--Mons. Gaston Paris in _Romania_.
‘These charming studies of the Grail legend.’--_The Athenæum._
‘An achievement of profound erudition and masterly argument, and
may be hailed as redeeming English scholarship from a long-standing
reproach.’--_The Scots Observer._
=Celtic Myth and Saga.= Report upon the Literature connected with this
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=The Buddha’s Alms-Dish and the Legend of the Holy Grail.=
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=Review of Hennessey’s Edition of Mesca Ulad.= (_Archæological
Review_, May, 1889.) 2s. 6d.
=Critical Notes on the Folk and Hero Tales of the Celts.= (_Celtic
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Transcriber’s Note
In this file, text in _italics_ is indicated by underscores, and text
in =bold= by equals signs.
Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected; as far as
possible, however, original spelling and formatting have been retained.
No corrections have been made to any Gaelic text as printed, with the
sole exception of the third occurence of “Fire fire nì mi umad” on
page 145, which had been misprinted.
In the printed book, an unnumbered page containing an editor’s note
was inserted between pages 34 and 35. In this file, the note has been
indented, given the subheading “Editor’s Note”, and moved directly
after the paragraph to which it seems to refer, on page 35.
Footnotes were presented inconsistently in the printed book, sometimes
appearing at the bottom of the page and sometimes at the ends of
sections. In this book, all notes have been standardised and moved to
the end of the relevant section, sometimes alongside a “Notes” section
which was already present.