SUPERSTITIONS OF ISLE MAREE.
Isle Maree, or Innis, or Inch, or Eilean Maree, is, as it were, the eye
of Loch Maree. From either end of the loch it arrests the gaze of the
spectator, and seems almost to look him in the face. Though one of the
smallest of the islands, it is without doubt the most interesting. Not
only does the story of the unfortunate prince and princess (Part I.,
chap, ii.) centre in it, but so also do the quaint superstitions
connected with the wishing-tree, the little well resorted to for the
cure of insanity, and the now discontinued sacrifices of bulls.
Her most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria visited Isle Maree on the 16th
September 1877. It was the Sabbath day, and Her Majesty graciously read
a short sermon to her Gairloch gillies. She then fixed her offering in
the wishing-tree, a pleasantry which most visitors to the island repeat,
it being common report that a wish silently formed when any metal
article is attached to the tree will certainly be realized. It is said
that if any one removes an offering that has been fixed in the tree,
some misfortune, probably the taking fire of the house of the
desecrator, is sure to follow. The tree is now nearly dead. This modern
fancy of the wishing-tree is very different from its original
superstition, as will appear shortly.
It seems certain that St Maelrubha, who brought Christianity into the
district in the seventh century, permitted the Druidical sacrifices of
bulls to be continued, and endeavoured to give them a Christian aspect.
These sacrifices continued to as late a date as 1678. Latterly the
sacrifices appear to have been connected with the resort to the island
for the cure of insanity. Originally neither the legend of the prince
and princess (Part I., chap. ii.), nor the sacrifices of bulls, had any
connection with the cure of insanity. Later on versions of the
traditional legend were promulgated, in which either the prince or the
princess were made out to have become lunatic, evidently with the idea
of connecting the story in some way, however remote, with the cure of
insanity. The sacrifice of a bull became in the seventeenth century a
preliminary to the proceedings for the cure of a lunatic, although in
older days such a sacrifice had been entirely independent of anything of
the sort.
Probably the resort to the island for the miraculous cure of insanity,
although, as has been remarked, unconnected with the legend or the
sacrifices, dates back to the time of St Maelrubha. The practice was for
the party to row several times round the island, the attendants jerking
the lunatic thrice into the water; then they landed on the island, where
the patient knelt before the altar, was brought to the little well,
drank some of the holy water, and finally attached an offering to the
tree. This process was repeated every day for some weeks. In modern
times there is no altar, and the lunatic is brought only on one occasion
to the island.
The resort to Isle Maree for the cure of lunacy was continued until a
very recent date, though no longer prefaced by the sacrifice of a bull.
There was an instance in 1856, when a young woman was brought to the
island from Easter Ross; she was afterwards placed in the Inverness
Asylum. A prior case was reported in the _Inverness Courier_ of 4th
November 1852. I am assured on good authority that lunatics are still
taken to the island to be cured, but these expeditions are now kept
strictly secret.
Our next chapter will be devoted to a discussion of these superstitions,
mostly from the pen of Dr Arthur Mitchell, chairman of the Lunacy
Commission of Scotland. His full description of Isle Maree will give the
reader a good idea of the subject generally.
Her Majesty the Queen has herself written an excellent account of the
island in "More leaves from the Journal of a Life in the Highlands," to
which the reader is referred.
The following is Dr Mitchell's description, extracted from his valuable
paper "On various Superstitions in the north-west Highlands and Islands
of Scotland, especially in relation to Lunacy," printed in Vol. IV. of
the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Dr Mitchell,
it will be seen, clears up in a most satisfactory manner the question of
the derivation of the name Maree:--
"Eilean Maree, or Innis Maree, is a small low island, with clean
gravelly shores, half-way down the loch, not more than a quarter of a
mile in its greatest diameter.
"On its highest part there is an enclosure, whose outline is an
irregular oval (ninety by one hundred and twenty feet). The wall, which
is not more than two feet high, is now covered with earth and moss.
Pennant, however, describes it as a 'stone dyke, with a regular narrow
entrance.' In the centre of this enclosure there are the remains of a
small chapel; but so complete is the ruin, that it is not possible to
determine the style of architecture. Round about the chapel are fifty or
sixty graves, generally covered by a flat undressed stone, with rude
blocks at the head and feet. Many of these graves are recent. One,
indeed, is quite fresh,--the burial having taken place but a week before
my visit. Several of the older ones are said to contain the bodies of
the Sasunnach artizans who, in the seventeenth century, worked at the
iron furnaces of Poolewe. With two exceptions there are no cuttings,
carvings, or inscriptions of any kind on any of the tombstones. These
two have distinct and well-formed incised crosses on them (_see
illustration_). The stones on which these occur have never been dressed
or even squared. They are flat, and lie beside each other, nearly end to
end, and about east and west.
"The celebrated well, whose waters are of such magic power, is near the
shore. We found it dry, and full of last year's leaves. It is a built
well, and the flat stone which serves for a cover we found lying on the
bank.
"Near it stands an oak tree, which is studded with nails. To each of
these was originally attached a piece of the clothing of some patient
who had visited the spot. There are hundreds of nails, and one has still
fastened to it a faded ribbon. Two bone buttons and two buckles we also
found nailed to the tree. Countless pennies and halfpennies are driven
edgeways into the wood,--over many the bark is closing, over many it has
already closed. All the trees about the well are covered with initials.
A rude M, with an anchor below it, tells of the seaman's noted credulity
and superstitious character. Two sets of initials with a date between,
and below a heart pierced by an arrow, probably record the visit of a
love-sick couple, seeking here a cure of their folly. The solitary
interview would probably counteract the working of the waters.
"The sacred holly grows everywhere on the island. We found it loaded
with fruit. The oak, the larch, the alder, the beech, the mountain-ash,
the sycamore, the willow, the prickly holly, the dog-rose, the juniper,
the honeysuckle, and the heather all abound, and form a most charming
grove."
After giving a version of the legend of the prince and princess, Dr
Mitchell proceeds to remark:--
"Since the same tale is told with many variations, it is probable that
something of this kind did really happen; but that the virtues of the
well have any connection with the story is improbable, as I shall
shortly show.
"Anderson, Fullarton, the new and old Statistical Accounts, as well as
the people of the place, derive the name from a dedication to St Mary.
This remarkable error is first clearly pointed out in the 'Origines
Parochiales,' though Pennant evidently had the right view when he speaks
of it as the favoured isle of the saint (St Maree), the patron of all
the coast from Applecross to Lochbroom, and tells us that he, the saint,
is held in high esteem, and that the oath of the country is by his name.
"It appears that Maelrubha came from Ireland to Scotland, and founded
the church of Aporcrossan in 673. After his death he became the patron
saint of the district. His name is variously known as Malrubius,
Malrube, Mulray, Murie, Mourie, and as the last corruption, Maree. That
the island and loch bear the name of this saint there can be no doubt.
Even the mode of pronouncing the word by the Gaelic-speaking population
shews that it is not derived from Mary; while Pennant's remark proves
that the mistake is not yet a century old. Names are monuments--pages of
history--inscribed stones; yet thus do we find them broken, blotted, and
defaced. Mourie died at Applecross, on the 21st April 722. There is some
doubt as to where he was buried, and I have nothing to make it probable
that it was in Inch Maree. It is certain, or all but certain, however,
that this _vir dei_ led a hermit's life, and wrought miracles there; and
that, like St Goderick, St Fillan, and a host of others, he continued to
do so after his death.
"Whether the saint, on his arrival in Scotland, found a pagan temple on
this little island, or whether he himself first consecrated the spot, is
a question of interest. Pennant says, 'I suspect the dike to have been
originally Druidical, and that the ancient superstition of paganism was
taken up by the saint as the readiest method of making a conquest over
the minds of the inhabitants.' This opinion I am inclined to adopt. The
people of the place speak often of the god Mourie, instead of St Mourie,
which may have resulted from his having supplanted the old god.
Tradition also points to it as a place of worship before the Christian
epoch; and the curious record I have obtained of the sacrifice of bulls
there, strongly confirms this belief, and furnishes fresh proof of the
liberal engrafting upon Christianity of all forms of paganism in the
early history of the Church."