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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January
+1876, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January 1876
+       A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History,
+       Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and
+       Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Alexander Mackenzie
+        Alexander Macgregor
+        Alexander Macbain
+
+Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29969]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
+
+No. III. JANUARY 1876.
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.
+
+[CONTINUED.]
+
+
+MR ARNOLD in that handsome, but slightly ambiguous admission of his,
+that the Celts in their intellectual capacity come very near the secret
+of nature and of natural magic, does not seem to imply more in reality
+than that they have a subtler sense of certain natural affinities than
+their Anglo-Saxon brethren have; that they apprehend more surely when,
+where, and how the truest impress of physical nature occurs on the
+percipient faculties of the soul, than men of a more phlegmatic
+constitution do; and that they can draw from such intuitions of their
+own a sort of inspiration, or second-sight of nature, comparable to
+prophecy, which gives their highest poetic utterance a rapt
+enthusiasm--and the accuracy of this estimate need not be disputed, but,
+so far as Ossian is concerned, it must be considerably extended. To read
+Ossian as we do, from the text of Macpherson, there was another sort of
+insight, purely scientific, into the mysteries of nature, inherited and
+expressed by him; a certain acquaintance with her hidden powers, and a
+certain augury of her possible future development, if men could only
+attain to it, far beyond the mere rapt enthusiasm of a poet, or the
+so-called second-sight of a seer. Whether this peculiar faith of his was
+derived by tradition, and if so, from whom; or whether it was the result
+of practical experiment in his own generation, is foreign for the moment
+to our present inquiry. But that it was relied upon as an endowment of
+the most gifted heroes; that it was exercised by them in extremity, as
+if to subdue nature from whom they had borrowed it, and to wrest the
+very power of destruction out of her hand; and that such practical
+conquest was sometimes achieved by them, or is said to have been
+achieved by them, is just as certain as that Macpherson's translation is
+before us now. What we refer to more especially for the present, is the
+secret of extracting or discharging electricity from the atmosphere by
+mechanical means--by the thrust of a spear, or of a sword, into the
+bosom of the low-hanging cloud, or lurid vapour, and so dislodging the
+imaginary spirit of evil by which they were supposed to be tenanted.
+Only the very best, and bravest, and wisest could prevail in such
+conflict with nature; but they did prevail, according to Ossian; and the
+weapons of their warfare, and the mode of their assault, were precisely
+similar to what an experimentalist in electricity might employ at the
+present day, or to what the Egyptians employed in the days of Moses. We
+shall not now go further back in the prosecution of this inquiry, but
+would seriously recommend the reader who has any difficulty on the
+subject to compare, at his leisure, the work of Moses on the top of
+Mount Sinai and elsewhere, with an Egyptian "rod" in his hand, and the
+exploits of Fingal in conflict with the Spirit of Loda on the heights of
+Hoy, with a sword in his hand. There might have been a far-derived and
+long traditional secret connection between the two, most edifying, or at
+least most curious, to investigate; or they might both have resulted
+from that sort of intuition which only the most gifted of any nation
+enjoy independently, re-appearing again in Franklin, and now
+familiarised to the world. Let those who doubt, or who differ on this
+point, satisfy themselves. What we are now concerned to maintain and
+prove is, that the fact is more than once described by Ossian, in
+circumstances, in situations, and with instrumentalities, which render
+the allegation of it at least indubitable. In the case above referred
+to, for example, Fingal, challenged and assaulted in a thunderstorm by
+the Spirit of Loda, encounters his antagonist with a sword, on the very
+verge of a cliff overhanging the Atlantic; and by one or two scientific
+thrusts, with incredible daring, disarms the cloud, dissipates the
+storm, and sends his atmospheric adversary shrieking down the wind with
+such violence that "Innistore shook at the sound; the waves heard it on
+the deep, and stopped on their course with fear." The scene is described
+in that well-known passage in _Carric-Thura_, which Macpherson himself
+characterises as "the most extravagant fiction in all Ossian's poems."
+
+Now the question as regards the authenticity or reliability of this very
+passage, is whether Macpherson understood the meaning of it; what it
+represented, where the conflict occurred, or how it happened? It has
+been sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere--in "Ossian and the Clyde," pp.
+311-324--that the encounter took place near the celebrated "Dwarfie
+Stone" on the western headland of Hoy in the Orkneys--a region more
+remarkable for its sudden electric gatherings and violent atmospheric
+currents than almost any other in Great Britain, and at that particular
+spot so much so, that the very scene described in Ossian has been
+selected by Walter Scott for a similar electrical display in the
+"Pirate." But of this obvious fact, and of all that is connected with it
+in his own translation, Macpherson is so ignorant that he not only does
+not point it out, but does not understand it, and cannot even conjecture
+where it was. His great antagonist Laing is equally at fault on the
+subject, and by way of exposing, as he believes, the dishonesty of
+Macpherson, endeavours to show that in patching up his account
+Macpherson had mistaken Thurso for Thura. Macpherson, in fact, knew
+nothing either about Thurso or Thura--even less than Laing did; and it
+is only in the work above cited that either the scene has been
+identified, or the encounter explained.
+
+Here, then, is a question, not of linguistic criticism, but of
+scientific fact--of geographical position, of atmospheric agency--which
+should be disposed of on its own merits, and which, like many others of
+the same sort, must ultimately transfer the whole inquiry to a much
+higher field than that of syllables and syntax.
+
+But the description in question, it may be objected, is very much
+exaggerated, and therefore cannot be relied on: which is the very
+objection Macpherson himself urged--that it is "the most extravagant
+fiction in all Ossian's poems." But if that was the case in his opinion,
+how could the passage be his own? It was easy enough either to remedy or
+explain it, if he could explain it, or not to introduce it. On the other
+hand, when rightly understood, there is no undue exaggeration in the
+account at all--not more than might be reasonably expected from a poet
+of the highest sensibility and the most vivid imagination in describing
+an incomprehensible natural phenomenon; not more, for example, than in
+"the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words" on Mount Sinai. Still it
+is not the question of descriptive exaggeration, but of scientific fact,
+that is now before us; and if the whole of the so-called conflict of
+Fingal with the Prince of the Power of the Air on Roraheid in Hoy was so
+utterly inexplicable to Macpherson, both as to place and character, that
+he speaks of it hopelessly as a story "concerning ghosts," on what
+principle of critical consistency, or of common sense, can he be said to
+have been the author of it? If the Septuagint translators, for example,
+had added a note of their own on the giving of the Law at Sinai, to the
+effect that it appeared "the most extravagant fiction" to them, at the
+same time transferring, in defiance of their own text, the entire scene
+from one end of the Red Sea to the other, would any reader in his senses
+accuse the Seventy of having fabricated not only the two chapters in
+question, but the whole Book of Exodus--even although the original had
+been now lost? Their very simplicity and ignorance would have acquitted
+them. Yet Macpherson, in similar circumstances, is to be held guilty,
+although he could have more easily cleared himself by altering or
+omitting the whole passage, than a man in London could prove by an
+_alibi_ that he had been guilty of no forgery at Inverness or Edinburgh
+six hours before! But if this hitherto incomprehensible passage in
+Ossian be genuine then the entire poem of _Carric-Thura_, which is
+identified with it in every word and syllable from beginning to end,
+must be genuine also.
+
+In the same sort of field, but without the addition of supernatural
+agency, we have another scene of scientific import in the _War of
+Inisthona_. Inisthona, according to Macpherson, was on the coast of
+Norway--he did not know where; Inisthona, according to Laing, was a
+wilful corruption of Inis-owen in Lough Foyle; Inisthona, in point of
+fact, was Iceland--as clearly and distinctly so in Macpherson's own
+text, as latitude, longitude, and physical configuration can make it;
+far more distinctly recognisable than any _Ultima Thule_ of the Romans.
+But here, in this Inisthona, we have first a fountain surrounded with
+mossy stones, in a grassy vale, at the head of a bay; then a wilderness
+of half a day's journey inland; then a lake at the end of the wilderness,
+exhaling pestilential vapours, called Lake Lano--but no volcano visible
+as yet: and in Iceland we have still the basin of the fountain,
+surrounded with its mossy stones, petrified and dried up by volcanic heat,
+at the head of the bay; we have still the dreary wilderness beyond it,
+now scorched and blackened, ending in the Plain of Thingvalla, where the
+King of Denmark was entertained more than a twelvemonth ago; we have
+still the lake beyond that, where it should be, but now relieved of its
+sulphurous vapours by eruptive jets of steam in its neighbourhood; and
+besides, we have now Mount Hecla in active operation, by whose accumulated
+fires and dreadful discharges, since Ossian's day, the whole island has
+been torn and desolated. Here, therefore, again, the same question of
+fact arises, and must be disposed of by all reasonable inquirers. In this
+one identification we have geography, geology, history, and navigation
+combined, beyond Macpherson's own comprehension--earthquakes, subterranean
+fires, latent volcanic forces; a beautiful island where there is now
+desolation; and a warlike people occupying its soil, subject to the Danes
+600 years and more before the Danes themselves are supposed to have
+discovered it. In the face of such a revelation as this, nowhere else to
+be found but in Ossian, what does it signify that the Gaelic text of
+_Inisthona_ has perished? The fact that it survives in English is only
+a greater miracle, for which we are indebted solely to the patience and
+fidelity of a man who has been called a liar and an impostor.
+
+One more miracle has yet to be added in the same field--viz., that Lake
+Lego or Lough Neagh in Ireland, and Lake Lano in Iceland, both emitting
+pestilential vapours, are geographically connected in Ossian with
+subterranean volcanic movements which pass from Ireland, by the west
+coast of Scotland, through the Orkneys to Inisthona; and thus the latest
+theories of the most accomplished geologists have been anticipated more
+than a hundred years before their announcement, by the work of a man who
+is supposed to have had no original to guide him, and who himself had
+not the remotest idea of what his own words conveyed.
+
+It remains then, after such illustrations, for those who still deny the
+authenticity of Ossian to declare whether they have ever studied him;
+and for those who still wrangle about the style of Macpherson's
+so-called Gaelic to decide whether they will continue such petty warfare
+among vowels and consonants, and ill-spelt mediæval legends, when the
+science, the history, the navigation, the atmospheric phenomena, and the
+impending volcanic changes of Western Europe fifteen hundred years ago,
+are all unveiled and detailed, with an accuracy and a minuteness beyond
+cavil or competition, in the matchless English translation before them.
+Will our most erudite grammarians never understand? Would they abandon
+Genesis, shall we say, because _Elohim_ and _Jehovah_ are sometimes
+interchanged in the text? Can they believe that any Jew, who could
+concoct a book like Genesis, did not also know that _Elohim_ was a
+plural noun? Can they any more, then, believe that a Celtic man with
+brains enough to fabricate poems like _Fingal_ and _Temora_ did not know
+that the Gaelic name for the sun was feminine? Can they see no other way
+of accounting for such alleged variations of gender, and number, and
+case, than by forgery, when the very forger himself must have seen them?
+Or do they seriously prefer some letter of the Gaelic alphabet to a law
+of nature? Will they forego the facts of an epoch, for the orthography
+of a syllable? If so, then the friends of Ossian, who is one great mass
+of facts, must turn once more to the common sense of the public, and
+leave his etymological detractors at leisure to indulge their own
+predilections, and to entertain one another.
+
+In the present aspect of the controversy, indeed, the only antagonists
+entitled to anything like a patient hearing are the respectable,
+perhaps venerable, geologists and antiquarians who still lodge or
+linger about the Roman Wall; who talk, with a solemn air, about stern
+facts; who are also fortified by the authority of Hugh Miller and Smith
+of Jordanhill, and are led on to continuous defeat on their own ground,
+under the auspices of the _Scotsman_, who knows well how to shut the
+door politely in any man's face who pursues them. These gentlemen are
+far from being either unimportant or unworthy antagonists, if they would
+only speak intelligently for themselves and not allow their credit to be
+usurped by some nameless reviewer in a newspaper, who may know less
+about the whole matter in dispute than they do about Sanscrit. But let
+them have patience. Their favourite haunts, and impregnable strongholds,
+about Dunglass and Duntocher, shall be investigated with religious care;
+and the waters of the Clyde, as high as they will honestly flow, let in
+upon them without ceremony or remorse. As for the others, who, with no
+great semblance of either grace or grammar to support them, persist in
+affirming, with point-blank stolid effrontery, that Macpherson "must
+have been an impostor," and that Ossian is a "fudge"--they may safely be
+consigned in silence to their legitimate fate.
+
+                                                     P. HATELY WADDELL.
+
+                   (_To be Concluded in our next._)
+
+
+
+
+TO PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE.
+
+A LOCHABER LILT.
+
+
+    A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!
+      (I drink it in _mountain dew_)
+    With all the kindliest greetings
+      Of a heart that is leal and true.
+    Let happen what happen may
+      With others, by land or sea;
+    For me, I vow if I drink at all,
+      I'll drink a health to thee.
+
+    A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!
+      A man of men art thou,
+    With thy lightsome step and form erect,
+      And thy broad and open brow;
+    With thy eagle eye and ringing voice
+      (Which yet can be soft and kind),
+    As wrapped in thy plaid thou passest by
+      With thy white locks in the wind!
+
+    I greet thee as poet and scholar;
+      I greet thee as wise and good;
+    I greet thee ever lord of thyself--
+      No heritage mean, by the rood!
+    I greet thee and hold thee in honour,
+      That thou bendest to no man's nod--
+    Amidst the din of a world of sin,
+      Still lifting thine eye to God!
+
+    Go, search me the world and find me;
+      Go, find me if you can,
+    From the distant Farœs with their mists and snows,
+      To the green-clad Isle of Man;
+    From John O' Groats to Maidenkirk,
+      From far Poolewe to Prague--
+    Go, find me a better or wiser man
+      Than the Laird of Altnacraig.
+
+    Now, here's to the honest and leal and true,
+      And here's to the learned and wise,
+    And to all who love our Highland glens
+      And our Bens that kiss the skies;
+    And here's to the native Celtic race,
+      And to each bright-eyed Celtic fair;
+    And here's to the Chief of Altnacraig--
+      And hurrah! for the Celtic Chair!
+
+                                                       NETHER-LOCHABER.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL SIR ALAN CAMERON, K.C.B.,
+
+COLONEL 79th CAMERON HIGHLANDERS.
+
+
+A POPULAR writer[A] of the past generation, in some introductory
+observations to his historical essay, makes the following on Scotland
+and its natives:--Considering the limited population and extent of that
+country, it has made a distinguished figure in history. No country in
+modern times has produced characters more remarkable for learning,
+valour, or ability, or for knowledge in the most important arts, both of
+peace and of war; and though the natives of that formerly independent,
+and hitherto unconquered kingdom, have every reason to be proud of the
+name of _Britons_, which they have acquired since the Union; yet they
+ought not to relinquish all remembrance of the martial achievements, and
+the honourable characteristics of their ancestors. Acting on the
+recommendation embodied in the foregoing quotation; and as the
+conductors of the _Celtic Magazine_ have intimated their intention of
+making biographies form occasionally part of its contents, the following
+sketch of one who, in his day was not the least distinguished among our
+Highland countrymen, but of whose eminent services to his country,
+little or nothing has appeared, may prove interesting. Biography is
+admitted to be one of the most interesting sections of literature. We
+therefore trust that this feature in the Magazine will be appreciated.
+The field will be found extensive, inasmuch that, happily for the
+country, its benefactors have been numerous, the record of whose deeds
+deserve to be remembered in this Celtic periodical for the
+entertainment, and may be, the emulation of its readers.
+
+The details of the life and public services of the gallant gentleman now
+submitted, and deserving record, are supplied partly from oral
+information collected at intervals, and partly from documents received
+by the writer, but which, although imperfect, it is hoped may be
+acceptable, even at this distance since the lifetime of the subject.
+
+The absence of any adequate notice of Sir Alan Cameron's services, save
+that in a couple of pages of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ at his death
+(1828) may be ascribed much to his own reticence in supplying
+information respecting them. Sir John Philliphart and Colonel David
+Stewart, when collecting materials for their respective "Military
+Annals," expressed their regret that Sir Alan's reply to their
+applications for particulars of his life and career was of the most
+meagre nature. Although in common with the majority of other
+distinguished men, averse to giving publicity to the incidents of his
+life, he was otherwise than reticent with his friends, and was never
+happier than when surrounded by them. His house in Gloucester Place was
+a rendezvous during many years for his companions in arms, and his
+"Highland cousins" (as he fondly termed them) were always received with
+a genial welcome. Notwithstanding the general absence of his name from
+unofficial publications, it may be affirmed, without hesitation, that in
+his day few were better known, and there was none whose fame stood
+higher than _Ailean an Earrachd_. In the army he was held in universal
+popularity, where, in consequence of his familiar habit of addressing
+the Irish and Highland soldiers with the Gaelic salute of "_Cia mar tha
+thu_," he was known as "Old cia mar tha." Indeed, he is so styled in Mr
+Lever's novel of "Charles O'Malley," where he is represented (vol. 1,
+chap, x.) as one of the friends of General Sir George Dashwood. Another
+writer (Miss Sinclair's "Scotland and the Scotch") refers to him as "a
+frequent visitor at her father's house in London, and a celebrity of the
+past generation who was said to have been one of the principals in the
+last duel fought with broadswords; and also known to his friends for the
+more than hearty grasp he shook their hands with." These distinctions,
+no doubt, combined many incidents for their existence. A tragic
+adventure at the outset of his career; his imprisonment during the
+American War; and afterwards his services with the Highlanders
+throughout the wars of the period. He was remarkable for the immense
+size and powerful structure of his person. In a verse from one of the
+many Gaelic songs written in honour of _Fear an Earrachd_, alluding to
+his majestic form and figure when in the Highland costume, the bard
+says:--
+
+    Nuair theid thu 'n uidheam Gaidheil
+    Bu mhiann le Ban-Righ sealladh dhiot,
+    Le t-osan is math fiaradh,
+    Do chalp air fiamh na gallinné:
+    Sporan a bhruic-fhiadhaich,
+    Gun chruaidh shnaim riamh ga theannachadh,
+    Gur tric thu tarruing iall as
+    'S ga riachaidh a measg aineartaich.
+
+He was the firm friend of the soldier, and considered every man in his
+regiment committed to his personal care. In health he advised them; in
+sickness he saw that their wants were supplied; and once any became
+disabled, he was incessant in his efforts till he secured a pension for
+them. Numerous are the stories told of the encounters between Sir Harry
+Torrens (Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief) and himself for
+his persistent applications for pensions and promotions. These poor
+fellows, for whom he was never tired of interceding, were naturally
+grateful for his fatherly feeling towards them. Such is an outline of
+the characteristics of the subject of the following Biographical sketch.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE sires of the subject of our memoir were of the tribe of Camerons'
+known as _Sliochd Eoghainn 'ic Eoghainn_, and descended directly from
+the parent stock of the chiefs of the clan, to whom they stood next in
+relationship after the Fassiferns. The lands assigned for their
+occupation, and on which they lived from the earliest settlement of the
+Camerons in Lochaber, were within a short distance of the castle of the
+chiefs, and the homestead of Sir Alan's family was named _Earrachd_, and
+situated on an elevated plateau at the entrance of _Gleann Laoidh_ (Glen
+Loy) which leads off in a westerly direction. It is close to, and seen
+from, the banks of that portion of the Caledonian Canal between
+Gairlochy and Banavie Locks.
+
+The parents of Alan were Donald Cameron and _Marsali_ (Marjory) MacLean
+(of the family of Drimnin in Morvern). Two incidents connected with the
+infancy of both father and son are peculiarly remarkable. The father was
+an infant in the arms of his mother when she went to the gathering place
+to support the Earl of Mar (1715) to bid farewell to her husband the day
+the clan left; and Alan was an infant in the arms of his mother when
+_his_ father marched out with the clan to meet Prince Charles at
+Glenfinnan (1745). The battle of Sheriffmuir ended the career of Alan's
+grandfather, and the disasters on the field of Culloden made the father
+a wanderer from his hearth and home for the next three years, while his
+family were subjected during that time to cruelties and indignities,
+which were a disgrace to men calling themselves the soldiers of the
+king. Domiciliary visits were made at frequent intervals, and on every
+occasion numbers of cattle were driven off the lands for the use of the
+garrison at Fort-William. These spoliations continued for several months
+after the _rising_ was suppressed, and proved ruinous to the poor people
+whose only crime was that they risked their lives in support of the
+claims of one whom they believed to be the rightful heir to the Crown of
+the United Kingdom. Their descendants, a quarter of a century
+afterwards, risked their lives in another cause with equal fidelity and
+bravery, asserting the rights and defending the honour of the British
+Crown. It is known that the Clan Cameron was the first to appear in
+support of the standard of the Prince. The gathering place of the clan
+was at _Drochaid Laoidh_, and there ten of the _twelve_ tribes promptly
+answered the _Cothionnal_ "_Thigibh a chlann na 'n con 's gheobh sibh
+feoil._" The absentees were, the Camerons of Fassifern, and the Camerons
+of Glen Nevis; the proverbial caution of the first forbade their
+adherence, while the influence of the Whig Clan Grant prevailed with the
+latter. The defection of the Fassiferns gave the place of second in
+command, or Lieutenant of the clan, to Cameron of _Earrachd_ (Alan's
+father). The clan turned out 600, but these were considerably augmented
+a few days afterwards. After a spirited address from the chief (the
+"gentle Lochiel"), the first march of that eventful movement commenced
+with pipers playing and banners flying, wending their way with steady
+demeanour and elastic step up Glen Loy, and over the hills that
+separated them from Glenfinnan.
+
+Many of the chiefs of Lochiel were, in addition to being men of great
+military renown and martial ardour, shrewd politicians. They encouraged
+other septs to dwell on their lands that they might be serviceable to
+assist them in keeping the jealous or more turbulent spirits of their
+own clansmen in subjection. At any rate, with the Camerons in this
+campaign, a third was composed of Maclachlans, Macmillans, Kennedies,
+Macphees, Mackinnons, &c.
+
+The Governor of the garrison at Fort-William having heard of the
+intended gathering at Glenfinnan, sent out a company of soldiers by way
+of reconnoitring the proceedings. To avoid observance they followed a
+devious path over the hills, and most opportunely fell in with the
+Camerons, by whom they were surrounded, and without much difficulty made
+prisoners. Besides the _eclat_ of this the first victory, the arms thus
+possessed were of considerable advantage to the Highlanders, most of
+whom were miserably equipped for the exigencies of the campaign.
+
+A most cordial reception was given to Lochiel and his clan by the
+Prince, after which the Marquis of Tullibardine unfurled the standard,
+amidst unbounded enthusiasm. It was made of white and blue silk.
+Meanwhile the Laird of Keppoch was observed advancing with a contingent
+of 300 of his Macdonells. At the head of the diminutive force thus made
+up, Prince Charles embarked on a contest with a power the most
+formidable in Europe. And the daring of this small band was even more
+conspicuous when they at once determined to march direct on the capital
+of the kingdom. Glenfinnan, formed not unlike an amphitheatre, and easy
+of access for all parts of the Western Highlands, was admirably fitted
+for the rendezvous.
+
+The morning march of the little army took the route alongside of an arm
+of the sea named Lochiel (the same from which the chief takes his modern
+title) to Corpach. Here they encamped the first night, afterwards
+continuing their way up the Braes of Lochaber, Blair Athole, and towards
+the City of Perth, which they occupied as an intermediate resting place.
+A few days further march brought them within a short distance of
+Edinburgh. On nearing the capital a halt was made at Duddingston, and a
+council was held, at which it was decided to detach Lochiel's force to
+make the advance and demand the surrender of the city. The Camerons
+having been the first arrivals at Glenfinnan, may have been the cause of
+this selection. Lochiel having received some injury from a fall off his
+horse on the journey, he was unable to accompany his clansmen. Cameron
+of Earrachd consequently succeeded to the command of this important
+mission, and its success is matter of history. The events of the '45 are
+introduced into the career of Alan (the son) somewhat irrelevantly, but
+only to connect the latter with the singular incident that sixty-two
+years afterwards it fell to _his_ lot to have been ordered by Sir Arthur
+Wellesley to take possession of the Citadel of Copenhagen (1807). Taking
+leave now of Prince Charles and his Highlanders, with their fortunes and
+their failures, the narrative of Alan Cameron will proceed without
+further divergence.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IT was during these turbulent times that Alan Cameron passed his
+infantile years--he was four years of age before he saw his father, and,
+although it was hoped that the settlement of the difficulties which had
+existed would favour his career in life, exempt from the toils and
+strifes of war, it was not so ordained, as the narrative will prove.
+
+Alan was the oldest son of a family of three sons and three daughters,
+some of whom found meet employment subsequently in his regiment. Their
+education was conducted as customary in those days by resident tutors
+from Aberdeen and St Andrews. With one of these Alan, on reaching a
+suitable age, went to the latter University for one or two sessions to
+complete his education. As the oldest son, it was intended that on
+arriving at a certain age he should relieve his father of the care and
+management of the lands and stock, and become the responsible
+representative of the family at home; while it was arranged that of the
+other sons, Donald was to enter the naval service of the Dutch East
+India Company, and the youngest, Ewan, was to find a commission in one
+of the Fencible Corps of the county of Argyll. But this arrangement was
+not to be, especially as regards the eldest and youngest sons. A
+circumstance of melancholy interest occurred before the former had taken
+to the succession of the farm, or the other had arrived at the age to be
+an effective officer of his regiment, which had the effect of exactly
+reversing these intentions. The occurrence referred to was of a tragical
+nature, and caused the utmost sensation among the families of the
+district, inasmuch as relationship was so general there that whatever
+brought affliction to the hearth of one family, would leave its portion
+also at the threshold of the others. Alan, like other youths, employed
+much of his juvenile years in the sports of a Highland country
+life--fox-hunting, deer-stalking, and fishing for salmon on the Lochy;
+at all of which he was more than ordinarily successful. The nearest
+house to his father's was that of another Cameron--chieftain of a
+considerable tribe (_Mac Ile' Onaich_ or Sliochd Ile' Onaich), who had
+recently died of wounds received at Culloden. His widow and children
+occupied the house at Strone. The lady is reputed to have been very
+handsome, and would apparently answer _Donachadh Ban's_ description of
+_Isabel og an or fhuilt bhuidhe_, leastways, to borrow a word from the
+Cockney--she was styled _par excellance_, _a Bhanntrach Ruadh_. Alan, like
+a friendly kinsman, was most generous in sharing the successes of his
+gun and rod with the widowed lady, for which, no doubt, she expressed
+her acknowledgments to the youthful sportsman. The course of this
+commendable neighbourship was rather unexpectedly interrupted by some
+words of misunderstanding which occurred between Alan and a gentleman
+(also a Cameron) who was closely related to the widow's late husband. He
+was known as _Fear Mhorsheirlich_; had been _out_ in the '45 when quite
+a youth, and escaped to Holland, from which he had only returned a few
+months previous to the incident of this narrative. Contemporaries spoke
+of him as being most accomplished, and of gallant bearing. The real
+nature of the dispute has not descended sufficiently authentic to
+justify more minute reference than that rumour assigned it to have been
+an accusation that Alan was imprudently intimate with the handsome widow
+of Strone (_a Bhanntrach Ruadh_). The delicate insinuation was resented
+by Alan in language probably more plain than polite. Mr Cameron was
+Alan's senior by some twenty years or so, but notwithstanding this, his
+high spirit could not brook the rough retort of the accused; and, much
+to Alan's confusion, the result was that he received a peremptory demand
+to apologise or arrange a meeting for personal satisfaction. As he
+declined to return the one, he was obliged to grant the desperate
+alternative. Reading this account of men going out to engage in personal
+combat for a cause so small, will lead us to consider that such a result
+ought to have been prevented by the interposition of friends. But it
+must not be overlooked that the customs of the times are very much
+ameliorated from what prevailed in those days (1772). It is probable
+that even then if the management of the affair had been confided to
+skilful diplomatists the meeting might have been averted. Friends of
+such conciliating habits were either not at hand, or they were not
+consulted; and, as men equal in high spirits, the principals could not
+volunteer any compromise. Alan's chief anxiety was how to keep the event
+secret from his parents and family, therefore, he quietly repaired to a
+relative to request his attendance the following morning as his friend
+for the occasion. It is said that this gentleman used his utmost powers
+of dissuasion, although unsuccessful--determination had, in the interval
+of a few hours, become too settled for alteration. Alan, as the
+challenged, was, according to duelling etiquette, entitled to the choice
+of weapons and place of meeting. Although the pistol had in a measure
+superseded the rapier in England, the broadsword remained the favourite
+weapon in the north when required for the purpose of personal
+_satisfaction_. Highlanders had always a preference for the weapon named
+by Ossian--_An Lann tanna_--and by the modern bards--_Tagha nan Arm_.
+Alan decided on making choice of the steel blade, and named a certain
+obscure spot on the banks of the Lochy for the meeting on the following
+day at the grey hour of the morning. His difficulty now was how to get
+possession of one of these implements of war without exciting suspicion
+or inquiries. They numbered more than one in the armory of every
+Highland household, and in the case of those in his father's house they
+were preserved with a care due to articles which had been often used
+with effect in the past. Among them was one which had been _out_ in the
+campaigns of 1689 (Dundee's), 1715 (Mar's), and in 1745-6. It was of
+Spanish manufacture, and remarkable for the length and symmetry of its
+blade, in consequence of which it received the sobriquet of _Rangaire
+Riabhach_.[B] In his failure to find the keys of the arms depository, he
+bethought him to make a confident and enlist the sympathies of an
+elderly lady, who had been a member of the family since the days of his
+childhood. The aged Amazon not only promised her aid, but highly
+approved, and even encouraged, the spirit of her youthful relative.
+Having access to the keys of the armory, the _Rangaire_ was soon in
+Alan's hands, and with it he repaired to the place appointed, "to
+vindicate his own honour and give _satisfaction_ to his antagonist."
+
+The time of year when this event took place was in the early days of
+autumn. Daylight and the combatants arrived on the scene together. Vague
+particulars of the preliminaries between them have been variously
+retailed, but they are not necessary to the narrative, and therefore not
+referred to. The fact that the elder Cameron was reputed to be a skilled
+swordsman, also that it was not the first time he had met his foes in
+the field, may have had some effect on the nerves of his younger
+opponent, but there was no outward indication of it. The home-taught
+countryman, however, must have felt that he was standing face to face
+with no ordinary opponent. Alan, like the generality of young men, had
+such practice in the use of the weapon as to make him acquainted with
+the _cuts_ and _guards_. The superiority of Mr Cameron was at first
+apparent and proved, inasmuch as he not only kept himself for some time
+uninjured, but inflicted a severe cut on Alan's left arm. This blow may
+be said to have brought the conflict to its sudden and fatal
+termination. The pain, together with the humiliation, roused Alan's
+wrath to desperation. It became manifest to the only two friends
+present, that the life of one, if not of the two combatants, would be
+sacrificed; but they found themselves quite powerless to restrain the
+rage of the wounded principal. Their anticipations were not long in
+being confirmed. The elder Cameron fell from a blow delivered on the
+head by the powerful arm of his opponent. The force may be imagined when
+it is stated that it was what is known as No. 7 cut, and that the
+wounded man's sword in defending was forced into his own forehead. He
+lived just long enough to reach Strone house--a mile or so distant. It
+is impossible, except to those who have experienced a similar trial, to
+estimate the state of feeling such a painful scene produced on the three
+now remaining on the field. Time, however, was not to be trifled with,
+for, although, there were no "men in blue" to make prisoners of the
+breakers of the peace; yet the vanquished combatant had friends who
+would not hesitate to take life for life. Alan's _achates_ at once
+thought of that probability, or of revenge in some form. They,
+therefore, hurried him away from the field and across the river Lochy. A
+short consultation decided that he should remove himself entirely from
+the Cameron country for the time being. This was concurred in by Alan,
+who girded his claymore and determined on making direct for his uncle's
+house in Morvern--(Maclean of Drimnin)--distant about sixty miles, where
+he arrived without resting or drawing breath. The advice of his counsel,
+and the decision arrived at, proved to be not unnecessary, as the sequel
+proved. The fallen man was one of the cadets of a numerous tribe, and
+they would naturally, in accordance with the habit of the times, seek to
+avenge the death of their kinsman. They sought for the slayer of their
+friend with diligence and zeal. Their search was far and wide; but,
+fortunately for the fugitive, and thanks to the vigilance of his
+relatives, his pursuers were defeated in their attempt to capture their
+intended victim. The consternation of the uncle (Drimnin), on learning
+the cause of his nephew's sudden visit, may be surmised; but what was
+done could not be undone. When the Laird was satisfied with Alan's
+version, that _Morsheirlich_ fell in fair fight, brought about by
+himself, his displeasure somewhat relented. Affection and sympathy
+mingled in the old Laird's bosom, and he decided to befriend his
+unfortunate nephew at all hazard. It was conjectured that the search of
+the avengers would be directed towards this district, where Alan's
+relatives were numerous, and where he would likely betake himself in
+this emergency. That he might elude his pursuers with greater certainty,
+the Laird of Drimnin had him escorted across the Sound of Mull by some
+trusty kinsmen, to the charge of another Maclean (Pennycross), and with
+whom he was to remain until he received further instructions respecting
+his future destination. The grief and revenge of _Morsheirlich's_
+friends had not yet subsided, and would not, for years to come, so that
+Alan would be unwise to return to his native home, or place himself in
+their path.
+
+The Collector of His Majesty's Customs at the Port of Greenock was an
+immediate relation to the Laird of Drimnin by marriage, and a
+correspondence was entered on with him with the view of ascertaining his
+opinion as to what was best to be done for Alan. Negotiations occupied
+more time for their conduct at that time than in the present day; at any
+rate nothing satisfactory was proposed to Alan, so that for a couple of
+years he continued wandering up and down the island of Mull, and through
+the glens of Morvern, entirely under the guidance of his uncle. At last
+a request came from the Collector to send the fugitive to him, that he
+might find employment for him in his own office. The uncle decreed,
+rather against Alan's grain, that the offer of clerkship should
+meanwhile be accepted. He remained in this occupation for several
+months, until he received an invitation from another friend residing in
+Leith. This gentleman wrote to say that there was now an opportunity of
+giving him service in an enterprise likely to be congenial to "a man of
+metal" such as he conceived Alan to be. The war of American Independence
+had commenced, and the employment which the Leith friend proposed was
+that Alan should join a privateer which was fitting out in an English
+port, armed with letters of marque, to capture and destroy American
+shipping. Alan answered the invitation by repairing to Leith in person
+with all speed. The nature of the service offered, however, did not
+accord with his ideas of honourable warfare; in fact, he considered it
+more akin to piracy, and not such as a gentleman should take part in. He
+had no affection, he said, for clerkship, but he had still less for the
+life of a pirate.
+
+While Alan was oscillating in this manner, he learned that another
+relative of his mother's, Colonel Alan Maclean of Torloisk, who had
+emigrated to one of the North American colonies some years previously,
+had received a commission to embody a regiment of those of his
+countrymen who had become residents on free-grants of land at the same
+time with himself. To this gentleman Alan decided on going. Soldiering
+was more genial to his nature than marine freebooting, and he calculated
+on Colonel Maclean's assistance in that direction. (This Colonel
+Maclean's grand-daughter was Miss Clephane Maclean, afterwards
+Marchioness of Northampton.) Arrived in America, Alan was received
+kindly by his relative, and being a soldier himself he viewed the past
+event in Alan's life as of a nature not entirely without a certain
+amount of recommendation to a wanderer in search of fame. Alan was not
+long in the country when Colonel Maclean added him to his list of
+volunteers, in a body, which was soon afterwards enrolled as the "Royal
+Highland Emigrant Corps."
+
+                         (_To be Continued._)
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Sir John Sinclair.]
+
+[Footnote B: Brown or brindled wrangler.]
+
+
+
+
+A. R. wants to know "the best standard for Gaelic orthography?"
+
+CABAR-FEIDH would like to know if any of Grant's [_Bard Mor an
+t-Slagain_] Poems were ever published? If so, where? and by whom? It is
+believed many of his pieces, which were famous in his day, are still
+known in the Lochbroom and Dundonnell districts. _Cabar_ requests that
+any of the readers of the _Celtic Magazine_ to whom any of the poems are
+known would kindly forward them for publication. Grant knew more
+Ossianic poetry than any man of his day--1746 to 1842. Any information
+regarding him would be of interest.
+
+MACAOIDH enquires to what sept of the clan the famous pipers--the
+Mackays of Gairloch--belonged, and how did they find their way to that
+part of the country? Are there any of their descendants still living in
+this country or in North British America, where the last famous piper of
+the race emigrated? The "Blind Piper" and bard was the most famous of
+this remarkable family, and was a pupil in the celebrated College of the
+Macrimmon's in Skye.
+
+
+
+
+REPLY TO "GLENGARRY'S" QUERY.--There are words in English to
+_Piobaireachd Mhic Ranuil_ or _Cilliechriost_, and they, with
+particulars of the occasion on which the tune was composed, will appear
+in the next instalment of the HIGHLAND CEILIDH in the _Celtic
+Magazine_.
+
+
+
+
+THE HIGHLAND CEILIDH.
+
+BY ALASTAIR OG.
+
+[CONTINUED.]
+
+
+ON the conclusion of the "Spell of Cadboll" Norman received the hearty
+and unanimous congratulations of the circle. The frail old bard, pulling
+himself together, got up, went across the room, and shook him heartily
+with both hands. This special honour was a most unusual one. It was
+clear that _Alastair_ was just in the mood when a little persuasion
+would suffice to get him to recite one of his own compositions. This he
+was generally very chary of doing, but Norman getting the hint from one
+of his immediate neighbours to ask the bard a special favour on this
+occasion at once begged the honour of hearing one of the bard's
+compositions from his own lips. The venerable old man bent himself
+forward, began to work the fingers of both hands and beat time on his
+leg as on a chanter, humming a quiet _cronan_. This was his usual
+practice when composing or reciting poetry, and it was at once seen that
+he would consent. "I will give you," says he, "a _Marbh-rann_, or Elegy
+which no one ever heard, and which I have recently composed to the late
+'Bailie Hector' of Dingwall, a son of my late esteemed friend
+'Letterewe,' on condition that you, Sir, will give us another story when
+I am done." Norman at once agreed, and the bard commenced as follows:--
+
+
+MARBHRANN.
+
+DO BHAILIDH EACHAINN, INBHIR-FEOTHARAN, MAC FEAR LEITIR-IUGH.
+
+          AIR FONN--"_'S mi 'm shuidhe 'm 'onar._"
+
+    O 's truagh an sgeula tha 'n diugh ri fheutainn,
+    Thug gal air ceudan a measg an t-sluaigh,
+    Mu Eachainn gleusta 'bha fearail, feumail,
+    Gun da ghlac an t-eug thu a threun-laoich chruaidh:
+    'S mor bron do Chinnidh, mar eoin na tuinne
+    Tha 'n cronan duilich 's an ullaidh uath
+    'S bho nach duisg an gair thu, 's nach cluinn thu 'n gailich,
+    Se chlaoidh do chairdean do bhas cho luath.
+
+    Tha do chairdean cianal, tha bron da'lionadh,
+    Tha 'n inntinn pianail bho n' ghlac thu 'm bas,
+    'S iad a ghnath fuidh thiorachd 's nach faigh iad sgial ort,
+    Ach thu bhi iosal an ciste chlar
+    Bu tu ceann na riaghailt 'us lamh na fialachd,
+    A sheoid gun fhiaradh, gun ghiamh gun sgath,
+    'Sa nis bho 'n thriall thu, 's sinn lan dha d' iargan,
+    'S nach eil 's na criochan fear a lionas d' ait.
+
+    Bha d' aite miaghail 's gach cas an iarrt' thu,
+    A reir mo sgiala bu teirc do luach:
+    Bha thu pairteach, briathrach, ri ard 's ri iosal,
+    Gun chàs gun dioghaltas air an tuath.
+    Bha foghlum Iarl' agad 's ciall fear riaghlaidh
+    Bu mhor an diobhail nach da liath do ghruag,
+    'S ann a bharc an t-aog ort mas d' thainig aois ort,
+    A ghnuis bha faoilteach air chaochladh snuaidh.
+
+    Bha do shnuadh cho aillidh 's nach fhaodainn s' aireamh,
+    Mar ròs a gharaidh ri maduinn dhriuchd,
+    Bu chuachach, faineach, do ghruag an caradh--
+    Mar theudan clarsaich an' inneal ciuil
+    Do ghruaidh dhearg dhathte, do shuil mar dhearcag,
+    Fuidh ghnuis na maise bu tapaidh sùrd
+    Rasg aotram, geanach, bho 'm b'fhaoilteach sealladh
+    Beul muirneach tairis, 's deud thana dhluth.
+
+    O! 's dluth bha buaidhean a stri mu'n cuairt duit,
+    Cha b' eol dhomh suairceas nach robh 'do chrè
+    Bha thu ciallach, narach, 's tu briathrach, pairteach,
+    'S tu rianail, daimheil, ri d' chairdean fhein:
+    Bu tu firean, fallain, bha rioghail, geanach,
+    'Sa leoghann tapaidh bu ghlaine beus;
+    Bhiodh min 'us gairg' air, bhiodh sith 'us fearg air,
+    Nuair chit' air falbh e bhiodh colg na cheum.
+
+    Se do cheum bu bhrisge 's bu shubailt iosgaid,
+    Bha moran ghibhtean ri d' leasraidh fuaight.
+    Bu tu glas nan Gaidheal, bho mhuir gu braighe
+    Gu crioch Chinntaile 's na tha bho thuath.
+    O! 's lionmhor oigfhear tha 'n diugh gu bronach
+    A fasgadh dhorn, 'us ruith-dheoir le ghruaidh,
+    'Bhiodh dana, sgaiteach, gun sgath gun ghealtachd,
+    Na 'm bu namhaid pears' bheireadh Eachainn bh' uainn.
+
+    Bha thu mor an onair, bu mhor do mholadh,
+    Bu mhor do shonas, 's tu gun dolaidh gibht'
+    Bu mhor a b'fhiach thu, bu mhor do riaghailt,
+    Bu mhor do mhiagh ann an ciall 's an tuigs',
+    Bu mhor do churam, bu mhor do chuisean,
+    Bu mhor do chliu ann an cuirt 'sa meas,
+    Bu mhor do stata, 's bu mhor do nadur,
+    'S cha mhor nach d'fhag thu na Gaidheil brist'.
+
+    O! 's priseil, laidir, a ghibhte 'dh-fhag sinn--
+    'S mios'da Ghaeltachd bàs an t-seoid,
+    Tha Mhachair tursach bho n' chaidh an uir ort,
+    'S tu dh-fhuasgladh cuis do gach cuirt mu bhord,
+    Bha 'Ghalldachd deurach ri cainnt ma d' dheighinn,
+    Gu ruig Dun-eidin nan steud 's nan cleoc,
+    'S cha ghabhainn gealtachd, air son a chantuinn,
+    Gur call do Bhreatuinn nach eil thu beo.
+
+    'S tu chraobh a b'aillidh bha 'n tus a gharaidh
+    'S i ùr a fas ann fuidh bhlath 's fuidh dhos,
+    O! 's truagh a dh-fhag thu ma thuath na Gaidheil
+    Mar uain gun mhathair ni'n sgath ri frois,
+    'S tu b'urr' an tearnadh bho chunnart gabhaidh,
+    'S an curaidh laidir, chuireadh spairn na tost,
+    Tha 'n tuath gu craiteach, 's na h-uaislean càsai,
+    'S bho 'n chaidh am fàd ort 's truagh gair nam bochd.
+
+"_Ma ta 's math sibh fhein Alastair Bhuidhe; 's grinn comhnard a
+bhardachd a th'air a mharbhrainn, ach cha 'n eil i dad nas fhearr na
+thoill brod a Ghaidheil agus am fior dhuin' uasal dha'n d'rinn sibh i,"
+arsa Ruairidh Mor._ (Well done yourself, _Alastair Buidhe_, the
+composition of the Elegy is beautifully elegant and even, but not any
+better than the memory of the best of Highlanders and the truest of
+gentlemen, to whom you composed it, deserved, said Big Rory). This was
+the general verdict of the circle.
+
+Norman was now called upon to fulfil his part of the arrangement, which
+he promptly did by giving the Legend, of which the following is a
+translation:--
+
+
+THE RAID OF CILLIECHRIOST.
+
+THE ancient Chapel of Cilliechriost, in the Parish of Urray, in Ross,
+was the scene of one of the bloodiest acts of ferocity and revenge that
+history has recorded. The original building has long since disappeared,
+but the lonely and beautifully situated burying-ground is still in use.
+The tragedy originated in the many quarrels which arose between the two
+chiefs of the North Highlands--Mackenzie of Kintail and Macdonald of
+Glengarry. As usual, the dispute was regarding land, but it were not
+easy to arrive at the degree of blame to which each party was entitled,
+enough that there was bad blood between these two paladins of the north.
+Of course, the quarrel was not allowed to go to sleep for lack of action
+on the part of their friends and clansmen. The Macdonalds having made
+several raids on the Mackenzie country, the Mackenzies retaliated by the
+spoiling of Morar with a large and overwhelming force. The Macdonalds,
+taking advantage of Kenneth Mackenzie's visit to Mull with the view to
+influence Maclean to induce the former to peace, once more committed
+great devastation in the Mackenzie country, under the leadership of
+Glengarry's son Angus. From Kintail and Lochalsh the clan of the
+Mackenzies gathered fast, but too late to prevent Macdonald from
+escaping to sea with his boats loaded with the foray. A portion of the
+Mackenzies ran to Eilean-donan, while another portion sped to the narrow
+strait of the Kyle between Skye and the mainland, through which the
+Macdonalds, on their return, of necessity, must pass. At Eilean-donan
+Lady Mackenzie furnished them with two boats, one ten-oared and one
+four-oared, also with arrows and ammunition. Though without their chief,
+the Mackenzies sallied forth, and rowing towards Kyleakin, lay in wait
+for the approach of the Macdonalds. The first of the Glengarry boats
+they allowed to pass unchallenged, but the second, which was the
+thirty-two-oared galley of the chief was furiously attacked. The
+unprepared Macdonalds rushing to the side of the heavily loaded boat,
+swamped the craft, and were all thrown into the sea, where they were
+despatched in large numbers, and those who escaped to the land were
+destroyed "by the Kintail men, who killed them like _sealchagan_."[A]
+The body of young Glengarry was secured and buried in the very door-way
+of the Kirk of Kintail, that the Mackenzies might trample over it
+whenever they went to church. Time passed on, Donald _Gruamach_, the
+old chief, died ere he could mature matters for adequate retaliation of
+the Kyle tragedy and the loss of his son Angus. The chief of the clan
+was an infant in whom the feelings of revenge could not be worked out by
+action; but there was one, his cousin, who was the Captain or Leader in
+whom the bitterest thoughts exercised their fullest sway. It seems now
+impossible that such acts could have occurred, and it gives one a
+startling idea of the state of the country then, when such a terrible
+instance of private vengeance could have been carried out so recent as
+the beginning of the seventeenth century, without any notice being taken
+of it, even, in those days of general blood and rapine. Notwithstanding
+the hideousness of sacrilege and murder, which, certainly, in magnitude
+of atrocity, was scarcely ever equalled, there are many living, even in
+the immediate neighbourhood, who are ignorant of the cause of the act.
+Macranuil of Lundi, captain of the clan, whose personal prowess was only
+equalled by his intense ferocity, made many incursions into the
+Mackenzie country, sweeping away their cattle, and otherwise doing them
+serious injury; but these were but preludes to that sanguinary act on
+which his soul gloated, and by which he hoped effectually to avenge the
+loss of influence and property of which his clan were deprived by the
+Mackenzies, and more particularly wash out the records of death of his
+chief and clansmen at Kyleakin. In order to form his plans more
+effectually he wandered for some time as a mendicant among the
+Mackenzies in order the more successfully to fix on the best means and
+spot for his revenge. A solitary life offered up to expiate the manes of
+his relatives was not sufficient in his estimation, but the life's blood
+of such a number of his bitterest foemen, and an act at which the
+country should stand aghast was absolutely necessary. Returning home he
+gathered together a number of the most desperate of his clan, and by a
+forced march across the hills arrived at the Church of Cilliechriost on
+a Sunday forenoon, when it was filled by a crowd of worshippers of the
+clan Mackenzie. Without a moments delay, without a single pang of
+remorse, and while the song of praise ascended to heaven from fathers,
+mothers, and children, he surrounded the church with his band, and with
+lighted torches set fire to the roof. The building was thatched, and
+while a gentle breeze from the east fanned the fire, the song of praise,
+mingled with the crackling of the flames, until the imprisoned
+congregation, becoming conscious of their situation, rushed to the doors
+and windows, where they were met by a double row of bristling swords.
+Now, indeed, arose the wild wail of despair, the shrieks of women, the
+infuriated cries of men, and the helpless screaming of children, these
+mingled with the roaring of the flames appalled even the Macdonalds, but
+not so Allan Dubh. "Thrust them back into the flames" cried he, "for he
+that suffers ought to escape alive from Cilliechriost shall be branded
+as a traitor to his clan"; and they were thrust back or mercilessly hewn
+down within the narrow porch, until the dead bodies piled on each other
+opposed an unsurmountable barrier to the living. Anxious for the
+preservation of their young children, the scorching mothers threw them
+from the windows in the vain hope that the feelings of parents awakened
+in the breasts of the Macdonalds would induce them to spare them, but
+not so. At the command of Allan of Lundi they were received on the
+points of the broadswords of men in whose breasts mercy had no place.
+It was a wild and fearful sight only witnessed by a wild and fearful
+race. During the tragedy they listened with delight to the piper of the
+band, who marching round the burning pile, played to drown the screams
+of the victims, an extempore pibroch, which has ever since been
+distinguished as the war tune of Glengarry under the title of
+"Cilliechriost." The flaming roof fell upon the burning victims, soon
+the screams ceased to be heard, a column of smoke and flame leapt into
+the air, the pibroch ceased, the last smothered groan of existence
+ascended into the still sky of that Sabbath morning, whispering as it
+died away that the agonies of the congregation were over.
+
+East, west, north, and south looked Allan Dubh Macranuil. Not a living
+soul met his eye. The fire he kindled had destroyed, like the spirit of
+desolation. Not a sound met his ear, and his own tiger soul sunk within
+him in dismay. The Parish of Cilliechriost seemed swept of every living
+thing. The fearful silence that prevailed, in a quarter lately so
+thickly peopled, struck his followers with dread; for they had given in
+one hour the inhabitants of a whole parish, one terrible grave. The
+desert which they had created filled them with dismay, heightened into
+terror by the howls of the masterless sheep dogs, and they turned to
+fly. Worn out with the suddenness of their long march from Glengarry,
+and with their late fiendish exertions, on their return they sat down to
+rest on the green face of Glenconvinth, which route they took in order
+to reach Lundi through the centre of Glenmorriston by Urquhart. Before
+they fled from Cilliechriost Allan divided his party into two, one
+passing by Inverness and the other as already mentioned; but the
+Macdonalds were not allowed to escape, for the flames had roused the
+Mackenzies as effectually as if the fiery cross had been sent through
+their territories. A youthful leader, a cadet of the family of Seaforth,
+in an incredibly short time, found himself surrounded by a determined
+band of Mackenzies eager for the fray; these were also divided into two
+bodies, one commanded by Murdoch Mackenzie of Redcastle, proceeded by
+Inverness, to follow the pursuit along the southern side of Loch Ness;
+another headed by Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, struck across the country
+from Beauly, to follow the party of the Macdonalds who fled along the
+northern side of Loch Ness under their leader Allan Dubh Macranuil. The
+party that fled by Inverness were surprised by Redcastle in a
+public-house at Torbreck, three miles to the west of the town where they
+stopped to refresh themselves. The house was set on fire, and they
+all--thirty-seven in number--suffered the death which, in the earlier
+part of the day, they had so wantonly inflicted. The Mackenzies, under
+Coul, after a few hours' hard running, came up with the Macdonalds as
+they sought a brief repose on the hills towards the burn of Aultsigh.
+There the Macdonalds maintained an unequal conflict, but as guilt only
+brings faint hearts to its unfortunate votaries they turned and again
+fled precipitately to the burn. Many, however, missed the ford, and the
+channel being rough and rocky several fell under the swords of the
+victorious Mackenzies. The remainder, with all the speed they could
+make, held on for miles lighted by a splendid and cloudless moon, and
+when the rays of the morning burst upon them, Allan Dubh Macranuil and
+his party were seen ascending the southern ridge of Glen Urquhart with
+the Mackenzies close in the rear. Allan casting an eye behind him and
+observing the superior numbers and determination of his pursuers, called
+to his band to disperse in order to confuse his pursuers and so divert
+the chase from himself. This being done, he again set forward at the
+height of his speed, and after a long run, drew breath to reconnoitre,
+when, to his dismay, he found that the avenging Mackenzies were still
+upon his track in one unbroken mass. Again he divided his men and bent
+his flight towards the shore of Loch Ness, but still he saw the foe with
+redoubled vigour, bearing down upon him. Becoming fearfully alive to his
+position, he cried to his few remaining companions again to disperse,
+until they left him, one by one, and he was alone. Allan, who as a mark
+of superiority and as Captain of the Glengarry Macdonalds, always wore a
+red jacket, was easily distinguished from the rest of his clansmen, and
+the Mackenzies being anxious for his capture, thus easily singled him
+out as the object of their joint and undiverted pursuit. Perceiving the
+sword of vengeance ready to descend on his head he took a resolution as
+desperate in its conception as unequalled in its accomplishment. Taking
+a short course towards the fearful ravine of Aultsigh he divested
+himself of his plaid and buckler, and turning to the leader of the
+Mackenzies, who had nearly come up with him, beckoned him to follow,
+then with a few yards of a run he sprang over the yawning chasm, never
+before contemplated without a shudder. The agitation of his mind at the
+moment completely overshadowed the danger of the attempt, and being of
+an athletic frame he succeeded in clearing the desperate leap. The young
+and reckless Mackenzie, full of ardour and determined at all hazards to
+capture the murderer followed; but, being a stranger to the real width
+of the chasm, perhaps of less nerve than his adversary, and certainly
+not stimulated by the same feelings, he only touched the opposite brink
+with his toes, and slipping downwards he clung by a slender shoot of
+hazel which grew over the tremendous abyss. Allan Dubh looking round on
+his pursuer and observing the agitation of the hazel bush, immediately
+guessed the cause, and returning with the ferocity of a demon who had
+succeeded in getting his victim into his fangs, hoarsely whispered, "I
+have given your race this day much, I shall give them this also, surely
+now the debt is paid," when cutting the hazel twig with his sword, the
+intrepid youth was dashed from crag to crag until he reached the stream
+below, a bloody and misshapen mass. Macranuil again commenced his
+flight, but one of the Mackenzies, who by this time had come up, sent a
+musket shot after him, by which he was wounded, and obliged to slacken
+his pace. None of his pursuers, however, on coming up to Aultsigh, dared
+or dreamt of taking a leap which had been so fatal to their youthful
+leader, and were therefore under the necessity of taking a circuitous
+route to gain the other side. This circumstance enabled Macranuil to
+increase the distance between him and his pursuers, but the loss of
+blood, occasioned by his wound, so weakened him that very soon he found
+his determined enemies were fast gaining on him. Like an infuriated wolf
+he hesitated whether to await the undivided attack of the Mackenzies or
+plunge into Loch Ness and attempt to swim across its waters. The shouts
+of his approaching enemies soon decided him, and he sprung into its
+deep and dark wave. Refreshed by its invigorating coolness he soon swam
+beyond the reach of their muskets; but in his weak and wounded state it
+is more than probable he would have sunk ere he had crossed half the
+breadth had not the firing and the shouts of his enemies proved the
+means of saving his life. Fraser of Foyers seeing a numerous band of
+armed men standing on the opposite bank of Loch Ness, and observing a
+single swimmer struggling in the water, ordered his boat to be launched,
+and pulling hard to the individual, discovered him to be his friend
+Allan Dubh, with whose family Fraser was on terms of friendship.
+Macranuil, thus rescued remained at the house of Foyers until he was
+cured of his wound, but the influence and the Clan of the Macdonalds
+henceforth declined, while that of the Mackenzies surely and steadily
+increased.
+
+The heavy ridge between the vale of Urquhart and Aultsigh where Allan
+Dubh Macranuil so often divided his men, is to this day called
+_Monadh-a-leumanaich_ or "the Moor of the Leaper."
+
+                         (_To be Continued._)
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Snails.]
+
+
+
+
+CAN THIS BE THE LAND?
+
+
+          "_How are the mighty fallen!_"
+
+    Can this be the land where of old heroes flourished?
+    Can this be the land of the sons of the blast?
+    Gloom-wrapt as a monarch whose greatness hath perished,
+    Its beauty of loneliness speaks of the past:--
+    Tell me ye green valleys, dark glens, and blue mountains,
+    Where now are the mighty that round ye did dwell?
+    Ye wild-sweeping torrents, and woe-sounding fountains,
+    Say, is it their spirits that wail in your swell?
+
+    Oft, oft have ye leaped when your children of battle,
+    With war-bearing footsteps rushed down your dark crests;
+    Oft, oft have ye thundered with far-rolling rattle,
+    The echoes of slogans that burst from their breasts:--
+    Wild music of cataracts peals in their gladness,--
+    Hoarse tempests still shriek to the clouds lightning-fired,--
+    Dark shadows of glory departed, in sadness
+    Still linger o'er ruins where dwelt the inspired.
+
+    The voice of the silence for ever is breaking
+    Around the lone heaths of the glory-sung braves;
+    Dim ghosts haunt in sorrow, a land all forsaken,
+    And pour their mist tears o'er the heather-swept graves:--
+    Can this be the land of the thunder-toned numbers
+    That snowy bards sung in the fire of their bloom?
+    Deserted and blasted, in death's silent slumbers,
+    It glooms o'er my soul like the wreck of a tomb.
+
+    SUNDERLAND.                                              WM. ALLAN.
+
+
+
+
+HIGHLAND FOLK-LORE.
+
+BY "NETHER-LOCHABER."
+
+
+FOLK-LORE--a word of recent importation from the German--is a big word,
+and Highland Folk-Lore is a big subject, so big and comprehensive that
+not one Magazine article, but a many-chaptered series of Magazine
+articles would be necessary ere one could aver that he had done his
+"text" anything like justice. On the present occasion, therefore, we do
+not pretend to enter into the heart of a subject so extensive and
+many-sided: we shall content ourselves with a little scouting and
+skirmishing, so to speak, along the borders of a territory which it is
+possible we may ask the readers at some future time to explore along
+with us more at large. A few of the many proverbs, wisdom words, and
+moral and prudential sentences in daily use shall, in clerical phrase,
+meantime form "the subject-matter of our discourse." Nor must the reader
+think that the subject is in any wise _infra dignitate_, unworthy, that
+is, or undignified. Of the world-renowned Seven Wise Men of Greece, five
+at least attained to all their eminence and fame no otherwise than
+because they were the cunning framers of maxims and proverbs that
+rightly interpreted were calculated to advance and consolidate the moral
+and material welfare of the nation around them. Of the remaining two, it
+is true that one was an eminent politician and legislator, and the other
+a natural philosopher of the first order; but it is questionable if
+either of them would have been considered entitled to their prominent
+place in the Grecian _Pleiades_ of Wise Men had they not been
+proverb-makers and utterers of brief but pregnant "wisdom-words" as
+well. Even Solomon, the wisest of men, was less celebrated as a botanist
+and naturalist, though he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in
+Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and of
+beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes--less
+celebrated even as a lyrist, though his songs were a thousand and five,
+than for his proverbs and moral maxims of which the record takes care to
+tell us he spake no less than "three thousand." So much then for the
+dignity of our subject: what engaged the attention of Solomon and the
+Seven Sages of Greece cannot surely be unworthy some small share of our
+regard.
+
+"Six and half-a-dozen" is an English phrase, implying either that two
+things are exactly the same, or so very much alike as to be practically
+the same. The old Gael was not much of an arithmetician, he rarely
+meddled with numbers, and therefore no precisely similar phrase is to be
+found in his language; but he could express the same idea in his own
+way, and so pithily and emphatically that his version of the proverbial
+axiom is, perhaps, as good as is to be found in any other language
+whatever. The Gael's equivalent for "six and half-a-dozen" is, "_Bo
+mhaol odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol_"--(A cow that is doddled and dun, and
+a cow that is dun and doddled)--a phrase drawn, as are many of his most
+striking proverbs and prudential maxims, and very naturally too, from
+his pastoral surroundings. We recollect an admirable and very ludicrous
+application of this saying in a story once told us by the late Dr Norman
+Macleod of Glasgow, "old" Norman that is, not the Barony Doctor, but his
+father:--When a boy in Morven, of which parish his father was minister,
+there was a well-known character in that part of the country called
+"_Eoghann Gorach Chraigan Uibhir_," Daft Ewen of Craig-an-Ure in Mull, a
+born "natural," who, although a veritable "fool," had yet in him much of
+the quiet, keen-edged satire and roguery which is not unfrequently found
+in the better ranks of such "silly ones." Ewen regularly perambulated
+Mull and Morven, with an occasional raid into the neighbouring districts
+of Sunart and Ardnamurchan. He had sense enough to be able to carry the
+current news of the day from district to district, and on this account
+was always a welcome guest in every farm-house and hamlet on his beat;
+and as he sung a capital song, and was remarkable for much harmless
+drollery and "dafting," he was, it is needless to say, a great favourite
+everywhere. He took a great interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and
+always attended the church when the state of his wardrobe and other
+circumstances permitted. On one occasion Ewen was passing through
+Morven, and knowing that the annual communion time was approaching, he
+called upon the minister and begged to know who his assistants on that
+particular occasion were to be. He was going to pay a visit, he said, to
+all the glens and outlying hamlets in the parish, and as the people were
+sure to ask him the important question, he wished to have the proper
+answer direct from the minister himself. "_Tha raghadh 'us taghadh nam
+ministeiran, Eoghainn; An Doiteir A. B. a Inneraora, agus an Doiteir C.
+D. a Muille._" (The pick and choice of ministers Ewen said the minister,
+Doctor A. B. from Inverary, and Doctor C. D. from Mull). "Whe-e-we!" in
+a contemptuously prolonged low whistle replied Ewen. "_An ann mar so a
+tha; Bo mhaol, odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol!_" (And is it even so; are
+these to be your assistants? A cow that is doddled and dun, and a cow
+that is dun and doddled!) Than which nothing could more emphatically
+convey Ewen's very small opinion of the "assistants" mentioned. They
+were much of a muchness; six and half-a-dozen; a cow doddled and dun,
+and a cow dun and doddled! The Gael was a keen observer of natural
+phenomena, and some of his best sayings were founded on the knowledge
+thus acquired. Meteorological "wisdom-words" for instance, are quite
+common. "_Mar chloich a ruith le gleann, tha feasgar fann foghairidh_"
+is an admirable example. (As is the headlong rush of a stone, atumbling
+down the glen, so hurried and of short duration is an autumnal
+afternoon.) The philosophy of the saying is that you are to begin your
+work betimes in the season of autumn; at early dawn if possible, and not
+to stop at all for dinner, seeing that once the day has passed its
+prime, the hour of sunset approaches with giant strides, and there is
+little or no twilight to help you if you have been foolish enough to
+dawdle your time in the hours of sunset proper. "_'S fas a chùil as nach
+goirear_" is another pregnant adage. (Desert, indeed, is the corner
+whence no voice of bird is heard.) Some people are very quiet, almost
+dumb indeed, but on the occurrence of some event, or on the back of
+some remark of yours, they speak, and speak so clearly and well that
+you are surprised, and quote the saying that it is a solitary and silent
+glade indeed whence no voice is heard. "_Am fear a bhios na thamh,
+saoilidh e gur i lamh fhein as fhearr air an stiùir_" is a common saying
+of much meaning and wide application. (He that is idle [a mere
+spectator] thinks that he could steer the boat better than the man
+actually in charge.) And we all know how apt we are to meddle, and
+generally unwisely, with the proper labours of others. Nothing, for
+instance, is more annoying and dangerous even than to put forth your
+hand by way of helping a driver in managing his horses, or to interfere
+with the tiller of a boat at which a perfectly competent man is already
+seated. We have known the saying just quoted scores of times suffice to
+stop the unwise and gratuitous intermeddling of such as were disposed to
+interfere with what did not properly belong to them. "_Bidh fear an aon
+mhairt aig uairean gun bhainne_" is a frequent saying, and implies more
+than is at first sight apparent. (The man with only one cow will be at
+times without milk.) The import of the saying is something more than a
+mere statement of fact. You have only one cow, and you are certain to be
+at times without milk. Get by your industry and perseverance _two_ cows
+or three, and then you are pretty sure to have more or less milk all the
+year round.
+
+We have thus briefly touched the hem, so to speak, of a very interesting
+subject--a subject that in the Highlands of Scotland, at least, has
+never yet received a tittle of the attention it deserves. And let no one
+be afraid to meddle with it to any extent he pleases, for we promise him
+that he will meet with nothing in any way to shock his delicacy or
+offend his taste, no matter how fine so ever of edge and exquisite; and
+in this respect, at all events, the good old Gael is superior to that of
+any other people of whom we have any knowledge. We may, perhaps, deal
+more at large with the subject in a future number. Meantime, we may
+state that we are of the same opinion as the Editor of the _Inverness
+Courier_; there is abundance of room for the _Celtic Magazine_ if it
+continues to be well conducted, without, in the least degree,
+encroaching upon the territories of any other periodicals interested in
+Celtic affairs.
+
+    NETHER-LOCHABER, November 1875.
+
+
+
+
+IMAGINATION.
+
+_Dedicated by consent to_ ALFRED TENNYSON.
+
+
+    All hail! far-seeing and creative power,
+    Before whose might the universe bends low
+    In silent adoration! Guide my pen
+    While from my soul the sounds of music pour
+    Towards thy praises! For to thee belongs
+    The sounding stream of never-ending song.
+    When out of chaos rose the glorious world,
+    Sublime with mountains flowing from the skies,
+    On lonely seas, sweet with slow-winding vales,
+    Clasping the grandeur of the heavenly hills
+    With soft and tender arms, or lowly glens
+    Shrinking from glowing gaze of searching sun
+    Beneath the shade of the high-soaring hills;
+    Grand with great torrents roaring o'er fierce crags
+    In suicidal madness, sad with seas
+    That flash in silver of the gladdening sun,
+    Yet ever wail in sadness 'neath the skies
+    Of smiling heaven (like a lovely life
+    That wears a sunny face, and wintry soul),
+    Hopeful with fickle life renewing spring,
+    Gladden'd with summer's radiance, autumn's joy,
+    And sad and sullen with fierce winter's rain;
+    Ruled by the race of God-made men who rush
+    Towards eternity with half-shut eyes,
+    Blind to the glories of sweet sky and sea,
+    Wood-covered earth, and sun-reflecting hill,
+    Thou in the mind of God, almighty power!
+    Ruled, and directed his creative hand.
+    With thee the seas spread and the hills arose
+    To do thy Maker's will; the silvery stars
+    Like heavenly glow-worms, beautifully cold,
+    And gladly silent, gemmed the gloom of night,
+    And shed the gladdening glances of their eyes
+    On the sad face of the night-darken'd earth.
+    Without thy sweetening influence, the soul
+    Of nature's bard were like a sunless plain,
+    Or summer garden destitute of flowers,
+    A winter day ungladden'd by the gleam
+    Of flowing sun, or river searching wild
+    Through desert lands for ne'er appearing trees,
+    Or peaceful flowers that sandy scenes disdain.
+    No thought the philosophic mind imparts
+    To an enraptured world, but bears thy power,
+    And owns thee as the agent of its birth.
+    O'er the sweet landscape of the poet's mind
+    Thou sunlike shed'st the gladness of thy love,
+    Inspiring all the scenes that lie below,
+    Sweetening the bowers where Fancy loves to dwell,
+    And on the crest of some huge mountain-thought
+    Placing the glory of thy fleecy cloud,
+    To make its frowning grandeur greater still,
+    And heighten all its beauteous mystery.
+    Thro' the sweet-coloured plains of Poesy
+    Thou flowest like a sweetly-sounding stream,
+    Here, rushing furious o'er the rocky crags
+    Of wild, original thought, and there, 'neath bowers
+    Of imagery, winding on thy way
+    Peaceful and still towards the fadeless sea
+    Of all enduring immortality.
+    Like lightning flash for which no thunder-roar
+    Makes preparation, from th' astonished mind
+    On an astonished and admiring world
+    Thou dartest in thine overwhelming course,
+    Leaving a track of splendour in thy train,
+    And lighting up the regions of thy way.
+    With thee sweet music sings her various song,
+    And thrills the soul and elevates the mind
+    With "thoughts that often lie too deep for tears,"
+    And own a sadness sweeter than the rills,
+    A softer sweetness than the sinking sun
+    Gives to the sparkling face of pensive sea.
+    With thee great genius walketh hand in hand
+    Towards the loftiest thought, or sits in pride
+    Upon the golden throne of starry Fame.
+    Borne on thy wings the pensive poet flies
+    To the sweet-smiling land of sunny dreams,
+    Or pours his floods of music o'er the world.
+    With thy bright gleams his daily deeds are gemmed,
+    And by thy balmy influence, his life
+    Survives when he is dead!
+
+    MAIDENKIRK.                                       D. R. WILLIAMSON.
+
+
+
+
+LACHLAN MACKINNON,
+
+OR "LACHLAN MAC THEARLAICH OIG," THE SKYE BARD.
+
+
+AMONG many who have distinguished themselves by their display of
+poetical talents, the subject of the present brief memoir, holds a
+prominent place as a Gaelic poet. It is true that he was but little
+known to the world, but he was much admired as a bard, and greatly
+respected as a gentleman in his native "Isle of Mist."
+
+Lachlan Mackinnon, patronimically designated "Lachlan Mac Thearlaich
+Oig," was born in the parish of Strath, Isle of Skye, in the year 1665.
+He was son of Charles Mackinnon of Ceann-Uachdarach, a cadet of the old
+family of Mackinnon of Mackinnon of Strath. His mother was Mary Macleod,
+daughter of John Macleod of Drynoch, in the same island. The poetical
+genius of _Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ showed itself almost in his infancy.
+His father, like all Skye gentlemen in those good olden times, was a
+very social and hospitable man, who seemed never to be contented unless
+he had his house at Ceann-Uachdarach full of neighbours to enjoy
+themselves in his family circle. The company were often much amused with
+little Lachlan when a mere child, seeing the facility with which he
+composed couplets on any subject prescribed to him. At the age of eight
+he possessed a vigour of mind, and a vivacity of imagination rarely to
+be met with in youths of more than double his age. A predilection for
+poetry seemed to have gained an ascendency in his mind, over all other
+pursuits and amusements of his tender years. He received the rudiments
+of his education, under a tutor in his father's family, and as his
+native island had not, at that remote period, the advantage of public
+schools of any note, the young bard was sent, at the age of sixteen, to
+the school of Nairn, which, from its reputation at the time as an
+excellent seminary, was much resorted to by gentlemen's sons from all
+parts of the north. The young Hebridean remained at Nairn continuously
+for three years, and was greatly distinguished, not merely by his bright
+talents, but by his assiduity and perseverance in improving them. His
+studious disposition and diligent application were amply testified by
+the progress made by him, and no less duly appreciated by his superiors
+in the place. His love for study was enthusiastic, particularly in
+regard to the languages. He was by far the best Greek and Latin pupil at
+the Nairn Academy. His moments of relaxation were spent in the
+composition of poems in the English language while at Nairn, although,
+undoubtedly, the Gaelic was the medium which was most congenial to his
+mind for giving expression in rhyme to his sentiments. At Nairn,
+however, he composed several beautiful little pieces, and among the
+rest a song which was much admired, to the air subsequently immortalized
+by Burns as "Auld Lang Syne." Although his productions in English were
+much admired, yet, as it was to him an acquired language, they could
+bear no comparison with his truly superior compositions in Gaelic. It is
+a matter of much regret that so few of his Gaelic poems are extant. Like
+many bards he unfortunately trusted his productions to his memory; and
+although well qualified, as a Gaelic writer, to commit them to paper,
+yet he neglected it, and hence hundreds of our best pieces in Gaelic
+poetry are lost for ever. Had they been all preserved, and given to the
+public in a collected shape, they would have raised the talented author
+to that high rank among the Celtic bards, which his genius so richly
+merited.
+
+In appearance _Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ was tall, handsome, and
+fascinating. He was distinguished by a winning gentleness and modesty of
+manners, as well as by his generous sensibility and steadfast
+friendship. His presence was courted in every company, and he was
+everywhere made welcome. Of most of the chieftains and Highland lairds
+he was a very acceptable acquaintance, while no public assembly, or
+social meeting was considered complete if that object of universal
+favour, the bard of Strath, were absent.
+
+When a very young man he was united in marriage to Flora, daughter of Mr
+Campbell of Strond, in the Island of Harris. Fondly attached to his
+native isle, he rented from his chief the farm of Breakish, with the
+grazing Island of Pabbay, at £24 sterling annually. And as an instance
+of the many changes effected by time, it may be mentioned that the same
+tenement is now rented at about £250 a-year. From what has been said of
+the bard's amiable disposition and gentle manners, it will seem no wise
+surprising that he proved to be one of the most affectionate of
+husbands, and dutiful of fathers. The happiness of the matrimonial state
+was to him, however, but of short duration. His wife, to whom he was
+greatly attached, died in the prime and vigour of life. He was rendered
+so disconsolate by means of his sudden and unexpected bereavement, that
+he took a dislike to the scene of his transient happiness, and
+relinquished his farm in Strath. Having removed from Skye, he took
+possession of a new tenement of lands from Mackenzie in Kintail. Greatly
+struck by what he considered the unrefined manners of his new neighbours
+in that quarter, and contrasting them with the more genial deportment of
+his own distinguished clan in Strath, he had the misfortune to exercise
+his poetic genius in the composition of some pungent satires and
+lampoons directed against the unpolished customs of the natives of
+Kintail. It is needless to add that by these means he gained for himself
+many enemies, and forfeited the good wishes of all around him. Finding
+himself thus disagreeably situated, after an absence of four years, he
+returned to Skye, where he was cordially received by his chief, and put
+in possession of his former farm at Breakish. After being twelve years a
+widower he went to Inverness for the purpose of visiting some of his
+schoolfellows who resided there. Previous to his leaving the capital of
+the Highlands his acquaintances there urged upon him the propriety of
+marrying a widow lady of the name of Mackintosh, whom they represented
+as being possessed of considerable means. He reluctantly complied with
+their wishes, but it became soon too apparent to him that he did so at
+the expense of his own happiness. His bride was not only penniless but
+deeply involved in debt. Next morning after his marriage he was visited
+by messengers who served him with summonses for a heavy debt due by his
+wife. In the impulse of the moment, while he held the summons in his
+hand, he seized a pen, and having taken his bride's Bible, wrote the
+following expressive lines on the blank leaf:--
+
+    "Tha'n saoghal air a roinn,
+    Tha dà dhàn ann,
+    Tha dàn ann gu bhi sona,
+    Ach tha dàn an donuis ann."
+
+This marriage proved, in every respect, an unhappy one. The lady, as a
+stepmother, was peevish, harsh, and undutiful. Her cruelty to her
+husband's children was a continual source of grief to him, and of
+unhappiness to his domestic circle. On a certain day, the lady
+quarrelling with one of her step-daughters, told her she hated to see
+her face, and that she always considered the day an unlucky one on which
+she had the misfortune to meet her first in the morning. The girl,
+inheriting no doubt a share of her father's power of repartee, quickly
+answered her stepmother, and said, "You have every cause to believe that
+it is unlucky to meet me, for I was first-foot to my dear father the
+unfortunate morning on which he left home to marry you."
+
+Even amid his misfortunes, which he endured with much forbearance,
+_Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ was renowned for his hospitality and genuine
+Highland friendship. Remote though the period be since he lived, still
+his memory is fondly cherished in the place. He was possessed of so
+endearing accomplishments, that time itself can hardly wipe away his
+memory from the minds of his countrymen and clan. Many fragments of his
+numerous songs continued for ages to be repeated in the country, but it
+is feared, from all the changes which have taken place in the
+circumstances of the natives, that these are now irretrievably lost.
+Many of his witty sayings became proverbial in the island. He was one of
+the first sportsmen in the country, and was considered one of the most
+successful deer stalkers of his day. Along with his other
+accomplishments he was an excellent performer on the violin, and in this
+respect he had no equal in the Western Isles. Of him it may be justly
+said:--
+
+    "To thee harmonious powers belong,
+    That add to verse the charm of song;
+    Soft melody with numbers join,
+    And make the poet half divine!"
+
+As a proof of Lachlan Mackinnon's loyalty, it may be mentioned that,
+quite contrary to the wishes of his chief, he went along with some other
+loyal subjects, all the way from Skye to Inverness, in the year 1717, to
+sign a congratulatory address to George I. on his succeeding to the
+British throne. He spent the remainder of his days in his native isle
+and parish, and died universally regretted in the year 1734, at the age
+of sixty-nine. His funeral was attended by most of the Highland
+chieftains, and their principal vassals. His cousin-german, Alasdair
+Dubh of Glengarry, and all his gentlemen tacksmen were then present, as
+also Macdonald of the Isles, Macleod of Dunvegan, Mackinnon of
+Mackinnon, and Mackenzie of Applecross, with their chief retainers. A
+numerous band of Highland pipers preceded the bier playing the usual
+melancholy coronach. Amidst a vast assemblage of all ranks and classes
+his remains were consigned to their kindred dust in the old churchyard
+of Gillchrist, being the burying-ground of the parish which gave him
+birth. A rude flag, with an inscription, still marks the poet's grave;
+but the memory of his many virtues will be handed down in the place to
+generations yet unborn.
+
+_Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ composed a beautiful and pathetic song which is
+still preserved, to "Generosity, Love, and Liberality." He personified
+those three, and pretended that he met them as lonely outcasts in a
+dreary glen, and addressed them:--
+
+    Latha siubhal slēibhe dhomh,
+      'S mi 'falbh leam fein gu dlùth,
+    A chuideachd anns an astar sin
+      Air gunna glaic a's cù,
+    Gun thachair clann rium anns a' ghleann,
+      A'gul gu fann chion iùil;
+    Air leam gur h-iad a b' aillidh dreach
+      A chunnacas riamh le m' shùil.
+
+    Gu'm b' ioghnadh leam mar tharladh dhoibh
+      A'm fàsach fad air chùl,
+    Coimeas luchd an aghaidhean,
+      Gu'n tagha de cheann iùil,
+    Air beannachadh neo-fhiata dhomh
+      Gu'n d' fhiaraich mi, "Cò sùd?"
+    'S fhreagair iad gu cianail mi
+      A'm brïathraibh mine ciùin.
+
+    "Iochd, a's Gràdh, a's Fiughantas,
+      'Nar triùir gur h-e ar n-ainm,
+    Clann nan uaislean urramach,
+      A choisinn cliu 's gach ball,
+    'Nuair a phàigh an fhēile cis d'an Eūg
+      'Sa chaidh i fein air chàll
+    'Na thiomnadh dh' fhàg ar n-athair sinn
+      Aig maithibh Innse-Gall."
+
+                                                           SGIATHANACH.
+
+
+
+
+FINGAL.
+
+
+IN the yellow sunset of ancient Celtic glory appear the band of warriors
+known as the Ossianic heroes. Under the magnifying and beautifying
+influence of that sunset they tower upon our sight with a stature and
+illustriousness more than human. Of these heroes, the greatest and best
+was _Fionn_ or Fingal. Unless our traditions are extensively falsified
+he was a man in whom shone all those virtues which are the boast of our
+race. The unflinching performance of duty, the high sense of honour, the
+tenderness more than woman's, and the readiness to appreciate the
+virtues of others were among his more conspicuous characteristics. Now
+that Celtic anthropology is being so extensively discussed, is it not
+remarkable that Fingal, who so truly personifies the character of that
+race, is not adduced as the representative Celt? He was a Celt to the
+very core, and Celtic character has been in no small degree moulded by
+copying his example. He was, in truth, not the _ultimus_ but the _Primus
+Gaelorum_.
+
+Nevertheless, it must be confessed that to many English readers Fingal
+is nothing but a name, and that even to most of them he looms dark and
+dim through the mist of years. Unhappily, a nature so transcendently
+humane and heroic as his is not the sort to win the admiration of the
+vulgar. Nay, so far is its simple grandeur removed above the common
+materialism of modern life that the most refined cannot, at first sight,
+appreciate its exalted loveliness.
+
+The fullest and, we believe, the truest account of him is to be found in
+Ossian's poems. That the poetry so denominated was, in substance,
+composed by Ossian we have no doubt. At any rate the descriptions of
+Fingal therein contained are not only consistent throughout, but also in
+accordance with all that we know of him from other sources. But were we
+even to adopt the absurd theory that Fingal is a creation of
+Macpherson's imagination, the intrinsic beauty of the picture well
+deserves our study.
+
+An old man retaining all the energy, but not the rashness of youth; age
+with vigour instead of decrepitude, delighting in the words of sound
+wisdom rather than the usual tattle of second childhood; and, withal, an
+old man who is prone to moralise as old men are; a man able and willing
+to do his duty in the present though his heart is left in the past; such
+is the most prominent figure in these poems. He is pourtrayed as of
+tall, athletic frame and kingly port, his majestic front and hoary locks
+surmounted by the helm and eagle plume of the Celtic kings.
+
+Though the idea of Fingal pervades most of Ossian's poems he is seldom
+introduced _in propria persona_. Even when attention is directed to him
+the poet merely and meagerly sketches the herculean outline, and leaves
+our imagination to do the rest:--
+
+    At intervals a gleam of light afar
+    Glanced from the broad, blue, studded shield of war,
+    As moved the king of chiefs in stately pride;
+    With eager gaze his eye was turned aside
+    To where the warriors' closing ranks he sees;
+    Half-grey his ringlets floated in the breeze
+    Around that face so terrible in fight
+    And features glowing now with grim delight.--_Tem. B. V._
+
+In order to introduce his hero with the greater _eclat_, the bard first
+places his friends in great straits; represents them, though brave, as
+overcome by the enemy and without hope, apart from Fingal. Both friends
+and foes speak of him in terms of respect, and even the greatest leaders
+acknowledge his superiority. When Fingal appears on the scene the poet
+rouses himself to the utmost. He piles simile on simile to give an
+adequate idea of his first charge--
+
+    Through Morven's woods when countless tempests roar,
+    When from the height a hundred torrents pour,
+    Like storm-clouds rushing through the vault of heaven,
+    As when the mighty main on shore is driven,
+    So wide, so loud, so dark, so fierce the strain
+    When met the angry chiefs on Lena's plain.
+    The king rushed forward with resistless might,
+    Dreadful as Trenmor's awe-inspiring sprite,
+    When on the fitful blast he comes again
+    To Morven, his forefather's loved domain.
+    Loud in the gale the mountain oaks shall roar,
+    The mountain rocks shall fall his face before,
+    As by the lightning's gleam his form is spied
+    Stalking from hill to hill with giant stride.
+    More terrible in fight my father seemed
+    When in his hand of might his weapon gleamed,
+    On his own youth the king with gladness thought
+    When in the furious highland wars he fought.--_Fingal B. III._
+
+The notion that Ossian drew in part, at least from real life, is
+favoured by the wonderful calmness and absence of effort evinced in
+delineating so great a character. Expressions that go far to heighten
+our admiration of Fingal are employed in a quiet matter of course way.
+"The silence of the king is terrible," is an expressive sentence. Or
+this again, "The heroes ... looked in silence on each other marking the
+eyes of Fingal."
+
+Nor are the gentler feelings less fully brought out in Ossian's
+favourite character. Nothing could speak more for his affability than
+the attachment shown by his followers. "Fear, like a vapour winds not
+among the host! for he, the king, is near; the strength of streamy
+Selma. Gladness brightens the hero. We hear his words with joy."[A]
+
+Gallantry and philanthropy we might expect to find in his composition,
+but the tenderness he frequently displays strikes us as remarkable in an
+uncivilized chief. His lamentation over the British city on the Clyde is
+as pathetic as any similar passage in our language.
+
+Another surprising trait is the generosity he invariably displays to his
+vanquished foes. All the more surprising is it that a "savage" should
+show magnanimity when the heroes of civilized Greece, Rome, and Judea,
+counted it virtuous to torture their captured enemies. "None ever went
+sad from Fingal," he says himself. Over and over he is represented as
+lamenting the death of enemies when they fall, or granting them freedom
+and his friendship when they yield--"Come to my hill of feasts," he says
+to his wounded opponent Cathmor, "the mighty fail at times. No fire am I
+to lowlaid foes. I rejoice not over the fall of the brave."
+
+A notable fact about Fingal is, that though he lived in times of war, in
+disposition he was a man of peace. "Fingal delights not in battle though
+his arm is strong." "When will Fingal cease to fight?" he complains, "I
+was born in the midst of battles, and my steps must move in blood to the
+tomb." Under the influence of this desire for peace he formally gave up
+his arms to Ossian--
+
+    My son, around me roll my byegone years,
+    They come and whisper in the monarch's ears.
+    "Why does not grey-haired Fingal rest?" they say
+    "Why does he not within his fortress stay?
+    Dost thou in battle's gory wounds delight?
+    Lovest thou the tears of vanquished men of might?"
+    Ye hoary years! I will in quiet lie,
+    Nor profit nor delight in blood have I.
+    Like blustering storms from wintry skies that roll,
+    Tears waste with grief and dreariness the soul.
+    But when I stretch myself to rest, I hear
+    The voice of war come thundering on my ear
+    Within the royal hall, with loud command,
+    To rouse and draw again th' unwilling brand.--_Tem. B. VIII._
+
+Limited as were the means of communication in those pre-telegraphic
+times the fame of such a man must have spread. Accordingly, we read of
+his name being known and respected far and near. Foreign princes speak
+of him with admiration, and refugees from distant lands seek his
+protection.
+
+But it is on the power of his name in after times that we wish more
+particularly to dwell. There have been no people who honoured their
+heroes so much as the Celts. With them _valour_ and _value_ were
+synonymous terms. Theirs was not a nobility of money, or literature, or
+æsthetics, or even of territory. Nobleness should be the qualification
+of a nobleman, and strange as it may seem, it was among the uncivilised
+Celts of Ireland and Scotland that such a character was properly
+appreciated. But they held nobleness and heroism to be identical. They
+seem to have thoroughly believed that cowardice was but the result of
+vice. A fearless man, they felt, must be a true man, and he was honoured
+accordingly. _Flath-innis_, the _Isle of the Noble_, was their only name
+for heaven. _Allail_ or _divine_ they applied to their heroic men. To
+imitate such was the old Celtic religion as it was the primitive
+religion of most other peoples.
+
+Among all the heroes whom the ancient Gael worshipped there was no name
+so influential as Fingal's. Through the ages he has been the idol and
+ideal of the Celt. His example was their rule of justice. His maxims
+were cited much as we would quote Scripture. To the youth he was held up
+as the model after which their lives should be patterned, and where
+Christianity had not yet eradicated the old creed, a _post mortem_
+dwelling with him in _Flath-innis_ was deemed no mean incentive to
+goodness. He was, in fact, the god of the Gaelic people, worshipped with
+no outward altar, but enshrined in the hearts of his admirers. How far
+the more admirable traits of Highland character may be attributed to the
+assimilating influence of the idea of Fingal we cannot decide. That our
+character as a people has been largely influenced for good by the power
+of his example we have no doubt. The bards, an order of the old Druidic
+hierarchy, became the priests of the Fingalian hero-worship. Songs,
+elegies, and poetic legends formed their service of praise. To induce
+their countrymen to reverence and imitate so great and glorious a Gael
+as Fingal was the object of many of their bardic homilies. Taking into
+account the nature and circumstances of the ancient Caledonians, we must
+conclude that from position and influence none were more suitable to
+become their ethical and æsthetical advisers than these minstrel
+ministers of the Fingalian hero-olatry.
+
+Of course such a faith could not long withstand the more generous and
+cosmopolitan spirit of Christianity, yet we venture to assert that it
+was vastly preferable in its effects to some abortions of our common
+creed. That there was a conflict between the two religions we know. As
+late as the sixteenth century a Christian ecclesiastic complains that
+the leaders of Gaelic thought of the period were heathen enough to
+delight in "stories about the Tuath de Dhanond and about the sons of
+Milesius, and about the heroes and _Fionn_ (Fingal), the son of Cumhail
+with his Fingalians ... rather than to write and to compose and to
+support the faithful words of God and the perfect way of truth."
+
+Down to the present day the name of _Fionn_ is reverenced by the less
+sophisticated Highlanders and Islanders. That his name will in future be
+more extensively, if less intensely, respected we may confidently
+predict. As men's views become more broad and just, and their feelings
+become more cultivated and refined, we may hope that a superior
+character such as Fingal will by-and-bye be appreciated. Even now he is
+widely admired and we begin to read in the signs of the times the
+fulfilment of his own words:--
+
+        When then art crumbled into dust, O! stone;
+    Lost in the moss of years around thee grown;
+    My fame, which chiefs and heroes love to praise,
+    Shall shine a beam of light to future days,
+    Because I went in steel and faced th' alarms
+    Of war, to help and save the weak in arms.--_Tem. B. VIII._
+
+                                                     MINNIE LITTLEJOHN.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: The quotations in prose are from Macpherson's translation.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3,
+January 1876, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January
+1876, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January 1876
+       A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History,
+       Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and
+       Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Alexander Mackenzie
+        Alexander Macgregor
+        Alexander Macbain
+
+Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29969]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
+
+No. III. JANUARY 1876.
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.
+
+[CONTINUED.]
+
+
+MR ARNOLD in that handsome, but slightly ambiguous admission of his,
+that the Celts in their intellectual capacity come very near the secret
+of nature and of natural magic, does not seem to imply more in reality
+than that they have a subtler sense of certain natural affinities than
+their Anglo-Saxon brethren have; that they apprehend more surely when,
+where, and how the truest impress of physical nature occurs on the
+percipient faculties of the soul, than men of a more phlegmatic
+constitution do; and that they can draw from such intuitions of their
+own a sort of inspiration, or second-sight of nature, comparable to
+prophecy, which gives their highest poetic utterance a rapt
+enthusiasm--and the accuracy of this estimate need not be disputed, but,
+so far as Ossian is concerned, it must be considerably extended. To read
+Ossian as we do, from the text of Macpherson, there was another sort of
+insight, purely scientific, into the mysteries of nature, inherited and
+expressed by him; a certain acquaintance with her hidden powers, and a
+certain augury of her possible future development, if men could only
+attain to it, far beyond the mere rapt enthusiasm of a poet, or the
+so-called second-sight of a seer. Whether this peculiar faith of his was
+derived by tradition, and if so, from whom; or whether it was the result
+of practical experiment in his own generation, is foreign for the moment
+to our present inquiry. But that it was relied upon as an endowment of
+the most gifted heroes; that it was exercised by them in extremity, as
+if to subdue nature from whom they had borrowed it, and to wrest the
+very power of destruction out of her hand; and that such practical
+conquest was sometimes achieved by them, or is said to have been
+achieved by them, is just as certain as that Macpherson's translation is
+before us now. What we refer to more especially for the present, is the
+secret of extracting or discharging electricity from the atmosphere by
+mechanical means--by the thrust of a spear, or of a sword, into the
+bosom of the low-hanging cloud, or lurid vapour, and so dislodging the
+imaginary spirit of evil by which they were supposed to be tenanted.
+Only the very best, and bravest, and wisest could prevail in such
+conflict with nature; but they did prevail, according to Ossian; and the
+weapons of their warfare, and the mode of their assault, were precisely
+similar to what an experimentalist in electricity might employ at the
+present day, or to what the Egyptians employed in the days of Moses. We
+shall not now go further back in the prosecution of this inquiry, but
+would seriously recommend the reader who has any difficulty on the
+subject to compare, at his leisure, the work of Moses on the top of
+Mount Sinai and elsewhere, with an Egyptian "rod" in his hand, and the
+exploits of Fingal in conflict with the Spirit of Loda on the heights of
+Hoy, with a sword in his hand. There might have been a far-derived and
+long traditional secret connection between the two, most edifying, or at
+least most curious, to investigate; or they might both have resulted
+from that sort of intuition which only the most gifted of any nation
+enjoy independently, re-appearing again in Franklin, and now
+familiarised to the world. Let those who doubt, or who differ on this
+point, satisfy themselves. What we are now concerned to maintain and
+prove is, that the fact is more than once described by Ossian, in
+circumstances, in situations, and with instrumentalities, which render
+the allegation of it at least indubitable. In the case above referred
+to, for example, Fingal, challenged and assaulted in a thunderstorm by
+the Spirit of Loda, encounters his antagonist with a sword, on the very
+verge of a cliff overhanging the Atlantic; and by one or two scientific
+thrusts, with incredible daring, disarms the cloud, dissipates the
+storm, and sends his atmospheric adversary shrieking down the wind with
+such violence that "Innistore shook at the sound; the waves heard it on
+the deep, and stopped on their course with fear." The scene is described
+in that well-known passage in _Carric-Thura_, which Macpherson himself
+characterises as "the most extravagant fiction in all Ossian's poems."
+
+Now the question as regards the authenticity or reliability of this very
+passage, is whether Macpherson understood the meaning of it; what it
+represented, where the conflict occurred, or how it happened? It has
+been sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere--in "Ossian and the Clyde," pp.
+311-324--that the encounter took place near the celebrated "Dwarfie
+Stone" on the western headland of Hoy in the Orkneys--a region more
+remarkable for its sudden electric gatherings and violent atmospheric
+currents than almost any other in Great Britain, and at that particular
+spot so much so, that the very scene described in Ossian has been
+selected by Walter Scott for a similar electrical display in the
+"Pirate." But of this obvious fact, and of all that is connected with it
+in his own translation, Macpherson is so ignorant that he not only does
+not point it out, but does not understand it, and cannot even conjecture
+where it was. His great antagonist Laing is equally at fault on the
+subject, and by way of exposing, as he believes, the dishonesty of
+Macpherson, endeavours to show that in patching up his account
+Macpherson had mistaken Thurso for Thura. Macpherson, in fact, knew
+nothing either about Thurso or Thura--even less than Laing did; and it
+is only in the work above cited that either the scene has been
+identified, or the encounter explained.
+
+Here, then, is a question, not of linguistic criticism, but of
+scientific fact--of geographical position, of atmospheric agency--which
+should be disposed of on its own merits, and which, like many others of
+the same sort, must ultimately transfer the whole inquiry to a much
+higher field than that of syllables and syntax.
+
+But the description in question, it may be objected, is very much
+exaggerated, and therefore cannot be relied on: which is the very
+objection Macpherson himself urged--that it is "the most extravagant
+fiction in all Ossian's poems." But if that was the case in his opinion,
+how could the passage be his own? It was easy enough either to remedy or
+explain it, if he could explain it, or not to introduce it. On the other
+hand, when rightly understood, there is no undue exaggeration in the
+account at all--not more than might be reasonably expected from a poet
+of the highest sensibility and the most vivid imagination in describing
+an incomprehensible natural phenomenon; not more, for example, than in
+"the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words" on Mount Sinai. Still it
+is not the question of descriptive exaggeration, but of scientific fact,
+that is now before us; and if the whole of the so-called conflict of
+Fingal with the Prince of the Power of the Air on Roraheid in Hoy was so
+utterly inexplicable to Macpherson, both as to place and character, that
+he speaks of it hopelessly as a story "concerning ghosts," on what
+principle of critical consistency, or of common sense, can he be said to
+have been the author of it? If the Septuagint translators, for example,
+had added a note of their own on the giving of the Law at Sinai, to the
+effect that it appeared "the most extravagant fiction" to them, at the
+same time transferring, in defiance of their own text, the entire scene
+from one end of the Red Sea to the other, would any reader in his senses
+accuse the Seventy of having fabricated not only the two chapters in
+question, but the whole Book of Exodus--even although the original had
+been now lost? Their very simplicity and ignorance would have acquitted
+them. Yet Macpherson, in similar circumstances, is to be held guilty,
+although he could have more easily cleared himself by altering or
+omitting the whole passage, than a man in London could prove by an
+_alibi_ that he had been guilty of no forgery at Inverness or Edinburgh
+six hours before! But if this hitherto incomprehensible passage in
+Ossian be genuine then the entire poem of _Carric-Thura_, which is
+identified with it in every word and syllable from beginning to end,
+must be genuine also.
+
+In the same sort of field, but without the addition of supernatural
+agency, we have another scene of scientific import in the _War of
+Inisthona_. Inisthona, according to Macpherson, was on the coast of
+Norway--he did not know where; Inisthona, according to Laing, was a
+wilful corruption of Inis-owen in Lough Foyle; Inisthona, in point of
+fact, was Iceland--as clearly and distinctly so in Macpherson's own
+text, as latitude, longitude, and physical configuration can make it;
+far more distinctly recognisable than any _Ultima Thule_ of the Romans.
+But here, in this Inisthona, we have first a fountain surrounded with
+mossy stones, in a grassy vale, at the head of a bay; then a wilderness
+of half a day's journey inland; then a lake at the end of the wilderness,
+exhaling pestilential vapours, called Lake Lano--but no volcano visible
+as yet: and in Iceland we have still the basin of the fountain,
+surrounded with its mossy stones, petrified and dried up by volcanic heat,
+at the head of the bay; we have still the dreary wilderness beyond it,
+now scorched and blackened, ending in the Plain of Thingvalla, where the
+King of Denmark was entertained more than a twelvemonth ago; we have
+still the lake beyond that, where it should be, but now relieved of its
+sulphurous vapours by eruptive jets of steam in its neighbourhood; and
+besides, we have now Mount Hecla in active operation, by whose accumulated
+fires and dreadful discharges, since Ossian's day, the whole island has
+been torn and desolated. Here, therefore, again, the same question of
+fact arises, and must be disposed of by all reasonable inquirers. In this
+one identification we have geography, geology, history, and navigation
+combined, beyond Macpherson's own comprehension--earthquakes, subterranean
+fires, latent volcanic forces; a beautiful island where there is now
+desolation; and a warlike people occupying its soil, subject to the Danes
+600 years and more before the Danes themselves are supposed to have
+discovered it. In the face of such a revelation as this, nowhere else to
+be found but in Ossian, what does it signify that the Gaelic text of
+_Inisthona_ has perished? The fact that it survives in English is only
+a greater miracle, for which we are indebted solely to the patience and
+fidelity of a man who has been called a liar and an impostor.
+
+One more miracle has yet to be added in the same field--viz., that Lake
+Lego or Lough Neagh in Ireland, and Lake Lano in Iceland, both emitting
+pestilential vapours, are geographically connected in Ossian with
+subterranean volcanic movements which pass from Ireland, by the west
+coast of Scotland, through the Orkneys to Inisthona; and thus the latest
+theories of the most accomplished geologists have been anticipated more
+than a hundred years before their announcement, by the work of a man who
+is supposed to have had no original to guide him, and who himself had
+not the remotest idea of what his own words conveyed.
+
+It remains then, after such illustrations, for those who still deny the
+authenticity of Ossian to declare whether they have ever studied him;
+and for those who still wrangle about the style of Macpherson's
+so-called Gaelic to decide whether they will continue such petty warfare
+among vowels and consonants, and ill-spelt mediæval legends, when the
+science, the history, the navigation, the atmospheric phenomena, and the
+impending volcanic changes of Western Europe fifteen hundred years ago,
+are all unveiled and detailed, with an accuracy and a minuteness beyond
+cavil or competition, in the matchless English translation before them.
+Will our most erudite grammarians never understand? Would they abandon
+Genesis, shall we say, because _Elohim_ and _Jehovah_ are sometimes
+interchanged in the text? Can they believe that any Jew, who could
+concoct a book like Genesis, did not also know that _Elohim_ was a
+plural noun? Can they any more, then, believe that a Celtic man with
+brains enough to fabricate poems like _Fingal_ and _Temora_ did not know
+that the Gaelic name for the sun was feminine? Can they see no other way
+of accounting for such alleged variations of gender, and number, and
+case, than by forgery, when the very forger himself must have seen them?
+Or do they seriously prefer some letter of the Gaelic alphabet to a law
+of nature? Will they forego the facts of an epoch, for the orthography
+of a syllable? If so, then the friends of Ossian, who is one great mass
+of facts, must turn once more to the common sense of the public, and
+leave his etymological detractors at leisure to indulge their own
+predilections, and to entertain one another.
+
+In the present aspect of the controversy, indeed, the only antagonists
+entitled to anything like a patient hearing are the respectable,
+perhaps venerable, geologists and antiquarians who still lodge or
+linger about the Roman Wall; who talk, with a solemn air, about stern
+facts; who are also fortified by the authority of Hugh Miller and Smith
+of Jordanhill, and are led on to continuous defeat on their own ground,
+under the auspices of the _Scotsman_, who knows well how to shut the
+door politely in any man's face who pursues them. These gentlemen are
+far from being either unimportant or unworthy antagonists, if they would
+only speak intelligently for themselves and not allow their credit to be
+usurped by some nameless reviewer in a newspaper, who may know less
+about the whole matter in dispute than they do about Sanscrit. But let
+them have patience. Their favourite haunts, and impregnable strongholds,
+about Dunglass and Duntocher, shall be investigated with religious care;
+and the waters of the Clyde, as high as they will honestly flow, let in
+upon them without ceremony or remorse. As for the others, who, with no
+great semblance of either grace or grammar to support them, persist in
+affirming, with point-blank stolid effrontery, that Macpherson "must
+have been an impostor," and that Ossian is a "fudge"--they may safely be
+consigned in silence to their legitimate fate.
+
+                                                     P. HATELY WADDELL.
+
+                   (_To be Concluded in our next._)
+
+
+
+
+TO PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE.
+
+A LOCHABER LILT.
+
+
+    A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!
+      (I drink it in _mountain dew_)
+    With all the kindliest greetings
+      Of a heart that is leal and true.
+    Let happen what happen may
+      With others, by land or sea;
+    For me, I vow if I drink at all,
+      I'll drink a health to thee.
+
+    A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!
+      A man of men art thou,
+    With thy lightsome step and form erect,
+      And thy broad and open brow;
+    With thy eagle eye and ringing voice
+      (Which yet can be soft and kind),
+    As wrapped in thy plaid thou passest by
+      With thy white locks in the wind!
+
+    I greet thee as poet and scholar;
+      I greet thee as wise and good;
+    I greet thee ever lord of thyself--
+      No heritage mean, by the rood!
+    I greet thee and hold thee in honour,
+      That thou bendest to no man's nod--
+    Amidst the din of a world of sin,
+      Still lifting thine eye to God!
+
+    Go, search me the world and find me;
+      Go, find me if you can,
+    From the distant Faroes with their mists and snows,
+      To the green-clad Isle of Man;
+    From John O' Groats to Maidenkirk,
+      From far Poolewe to Prague--
+    Go, find me a better or wiser man
+      Than the Laird of Altnacraig.
+
+    Now, here's to the honest and leal and true,
+      And here's to the learned and wise,
+    And to all who love our Highland glens
+      And our Bens that kiss the skies;
+    And here's to the native Celtic race,
+      And to each bright-eyed Celtic fair;
+    And here's to the Chief of Altnacraig--
+      And hurrah! for the Celtic Chair!
+
+                                                       NETHER-LOCHABER.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL SIR ALAN CAMERON, K.C.B.,
+
+COLONEL 79th CAMERON HIGHLANDERS.
+
+
+A POPULAR writer[A] of the past generation, in some introductory
+observations to his historical essay, makes the following on Scotland
+and its natives:--Considering the limited population and extent of that
+country, it has made a distinguished figure in history. No country in
+modern times has produced characters more remarkable for learning,
+valour, or ability, or for knowledge in the most important arts, both of
+peace and of war; and though the natives of that formerly independent,
+and hitherto unconquered kingdom, have every reason to be proud of the
+name of _Britons_, which they have acquired since the Union; yet they
+ought not to relinquish all remembrance of the martial achievements, and
+the honourable characteristics of their ancestors. Acting on the
+recommendation embodied in the foregoing quotation; and as the
+conductors of the _Celtic Magazine_ have intimated their intention of
+making biographies form occasionally part of its contents, the following
+sketch of one who, in his day was not the least distinguished among our
+Highland countrymen, but of whose eminent services to his country,
+little or nothing has appeared, may prove interesting. Biography is
+admitted to be one of the most interesting sections of literature. We
+therefore trust that this feature in the Magazine will be appreciated.
+The field will be found extensive, inasmuch that, happily for the
+country, its benefactors have been numerous, the record of whose deeds
+deserve to be remembered in this Celtic periodical for the
+entertainment, and may be, the emulation of its readers.
+
+The details of the life and public services of the gallant gentleman now
+submitted, and deserving record, are supplied partly from oral
+information collected at intervals, and partly from documents received
+by the writer, but which, although imperfect, it is hoped may be
+acceptable, even at this distance since the lifetime of the subject.
+
+The absence of any adequate notice of Sir Alan Cameron's services, save
+that in a couple of pages of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ at his death
+(1828) may be ascribed much to his own reticence in supplying
+information respecting them. Sir John Philliphart and Colonel David
+Stewart, when collecting materials for their respective "Military
+Annals," expressed their regret that Sir Alan's reply to their
+applications for particulars of his life and career was of the most
+meagre nature. Although in common with the majority of other
+distinguished men, averse to giving publicity to the incidents of his
+life, he was otherwise than reticent with his friends, and was never
+happier than when surrounded by them. His house in Gloucester Place was
+a rendezvous during many years for his companions in arms, and his
+"Highland cousins" (as he fondly termed them) were always received with
+a genial welcome. Notwithstanding the general absence of his name from
+unofficial publications, it may be affirmed, without hesitation, that in
+his day few were better known, and there was none whose fame stood
+higher than _Ailean an Earrachd_. In the army he was held in universal
+popularity, where, in consequence of his familiar habit of addressing
+the Irish and Highland soldiers with the Gaelic salute of "_Cia mar tha
+thu_," he was known as "Old cia mar tha." Indeed, he is so styled in Mr
+Lever's novel of "Charles O'Malley," where he is represented (vol. 1,
+chap, x.) as one of the friends of General Sir George Dashwood. Another
+writer (Miss Sinclair's "Scotland and the Scotch") refers to him as "a
+frequent visitor at her father's house in London, and a celebrity of the
+past generation who was said to have been one of the principals in the
+last duel fought with broadswords; and also known to his friends for the
+more than hearty grasp he shook their hands with." These distinctions,
+no doubt, combined many incidents for their existence. A tragic
+adventure at the outset of his career; his imprisonment during the
+American War; and afterwards his services with the Highlanders
+throughout the wars of the period. He was remarkable for the immense
+size and powerful structure of his person. In a verse from one of the
+many Gaelic songs written in honour of _Fear an Earrachd_, alluding to
+his majestic form and figure when in the Highland costume, the bard
+says:--
+
+    Nuair theid thu 'n uidheam Gaidheil
+    Bu mhiann le Ban-Righ sealladh dhiot,
+    Le t-osan is math fiaradh,
+    Do chalp air fiamh na gallinné:
+    Sporan a bhruic-fhiadhaich,
+    Gun chruaidh shnaim riamh ga theannachadh,
+    Gur tric thu tarruing iall as
+    'S ga riachaidh a measg aineartaich.
+
+He was the firm friend of the soldier, and considered every man in his
+regiment committed to his personal care. In health he advised them; in
+sickness he saw that their wants were supplied; and once any became
+disabled, he was incessant in his efforts till he secured a pension for
+them. Numerous are the stories told of the encounters between Sir Harry
+Torrens (Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief) and himself for
+his persistent applications for pensions and promotions. These poor
+fellows, for whom he was never tired of interceding, were naturally
+grateful for his fatherly feeling towards them. Such is an outline of
+the characteristics of the subject of the following Biographical sketch.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE sires of the subject of our memoir were of the tribe of Camerons'
+known as _Sliochd Eoghainn 'ic Eoghainn_, and descended directly from
+the parent stock of the chiefs of the clan, to whom they stood next in
+relationship after the Fassiferns. The lands assigned for their
+occupation, and on which they lived from the earliest settlement of the
+Camerons in Lochaber, were within a short distance of the castle of the
+chiefs, and the homestead of Sir Alan's family was named _Earrachd_, and
+situated on an elevated plateau at the entrance of _Gleann Laoidh_ (Glen
+Loy) which leads off in a westerly direction. It is close to, and seen
+from, the banks of that portion of the Caledonian Canal between
+Gairlochy and Banavie Locks.
+
+The parents of Alan were Donald Cameron and _Marsali_ (Marjory) MacLean
+(of the family of Drimnin in Morvern). Two incidents connected with the
+infancy of both father and son are peculiarly remarkable. The father was
+an infant in the arms of his mother when she went to the gathering place
+to support the Earl of Mar (1715) to bid farewell to her husband the day
+the clan left; and Alan was an infant in the arms of his mother when
+_his_ father marched out with the clan to meet Prince Charles at
+Glenfinnan (1745). The battle of Sheriffmuir ended the career of Alan's
+grandfather, and the disasters on the field of Culloden made the father
+a wanderer from his hearth and home for the next three years, while his
+family were subjected during that time to cruelties and indignities,
+which were a disgrace to men calling themselves the soldiers of the
+king. Domiciliary visits were made at frequent intervals, and on every
+occasion numbers of cattle were driven off the lands for the use of the
+garrison at Fort-William. These spoliations continued for several months
+after the _rising_ was suppressed, and proved ruinous to the poor people
+whose only crime was that they risked their lives in support of the
+claims of one whom they believed to be the rightful heir to the Crown of
+the United Kingdom. Their descendants, a quarter of a century
+afterwards, risked their lives in another cause with equal fidelity and
+bravery, asserting the rights and defending the honour of the British
+Crown. It is known that the Clan Cameron was the first to appear in
+support of the standard of the Prince. The gathering place of the clan
+was at _Drochaid Laoidh_, and there ten of the _twelve_ tribes promptly
+answered the _Cothionnal_ "_Thigibh a chlann na 'n con 's gheobh sibh
+feoil._" The absentees were, the Camerons of Fassifern, and the Camerons
+of Glen Nevis; the proverbial caution of the first forbade their
+adherence, while the influence of the Whig Clan Grant prevailed with the
+latter. The defection of the Fassiferns gave the place of second in
+command, or Lieutenant of the clan, to Cameron of _Earrachd_ (Alan's
+father). The clan turned out 600, but these were considerably augmented
+a few days afterwards. After a spirited address from the chief (the
+"gentle Lochiel"), the first march of that eventful movement commenced
+with pipers playing and banners flying, wending their way with steady
+demeanour and elastic step up Glen Loy, and over the hills that
+separated them from Glenfinnan.
+
+Many of the chiefs of Lochiel were, in addition to being men of great
+military renown and martial ardour, shrewd politicians. They encouraged
+other septs to dwell on their lands that they might be serviceable to
+assist them in keeping the jealous or more turbulent spirits of their
+own clansmen in subjection. At any rate, with the Camerons in this
+campaign, a third was composed of Maclachlans, Macmillans, Kennedies,
+Macphees, Mackinnons, &c.
+
+The Governor of the garrison at Fort-William having heard of the
+intended gathering at Glenfinnan, sent out a company of soldiers by way
+of reconnoitring the proceedings. To avoid observance they followed a
+devious path over the hills, and most opportunely fell in with the
+Camerons, by whom they were surrounded, and without much difficulty made
+prisoners. Besides the _eclat_ of this the first victory, the arms thus
+possessed were of considerable advantage to the Highlanders, most of
+whom were miserably equipped for the exigencies of the campaign.
+
+A most cordial reception was given to Lochiel and his clan by the
+Prince, after which the Marquis of Tullibardine unfurled the standard,
+amidst unbounded enthusiasm. It was made of white and blue silk.
+Meanwhile the Laird of Keppoch was observed advancing with a contingent
+of 300 of his Macdonells. At the head of the diminutive force thus made
+up, Prince Charles embarked on a contest with a power the most
+formidable in Europe. And the daring of this small band was even more
+conspicuous when they at once determined to march direct on the capital
+of the kingdom. Glenfinnan, formed not unlike an amphitheatre, and easy
+of access for all parts of the Western Highlands, was admirably fitted
+for the rendezvous.
+
+The morning march of the little army took the route alongside of an arm
+of the sea named Lochiel (the same from which the chief takes his modern
+title) to Corpach. Here they encamped the first night, afterwards
+continuing their way up the Braes of Lochaber, Blair Athole, and towards
+the City of Perth, which they occupied as an intermediate resting place.
+A few days further march brought them within a short distance of
+Edinburgh. On nearing the capital a halt was made at Duddingston, and a
+council was held, at which it was decided to detach Lochiel's force to
+make the advance and demand the surrender of the city. The Camerons
+having been the first arrivals at Glenfinnan, may have been the cause of
+this selection. Lochiel having received some injury from a fall off his
+horse on the journey, he was unable to accompany his clansmen. Cameron
+of Earrachd consequently succeeded to the command of this important
+mission, and its success is matter of history. The events of the '45 are
+introduced into the career of Alan (the son) somewhat irrelevantly, but
+only to connect the latter with the singular incident that sixty-two
+years afterwards it fell to _his_ lot to have been ordered by Sir Arthur
+Wellesley to take possession of the Citadel of Copenhagen (1807). Taking
+leave now of Prince Charles and his Highlanders, with their fortunes and
+their failures, the narrative of Alan Cameron will proceed without
+further divergence.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IT was during these turbulent times that Alan Cameron passed his
+infantile years--he was four years of age before he saw his father, and,
+although it was hoped that the settlement of the difficulties which had
+existed would favour his career in life, exempt from the toils and
+strifes of war, it was not so ordained, as the narrative will prove.
+
+Alan was the oldest son of a family of three sons and three daughters,
+some of whom found meet employment subsequently in his regiment. Their
+education was conducted as customary in those days by resident tutors
+from Aberdeen and St Andrews. With one of these Alan, on reaching a
+suitable age, went to the latter University for one or two sessions to
+complete his education. As the oldest son, it was intended that on
+arriving at a certain age he should relieve his father of the care and
+management of the lands and stock, and become the responsible
+representative of the family at home; while it was arranged that of the
+other sons, Donald was to enter the naval service of the Dutch East
+India Company, and the youngest, Ewan, was to find a commission in one
+of the Fencible Corps of the county of Argyll. But this arrangement was
+not to be, especially as regards the eldest and youngest sons. A
+circumstance of melancholy interest occurred before the former had taken
+to the succession of the farm, or the other had arrived at the age to be
+an effective officer of his regiment, which had the effect of exactly
+reversing these intentions. The occurrence referred to was of a tragical
+nature, and caused the utmost sensation among the families of the
+district, inasmuch as relationship was so general there that whatever
+brought affliction to the hearth of one family, would leave its portion
+also at the threshold of the others. Alan, like other youths, employed
+much of his juvenile years in the sports of a Highland country
+life--fox-hunting, deer-stalking, and fishing for salmon on the Lochy;
+at all of which he was more than ordinarily successful. The nearest
+house to his father's was that of another Cameron--chieftain of a
+considerable tribe (_Mac Ile' Onaich_ or Sliochd Ile' Onaich), who had
+recently died of wounds received at Culloden. His widow and children
+occupied the house at Strone. The lady is reputed to have been very
+handsome, and would apparently answer _Donachadh Ban's_ description of
+_Isabel og an or fhuilt bhuidhe_, leastways, to borrow a word from the
+Cockney--she was styled _par excellance_, _a Bhanntrach Ruadh_. Alan, like
+a friendly kinsman, was most generous in sharing the successes of his
+gun and rod with the widowed lady, for which, no doubt, she expressed
+her acknowledgments to the youthful sportsman. The course of this
+commendable neighbourship was rather unexpectedly interrupted by some
+words of misunderstanding which occurred between Alan and a gentleman
+(also a Cameron) who was closely related to the widow's late husband. He
+was known as _Fear Mhorsheirlich_; had been _out_ in the '45 when quite
+a youth, and escaped to Holland, from which he had only returned a few
+months previous to the incident of this narrative. Contemporaries spoke
+of him as being most accomplished, and of gallant bearing. The real
+nature of the dispute has not descended sufficiently authentic to
+justify more minute reference than that rumour assigned it to have been
+an accusation that Alan was imprudently intimate with the handsome widow
+of Strone (_a Bhanntrach Ruadh_). The delicate insinuation was resented
+by Alan in language probably more plain than polite. Mr Cameron was
+Alan's senior by some twenty years or so, but notwithstanding this, his
+high spirit could not brook the rough retort of the accused; and, much
+to Alan's confusion, the result was that he received a peremptory demand
+to apologise or arrange a meeting for personal satisfaction. As he
+declined to return the one, he was obliged to grant the desperate
+alternative. Reading this account of men going out to engage in personal
+combat for a cause so small, will lead us to consider that such a result
+ought to have been prevented by the interposition of friends. But it
+must not be overlooked that the customs of the times are very much
+ameliorated from what prevailed in those days (1772). It is probable
+that even then if the management of the affair had been confided to
+skilful diplomatists the meeting might have been averted. Friends of
+such conciliating habits were either not at hand, or they were not
+consulted; and, as men equal in high spirits, the principals could not
+volunteer any compromise. Alan's chief anxiety was how to keep the event
+secret from his parents and family, therefore, he quietly repaired to a
+relative to request his attendance the following morning as his friend
+for the occasion. It is said that this gentleman used his utmost powers
+of dissuasion, although unsuccessful--determination had, in the interval
+of a few hours, become too settled for alteration. Alan, as the
+challenged, was, according to duelling etiquette, entitled to the choice
+of weapons and place of meeting. Although the pistol had in a measure
+superseded the rapier in England, the broadsword remained the favourite
+weapon in the north when required for the purpose of personal
+_satisfaction_. Highlanders had always a preference for the weapon named
+by Ossian--_An Lann tanna_--and by the modern bards--_Tagha nan Arm_.
+Alan decided on making choice of the steel blade, and named a certain
+obscure spot on the banks of the Lochy for the meeting on the following
+day at the grey hour of the morning. His difficulty now was how to get
+possession of one of these implements of war without exciting suspicion
+or inquiries. They numbered more than one in the armory of every
+Highland household, and in the case of those in his father's house they
+were preserved with a care due to articles which had been often used
+with effect in the past. Among them was one which had been _out_ in the
+campaigns of 1689 (Dundee's), 1715 (Mar's), and in 1745-6. It was of
+Spanish manufacture, and remarkable for the length and symmetry of its
+blade, in consequence of which it received the sobriquet of _Rangaire
+Riabhach_.[B] In his failure to find the keys of the arms depository, he
+bethought him to make a confident and enlist the sympathies of an
+elderly lady, who had been a member of the family since the days of his
+childhood. The aged Amazon not only promised her aid, but highly
+approved, and even encouraged, the spirit of her youthful relative.
+Having access to the keys of the armory, the _Rangaire_ was soon in
+Alan's hands, and with it he repaired to the place appointed, "to
+vindicate his own honour and give _satisfaction_ to his antagonist."
+
+The time of year when this event took place was in the early days of
+autumn. Daylight and the combatants arrived on the scene together. Vague
+particulars of the preliminaries between them have been variously
+retailed, but they are not necessary to the narrative, and therefore not
+referred to. The fact that the elder Cameron was reputed to be a skilled
+swordsman, also that it was not the first time he had met his foes in
+the field, may have had some effect on the nerves of his younger
+opponent, but there was no outward indication of it. The home-taught
+countryman, however, must have felt that he was standing face to face
+with no ordinary opponent. Alan, like the generality of young men, had
+such practice in the use of the weapon as to make him acquainted with
+the _cuts_ and _guards_. The superiority of Mr Cameron was at first
+apparent and proved, inasmuch as he not only kept himself for some time
+uninjured, but inflicted a severe cut on Alan's left arm. This blow may
+be said to have brought the conflict to its sudden and fatal
+termination. The pain, together with the humiliation, roused Alan's
+wrath to desperation. It became manifest to the only two friends
+present, that the life of one, if not of the two combatants, would be
+sacrificed; but they found themselves quite powerless to restrain the
+rage of the wounded principal. Their anticipations were not long in
+being confirmed. The elder Cameron fell from a blow delivered on the
+head by the powerful arm of his opponent. The force may be imagined when
+it is stated that it was what is known as No. 7 cut, and that the
+wounded man's sword in defending was forced into his own forehead. He
+lived just long enough to reach Strone house--a mile or so distant. It
+is impossible, except to those who have experienced a similar trial, to
+estimate the state of feeling such a painful scene produced on the three
+now remaining on the field. Time, however, was not to be trifled with,
+for, although, there were no "men in blue" to make prisoners of the
+breakers of the peace; yet the vanquished combatant had friends who
+would not hesitate to take life for life. Alan's _achates_ at once
+thought of that probability, or of revenge in some form. They,
+therefore, hurried him away from the field and across the river Lochy. A
+short consultation decided that he should remove himself entirely from
+the Cameron country for the time being. This was concurred in by Alan,
+who girded his claymore and determined on making direct for his uncle's
+house in Morvern--(Maclean of Drimnin)--distant about sixty miles, where
+he arrived without resting or drawing breath. The advice of his counsel,
+and the decision arrived at, proved to be not unnecessary, as the sequel
+proved. The fallen man was one of the cadets of a numerous tribe, and
+they would naturally, in accordance with the habit of the times, seek to
+avenge the death of their kinsman. They sought for the slayer of their
+friend with diligence and zeal. Their search was far and wide; but,
+fortunately for the fugitive, and thanks to the vigilance of his
+relatives, his pursuers were defeated in their attempt to capture their
+intended victim. The consternation of the uncle (Drimnin), on learning
+the cause of his nephew's sudden visit, may be surmised; but what was
+done could not be undone. When the Laird was satisfied with Alan's
+version, that _Morsheirlich_ fell in fair fight, brought about by
+himself, his displeasure somewhat relented. Affection and sympathy
+mingled in the old Laird's bosom, and he decided to befriend his
+unfortunate nephew at all hazard. It was conjectured that the search of
+the avengers would be directed towards this district, where Alan's
+relatives were numerous, and where he would likely betake himself in
+this emergency. That he might elude his pursuers with greater certainty,
+the Laird of Drimnin had him escorted across the Sound of Mull by some
+trusty kinsmen, to the charge of another Maclean (Pennycross), and with
+whom he was to remain until he received further instructions respecting
+his future destination. The grief and revenge of _Morsheirlich's_
+friends had not yet subsided, and would not, for years to come, so that
+Alan would be unwise to return to his native home, or place himself in
+their path.
+
+The Collector of His Majesty's Customs at the Port of Greenock was an
+immediate relation to the Laird of Drimnin by marriage, and a
+correspondence was entered on with him with the view of ascertaining his
+opinion as to what was best to be done for Alan. Negotiations occupied
+more time for their conduct at that time than in the present day; at any
+rate nothing satisfactory was proposed to Alan, so that for a couple of
+years he continued wandering up and down the island of Mull, and through
+the glens of Morvern, entirely under the guidance of his uncle. At last
+a request came from the Collector to send the fugitive to him, that he
+might find employment for him in his own office. The uncle decreed,
+rather against Alan's grain, that the offer of clerkship should
+meanwhile be accepted. He remained in this occupation for several
+months, until he received an invitation from another friend residing in
+Leith. This gentleman wrote to say that there was now an opportunity of
+giving him service in an enterprise likely to be congenial to "a man of
+metal" such as he conceived Alan to be. The war of American Independence
+had commenced, and the employment which the Leith friend proposed was
+that Alan should join a privateer which was fitting out in an English
+port, armed with letters of marque, to capture and destroy American
+shipping. Alan answered the invitation by repairing to Leith in person
+with all speed. The nature of the service offered, however, did not
+accord with his ideas of honourable warfare; in fact, he considered it
+more akin to piracy, and not such as a gentleman should take part in. He
+had no affection, he said, for clerkship, but he had still less for the
+life of a pirate.
+
+While Alan was oscillating in this manner, he learned that another
+relative of his mother's, Colonel Alan Maclean of Torloisk, who had
+emigrated to one of the North American colonies some years previously,
+had received a commission to embody a regiment of those of his
+countrymen who had become residents on free-grants of land at the same
+time with himself. To this gentleman Alan decided on going. Soldiering
+was more genial to his nature than marine freebooting, and he calculated
+on Colonel Maclean's assistance in that direction. (This Colonel
+Maclean's grand-daughter was Miss Clephane Maclean, afterwards
+Marchioness of Northampton.) Arrived in America, Alan was received
+kindly by his relative, and being a soldier himself he viewed the past
+event in Alan's life as of a nature not entirely without a certain
+amount of recommendation to a wanderer in search of fame. Alan was not
+long in the country when Colonel Maclean added him to his list of
+volunteers, in a body, which was soon afterwards enrolled as the "Royal
+Highland Emigrant Corps."
+
+                         (_To be Continued._)
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Sir John Sinclair.]
+
+[Footnote B: Brown or brindled wrangler.]
+
+
+
+
+A. R. wants to know "the best standard for Gaelic orthography?"
+
+CABAR-FEIDH would like to know if any of Grant's [_Bard Mor an
+t-Slagain_] Poems were ever published? If so, where? and by whom? It is
+believed many of his pieces, which were famous in his day, are still
+known in the Lochbroom and Dundonnell districts. _Cabar_ requests that
+any of the readers of the _Celtic Magazine_ to whom any of the poems are
+known would kindly forward them for publication. Grant knew more
+Ossianic poetry than any man of his day--1746 to 1842. Any information
+regarding him would be of interest.
+
+MACAOIDH enquires to what sept of the clan the famous pipers--the
+Mackays of Gairloch--belonged, and how did they find their way to that
+part of the country? Are there any of their descendants still living in
+this country or in North British America, where the last famous piper of
+the race emigrated? The "Blind Piper" and bard was the most famous of
+this remarkable family, and was a pupil in the celebrated College of the
+Macrimmon's in Skye.
+
+
+
+
+REPLY TO "GLENGARRY'S" QUERY.--There are words in English to
+_Piobaireachd Mhic Ranuil_ or _Cilliechriost_, and they, with
+particulars of the occasion on which the tune was composed, will appear
+in the next instalment of the HIGHLAND CEILIDH in the _Celtic
+Magazine_.
+
+
+
+
+THE HIGHLAND CEILIDH.
+
+BY ALASTAIR OG.
+
+[CONTINUED.]
+
+
+ON the conclusion of the "Spell of Cadboll" Norman received the hearty
+and unanimous congratulations of the circle. The frail old bard, pulling
+himself together, got up, went across the room, and shook him heartily
+with both hands. This special honour was a most unusual one. It was
+clear that _Alastair_ was just in the mood when a little persuasion
+would suffice to get him to recite one of his own compositions. This he
+was generally very chary of doing, but Norman getting the hint from one
+of his immediate neighbours to ask the bard a special favour on this
+occasion at once begged the honour of hearing one of the bard's
+compositions from his own lips. The venerable old man bent himself
+forward, began to work the fingers of both hands and beat time on his
+leg as on a chanter, humming a quiet _cronan_. This was his usual
+practice when composing or reciting poetry, and it was at once seen that
+he would consent. "I will give you," says he, "a _Marbh-rann_, or Elegy
+which no one ever heard, and which I have recently composed to the late
+'Bailie Hector' of Dingwall, a son of my late esteemed friend
+'Letterewe,' on condition that you, Sir, will give us another story when
+I am done." Norman at once agreed, and the bard commenced as follows:--
+
+
+MARBHRANN.
+
+DO BHAILIDH EACHAINN, INBHIR-FEOTHARAN, MAC FEAR LEITIR-IUGH.
+
+          AIR FONN--"_'S mi 'm shuidhe 'm 'onar._"
+
+    O 's truagh an sgeula tha 'n diugh ri fheutainn,
+    Thug gal air ceudan a measg an t-sluaigh,
+    Mu Eachainn gleusta 'bha fearail, feumail,
+    Gun da ghlac an t-eug thu a threun-laoich chruaidh:
+    'S mor bron do Chinnidh, mar eoin na tuinne
+    Tha 'n cronan duilich 's an ullaidh uath
+    'S bho nach duisg an gair thu, 's nach cluinn thu 'n gailich,
+    Se chlaoidh do chairdean do bhas cho luath.
+
+    Tha do chairdean cianal, tha bron da'lionadh,
+    Tha 'n inntinn pianail bho n' ghlac thu 'm bas,
+    'S iad a ghnath fuidh thiorachd 's nach faigh iad sgial ort,
+    Ach thu bhi iosal an ciste chlar
+    Bu tu ceann na riaghailt 'us lamh na fialachd,
+    A sheoid gun fhiaradh, gun ghiamh gun sgath,
+    'Sa nis bho 'n thriall thu, 's sinn lan dha d' iargan,
+    'S nach eil 's na criochan fear a lionas d' ait.
+
+    Bha d' aite miaghail 's gach cas an iarrt' thu,
+    A reir mo sgiala bu teirc do luach:
+    Bha thu pairteach, briathrach, ri ard 's ri iosal,
+    Gun chàs gun dioghaltas air an tuath.
+    Bha foghlum Iarl' agad 's ciall fear riaghlaidh
+    Bu mhor an diobhail nach da liath do ghruag,
+    'S ann a bharc an t-aog ort mas d' thainig aois ort,
+    A ghnuis bha faoilteach air chaochladh snuaidh.
+
+    Bha do shnuadh cho aillidh 's nach fhaodainn s' aireamh,
+    Mar ròs a gharaidh ri maduinn dhriuchd,
+    Bu chuachach, faineach, do ghruag an caradh--
+    Mar theudan clarsaich an' inneal ciuil
+    Do ghruaidh dhearg dhathte, do shuil mar dhearcag,
+    Fuidh ghnuis na maise bu tapaidh sùrd
+    Rasg aotram, geanach, bho 'm b'fhaoilteach sealladh
+    Beul muirneach tairis, 's deud thana dhluth.
+
+    O! 's dluth bha buaidhean a stri mu'n cuairt duit,
+    Cha b' eol dhomh suairceas nach robh 'do chrè
+    Bha thu ciallach, narach, 's tu briathrach, pairteach,
+    'S tu rianail, daimheil, ri d' chairdean fhein:
+    Bu tu firean, fallain, bha rioghail, geanach,
+    'Sa leoghann tapaidh bu ghlaine beus;
+    Bhiodh min 'us gairg' air, bhiodh sith 'us fearg air,
+    Nuair chit' air falbh e bhiodh colg na cheum.
+
+    Se do cheum bu bhrisge 's bu shubailt iosgaid,
+    Bha moran ghibhtean ri d' leasraidh fuaight.
+    Bu tu glas nan Gaidheal, bho mhuir gu braighe
+    Gu crioch Chinntaile 's na tha bho thuath.
+    O! 's lionmhor oigfhear tha 'n diugh gu bronach
+    A fasgadh dhorn, 'us ruith-dheoir le ghruaidh,
+    'Bhiodh dana, sgaiteach, gun sgath gun ghealtachd,
+    Na 'm bu namhaid pears' bheireadh Eachainn bh' uainn.
+
+    Bha thu mor an onair, bu mhor do mholadh,
+    Bu mhor do shonas, 's tu gun dolaidh gibht'
+    Bu mhor a b'fhiach thu, bu mhor do riaghailt,
+    Bu mhor do mhiagh ann an ciall 's an tuigs',
+    Bu mhor do churam, bu mhor do chuisean,
+    Bu mhor do chliu ann an cuirt 'sa meas,
+    Bu mhor do stata, 's bu mhor do nadur,
+    'S cha mhor nach d'fhag thu na Gaidheil brist'.
+
+    O! 's priseil, laidir, a ghibhte 'dh-fhag sinn--
+    'S mios'da Ghaeltachd bàs an t-seoid,
+    Tha Mhachair tursach bho n' chaidh an uir ort,
+    'S tu dh-fhuasgladh cuis do gach cuirt mu bhord,
+    Bha 'Ghalldachd deurach ri cainnt ma d' dheighinn,
+    Gu ruig Dun-eidin nan steud 's nan cleoc,
+    'S cha ghabhainn gealtachd, air son a chantuinn,
+    Gur call do Bhreatuinn nach eil thu beo.
+
+    'S tu chraobh a b'aillidh bha 'n tus a gharaidh
+    'S i ùr a fas ann fuidh bhlath 's fuidh dhos,
+    O! 's truagh a dh-fhag thu ma thuath na Gaidheil
+    Mar uain gun mhathair ni'n sgath ri frois,
+    'S tu b'urr' an tearnadh bho chunnart gabhaidh,
+    'S an curaidh laidir, chuireadh spairn na tost,
+    Tha 'n tuath gu craiteach, 's na h-uaislean càsai,
+    'S bho 'n chaidh am fàd ort 's truagh gair nam bochd.
+
+"_Ma ta 's math sibh fhein Alastair Bhuidhe; 's grinn comhnard a
+bhardachd a th'air a mharbhrainn, ach cha 'n eil i dad nas fhearr na
+thoill brod a Ghaidheil agus am fior dhuin' uasal dha'n d'rinn sibh i,"
+arsa Ruairidh Mor._ (Well done yourself, _Alastair Buidhe_, the
+composition of the Elegy is beautifully elegant and even, but not any
+better than the memory of the best of Highlanders and the truest of
+gentlemen, to whom you composed it, deserved, said Big Rory). This was
+the general verdict of the circle.
+
+Norman was now called upon to fulfil his part of the arrangement, which
+he promptly did by giving the Legend, of which the following is a
+translation:--
+
+
+THE RAID OF CILLIECHRIOST.
+
+THE ancient Chapel of Cilliechriost, in the Parish of Urray, in Ross,
+was the scene of one of the bloodiest acts of ferocity and revenge that
+history has recorded. The original building has long since disappeared,
+but the lonely and beautifully situated burying-ground is still in use.
+The tragedy originated in the many quarrels which arose between the two
+chiefs of the North Highlands--Mackenzie of Kintail and Macdonald of
+Glengarry. As usual, the dispute was regarding land, but it were not
+easy to arrive at the degree of blame to which each party was entitled,
+enough that there was bad blood between these two paladins of the north.
+Of course, the quarrel was not allowed to go to sleep for lack of action
+on the part of their friends and clansmen. The Macdonalds having made
+several raids on the Mackenzie country, the Mackenzies retaliated by the
+spoiling of Morar with a large and overwhelming force. The Macdonalds,
+taking advantage of Kenneth Mackenzie's visit to Mull with the view to
+influence Maclean to induce the former to peace, once more committed
+great devastation in the Mackenzie country, under the leadership of
+Glengarry's son Angus. From Kintail and Lochalsh the clan of the
+Mackenzies gathered fast, but too late to prevent Macdonald from
+escaping to sea with his boats loaded with the foray. A portion of the
+Mackenzies ran to Eilean-donan, while another portion sped to the narrow
+strait of the Kyle between Skye and the mainland, through which the
+Macdonalds, on their return, of necessity, must pass. At Eilean-donan
+Lady Mackenzie furnished them with two boats, one ten-oared and one
+four-oared, also with arrows and ammunition. Though without their chief,
+the Mackenzies sallied forth, and rowing towards Kyleakin, lay in wait
+for the approach of the Macdonalds. The first of the Glengarry boats
+they allowed to pass unchallenged, but the second, which was the
+thirty-two-oared galley of the chief was furiously attacked. The
+unprepared Macdonalds rushing to the side of the heavily loaded boat,
+swamped the craft, and were all thrown into the sea, where they were
+despatched in large numbers, and those who escaped to the land were
+destroyed "by the Kintail men, who killed them like _sealchagan_."[A]
+The body of young Glengarry was secured and buried in the very door-way
+of the Kirk of Kintail, that the Mackenzies might trample over it
+whenever they went to church. Time passed on, Donald _Gruamach_, the
+old chief, died ere he could mature matters for adequate retaliation of
+the Kyle tragedy and the loss of his son Angus. The chief of the clan
+was an infant in whom the feelings of revenge could not be worked out by
+action; but there was one, his cousin, who was the Captain or Leader in
+whom the bitterest thoughts exercised their fullest sway. It seems now
+impossible that such acts could have occurred, and it gives one a
+startling idea of the state of the country then, when such a terrible
+instance of private vengeance could have been carried out so recent as
+the beginning of the seventeenth century, without any notice being taken
+of it, even, in those days of general blood and rapine. Notwithstanding
+the hideousness of sacrilege and murder, which, certainly, in magnitude
+of atrocity, was scarcely ever equalled, there are many living, even in
+the immediate neighbourhood, who are ignorant of the cause of the act.
+Macranuil of Lundi, captain of the clan, whose personal prowess was only
+equalled by his intense ferocity, made many incursions into the
+Mackenzie country, sweeping away their cattle, and otherwise doing them
+serious injury; but these were but preludes to that sanguinary act on
+which his soul gloated, and by which he hoped effectually to avenge the
+loss of influence and property of which his clan were deprived by the
+Mackenzies, and more particularly wash out the records of death of his
+chief and clansmen at Kyleakin. In order to form his plans more
+effectually he wandered for some time as a mendicant among the
+Mackenzies in order the more successfully to fix on the best means and
+spot for his revenge. A solitary life offered up to expiate the manes of
+his relatives was not sufficient in his estimation, but the life's blood
+of such a number of his bitterest foemen, and an act at which the
+country should stand aghast was absolutely necessary. Returning home he
+gathered together a number of the most desperate of his clan, and by a
+forced march across the hills arrived at the Church of Cilliechriost on
+a Sunday forenoon, when it was filled by a crowd of worshippers of the
+clan Mackenzie. Without a moments delay, without a single pang of
+remorse, and while the song of praise ascended to heaven from fathers,
+mothers, and children, he surrounded the church with his band, and with
+lighted torches set fire to the roof. The building was thatched, and
+while a gentle breeze from the east fanned the fire, the song of praise,
+mingled with the crackling of the flames, until the imprisoned
+congregation, becoming conscious of their situation, rushed to the doors
+and windows, where they were met by a double row of bristling swords.
+Now, indeed, arose the wild wail of despair, the shrieks of women, the
+infuriated cries of men, and the helpless screaming of children, these
+mingled with the roaring of the flames appalled even the Macdonalds, but
+not so Allan Dubh. "Thrust them back into the flames" cried he, "for he
+that suffers ought to escape alive from Cilliechriost shall be branded
+as a traitor to his clan"; and they were thrust back or mercilessly hewn
+down within the narrow porch, until the dead bodies piled on each other
+opposed an unsurmountable barrier to the living. Anxious for the
+preservation of their young children, the scorching mothers threw them
+from the windows in the vain hope that the feelings of parents awakened
+in the breasts of the Macdonalds would induce them to spare them, but
+not so. At the command of Allan of Lundi they were received on the
+points of the broadswords of men in whose breasts mercy had no place.
+It was a wild and fearful sight only witnessed by a wild and fearful
+race. During the tragedy they listened with delight to the piper of the
+band, who marching round the burning pile, played to drown the screams
+of the victims, an extempore pibroch, which has ever since been
+distinguished as the war tune of Glengarry under the title of
+"Cilliechriost." The flaming roof fell upon the burning victims, soon
+the screams ceased to be heard, a column of smoke and flame leapt into
+the air, the pibroch ceased, the last smothered groan of existence
+ascended into the still sky of that Sabbath morning, whispering as it
+died away that the agonies of the congregation were over.
+
+East, west, north, and south looked Allan Dubh Macranuil. Not a living
+soul met his eye. The fire he kindled had destroyed, like the spirit of
+desolation. Not a sound met his ear, and his own tiger soul sunk within
+him in dismay. The Parish of Cilliechriost seemed swept of every living
+thing. The fearful silence that prevailed, in a quarter lately so
+thickly peopled, struck his followers with dread; for they had given in
+one hour the inhabitants of a whole parish, one terrible grave. The
+desert which they had created filled them with dismay, heightened into
+terror by the howls of the masterless sheep dogs, and they turned to
+fly. Worn out with the suddenness of their long march from Glengarry,
+and with their late fiendish exertions, on their return they sat down to
+rest on the green face of Glenconvinth, which route they took in order
+to reach Lundi through the centre of Glenmorriston by Urquhart. Before
+they fled from Cilliechriost Allan divided his party into two, one
+passing by Inverness and the other as already mentioned; but the
+Macdonalds were not allowed to escape, for the flames had roused the
+Mackenzies as effectually as if the fiery cross had been sent through
+their territories. A youthful leader, a cadet of the family of Seaforth,
+in an incredibly short time, found himself surrounded by a determined
+band of Mackenzies eager for the fray; these were also divided into two
+bodies, one commanded by Murdoch Mackenzie of Redcastle, proceeded by
+Inverness, to follow the pursuit along the southern side of Loch Ness;
+another headed by Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, struck across the country
+from Beauly, to follow the party of the Macdonalds who fled along the
+northern side of Loch Ness under their leader Allan Dubh Macranuil. The
+party that fled by Inverness were surprised by Redcastle in a
+public-house at Torbreck, three miles to the west of the town where they
+stopped to refresh themselves. The house was set on fire, and they
+all--thirty-seven in number--suffered the death which, in the earlier
+part of the day, they had so wantonly inflicted. The Mackenzies, under
+Coul, after a few hours' hard running, came up with the Macdonalds as
+they sought a brief repose on the hills towards the burn of Aultsigh.
+There the Macdonalds maintained an unequal conflict, but as guilt only
+brings faint hearts to its unfortunate votaries they turned and again
+fled precipitately to the burn. Many, however, missed the ford, and the
+channel being rough and rocky several fell under the swords of the
+victorious Mackenzies. The remainder, with all the speed they could
+make, held on for miles lighted by a splendid and cloudless moon, and
+when the rays of the morning burst upon them, Allan Dubh Macranuil and
+his party were seen ascending the southern ridge of Glen Urquhart with
+the Mackenzies close in the rear. Allan casting an eye behind him and
+observing the superior numbers and determination of his pursuers, called
+to his band to disperse in order to confuse his pursuers and so divert
+the chase from himself. This being done, he again set forward at the
+height of his speed, and after a long run, drew breath to reconnoitre,
+when, to his dismay, he found that the avenging Mackenzies were still
+upon his track in one unbroken mass. Again he divided his men and bent
+his flight towards the shore of Loch Ness, but still he saw the foe with
+redoubled vigour, bearing down upon him. Becoming fearfully alive to his
+position, he cried to his few remaining companions again to disperse,
+until they left him, one by one, and he was alone. Allan, who as a mark
+of superiority and as Captain of the Glengarry Macdonalds, always wore a
+red jacket, was easily distinguished from the rest of his clansmen, and
+the Mackenzies being anxious for his capture, thus easily singled him
+out as the object of their joint and undiverted pursuit. Perceiving the
+sword of vengeance ready to descend on his head he took a resolution as
+desperate in its conception as unequalled in its accomplishment. Taking
+a short course towards the fearful ravine of Aultsigh he divested
+himself of his plaid and buckler, and turning to the leader of the
+Mackenzies, who had nearly come up with him, beckoned him to follow,
+then with a few yards of a run he sprang over the yawning chasm, never
+before contemplated without a shudder. The agitation of his mind at the
+moment completely overshadowed the danger of the attempt, and being of
+an athletic frame he succeeded in clearing the desperate leap. The young
+and reckless Mackenzie, full of ardour and determined at all hazards to
+capture the murderer followed; but, being a stranger to the real width
+of the chasm, perhaps of less nerve than his adversary, and certainly
+not stimulated by the same feelings, he only touched the opposite brink
+with his toes, and slipping downwards he clung by a slender shoot of
+hazel which grew over the tremendous abyss. Allan Dubh looking round on
+his pursuer and observing the agitation of the hazel bush, immediately
+guessed the cause, and returning with the ferocity of a demon who had
+succeeded in getting his victim into his fangs, hoarsely whispered, "I
+have given your race this day much, I shall give them this also, surely
+now the debt is paid," when cutting the hazel twig with his sword, the
+intrepid youth was dashed from crag to crag until he reached the stream
+below, a bloody and misshapen mass. Macranuil again commenced his
+flight, but one of the Mackenzies, who by this time had come up, sent a
+musket shot after him, by which he was wounded, and obliged to slacken
+his pace. None of his pursuers, however, on coming up to Aultsigh, dared
+or dreamt of taking a leap which had been so fatal to their youthful
+leader, and were therefore under the necessity of taking a circuitous
+route to gain the other side. This circumstance enabled Macranuil to
+increase the distance between him and his pursuers, but the loss of
+blood, occasioned by his wound, so weakened him that very soon he found
+his determined enemies were fast gaining on him. Like an infuriated wolf
+he hesitated whether to await the undivided attack of the Mackenzies or
+plunge into Loch Ness and attempt to swim across its waters. The shouts
+of his approaching enemies soon decided him, and he sprung into its
+deep and dark wave. Refreshed by its invigorating coolness he soon swam
+beyond the reach of their muskets; but in his weak and wounded state it
+is more than probable he would have sunk ere he had crossed half the
+breadth had not the firing and the shouts of his enemies proved the
+means of saving his life. Fraser of Foyers seeing a numerous band of
+armed men standing on the opposite bank of Loch Ness, and observing a
+single swimmer struggling in the water, ordered his boat to be launched,
+and pulling hard to the individual, discovered him to be his friend
+Allan Dubh, with whose family Fraser was on terms of friendship.
+Macranuil, thus rescued remained at the house of Foyers until he was
+cured of his wound, but the influence and the Clan of the Macdonalds
+henceforth declined, while that of the Mackenzies surely and steadily
+increased.
+
+The heavy ridge between the vale of Urquhart and Aultsigh where Allan
+Dubh Macranuil so often divided his men, is to this day called
+_Monadh-a-leumanaich_ or "the Moor of the Leaper."
+
+                         (_To be Continued._)
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Snails.]
+
+
+
+
+CAN THIS BE THE LAND?
+
+
+          "_How are the mighty fallen!_"
+
+    Can this be the land where of old heroes flourished?
+    Can this be the land of the sons of the blast?
+    Gloom-wrapt as a monarch whose greatness hath perished,
+    Its beauty of loneliness speaks of the past:--
+    Tell me ye green valleys, dark glens, and blue mountains,
+    Where now are the mighty that round ye did dwell?
+    Ye wild-sweeping torrents, and woe-sounding fountains,
+    Say, is it their spirits that wail in your swell?
+
+    Oft, oft have ye leaped when your children of battle,
+    With war-bearing footsteps rushed down your dark crests;
+    Oft, oft have ye thundered with far-rolling rattle,
+    The echoes of slogans that burst from their breasts:--
+    Wild music of cataracts peals in their gladness,--
+    Hoarse tempests still shriek to the clouds lightning-fired,--
+    Dark shadows of glory departed, in sadness
+    Still linger o'er ruins where dwelt the inspired.
+
+    The voice of the silence for ever is breaking
+    Around the lone heaths of the glory-sung braves;
+    Dim ghosts haunt in sorrow, a land all forsaken,
+    And pour their mist tears o'er the heather-swept graves:--
+    Can this be the land of the thunder-toned numbers
+    That snowy bards sung in the fire of their bloom?
+    Deserted and blasted, in death's silent slumbers,
+    It glooms o'er my soul like the wreck of a tomb.
+
+    SUNDERLAND.                                              WM. ALLAN.
+
+
+
+
+HIGHLAND FOLK-LORE.
+
+BY "NETHER-LOCHABER."
+
+
+FOLK-LORE--a word of recent importation from the German--is a big word,
+and Highland Folk-Lore is a big subject, so big and comprehensive that
+not one Magazine article, but a many-chaptered series of Magazine
+articles would be necessary ere one could aver that he had done his
+"text" anything like justice. On the present occasion, therefore, we do
+not pretend to enter into the heart of a subject so extensive and
+many-sided: we shall content ourselves with a little scouting and
+skirmishing, so to speak, along the borders of a territory which it is
+possible we may ask the readers at some future time to explore along
+with us more at large. A few of the many proverbs, wisdom words, and
+moral and prudential sentences in daily use shall, in clerical phrase,
+meantime form "the subject-matter of our discourse." Nor must the reader
+think that the subject is in any wise _infra dignitate_, unworthy, that
+is, or undignified. Of the world-renowned Seven Wise Men of Greece, five
+at least attained to all their eminence and fame no otherwise than
+because they were the cunning framers of maxims and proverbs that
+rightly interpreted were calculated to advance and consolidate the moral
+and material welfare of the nation around them. Of the remaining two, it
+is true that one was an eminent politician and legislator, and the other
+a natural philosopher of the first order; but it is questionable if
+either of them would have been considered entitled to their prominent
+place in the Grecian _Pleiades_ of Wise Men had they not been
+proverb-makers and utterers of brief but pregnant "wisdom-words" as
+well. Even Solomon, the wisest of men, was less celebrated as a botanist
+and naturalist, though he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in
+Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and of
+beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes--less
+celebrated even as a lyrist, though his songs were a thousand and five,
+than for his proverbs and moral maxims of which the record takes care to
+tell us he spake no less than "three thousand." So much then for the
+dignity of our subject: what engaged the attention of Solomon and the
+Seven Sages of Greece cannot surely be unworthy some small share of our
+regard.
+
+"Six and half-a-dozen" is an English phrase, implying either that two
+things are exactly the same, or so very much alike as to be practically
+the same. The old Gael was not much of an arithmetician, he rarely
+meddled with numbers, and therefore no precisely similar phrase is to be
+found in his language; but he could express the same idea in his own
+way, and so pithily and emphatically that his version of the proverbial
+axiom is, perhaps, as good as is to be found in any other language
+whatever. The Gael's equivalent for "six and half-a-dozen" is, "_Bo
+mhaol odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol_"--(A cow that is doddled and dun, and
+a cow that is dun and doddled)--a phrase drawn, as are many of his most
+striking proverbs and prudential maxims, and very naturally too, from
+his pastoral surroundings. We recollect an admirable and very ludicrous
+application of this saying in a story once told us by the late Dr Norman
+Macleod of Glasgow, "old" Norman that is, not the Barony Doctor, but his
+father:--When a boy in Morven, of which parish his father was minister,
+there was a well-known character in that part of the country called
+"_Eoghann Gorach Chraigan Uibhir_," Daft Ewen of Craig-an-Ure in Mull, a
+born "natural," who, although a veritable "fool," had yet in him much of
+the quiet, keen-edged satire and roguery which is not unfrequently found
+in the better ranks of such "silly ones." Ewen regularly perambulated
+Mull and Morven, with an occasional raid into the neighbouring districts
+of Sunart and Ardnamurchan. He had sense enough to be able to carry the
+current news of the day from district to district, and on this account
+was always a welcome guest in every farm-house and hamlet on his beat;
+and as he sung a capital song, and was remarkable for much harmless
+drollery and "dafting," he was, it is needless to say, a great favourite
+everywhere. He took a great interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and
+always attended the church when the state of his wardrobe and other
+circumstances permitted. On one occasion Ewen was passing through
+Morven, and knowing that the annual communion time was approaching, he
+called upon the minister and begged to know who his assistants on that
+particular occasion were to be. He was going to pay a visit, he said, to
+all the glens and outlying hamlets in the parish, and as the people were
+sure to ask him the important question, he wished to have the proper
+answer direct from the minister himself. "_Tha raghadh 'us taghadh nam
+ministeiran, Eoghainn; An Doiteir A. B. a Inneraora, agus an Doiteir C.
+D. a Muille._" (The pick and choice of ministers Ewen said the minister,
+Doctor A. B. from Inverary, and Doctor C. D. from Mull). "Whe-e-we!" in
+a contemptuously prolonged low whistle replied Ewen. "_An ann mar so a
+tha; Bo mhaol, odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol!_" (And is it even so; are
+these to be your assistants? A cow that is doddled and dun, and a cow
+that is dun and doddled!) Than which nothing could more emphatically
+convey Ewen's very small opinion of the "assistants" mentioned. They
+were much of a muchness; six and half-a-dozen; a cow doddled and dun,
+and a cow dun and doddled! The Gael was a keen observer of natural
+phenomena, and some of his best sayings were founded on the knowledge
+thus acquired. Meteorological "wisdom-words" for instance, are quite
+common. "_Mar chloich a ruith le gleann, tha feasgar fann foghairidh_"
+is an admirable example. (As is the headlong rush of a stone, atumbling
+down the glen, so hurried and of short duration is an autumnal
+afternoon.) The philosophy of the saying is that you are to begin your
+work betimes in the season of autumn; at early dawn if possible, and not
+to stop at all for dinner, seeing that once the day has passed its
+prime, the hour of sunset approaches with giant strides, and there is
+little or no twilight to help you if you have been foolish enough to
+dawdle your time in the hours of sunset proper. "_'S fas a chùil as nach
+goirear_" is another pregnant adage. (Desert, indeed, is the corner
+whence no voice of bird is heard.) Some people are very quiet, almost
+dumb indeed, but on the occurrence of some event, or on the back of
+some remark of yours, they speak, and speak so clearly and well that
+you are surprised, and quote the saying that it is a solitary and silent
+glade indeed whence no voice is heard. "_Am fear a bhios na thamh,
+saoilidh e gur i lamh fhein as fhearr air an stiùir_" is a common saying
+of much meaning and wide application. (He that is idle [a mere
+spectator] thinks that he could steer the boat better than the man
+actually in charge.) And we all know how apt we are to meddle, and
+generally unwisely, with the proper labours of others. Nothing, for
+instance, is more annoying and dangerous even than to put forth your
+hand by way of helping a driver in managing his horses, or to interfere
+with the tiller of a boat at which a perfectly competent man is already
+seated. We have known the saying just quoted scores of times suffice to
+stop the unwise and gratuitous intermeddling of such as were disposed to
+interfere with what did not properly belong to them. "_Bidh fear an aon
+mhairt aig uairean gun bhainne_" is a frequent saying, and implies more
+than is at first sight apparent. (The man with only one cow will be at
+times without milk.) The import of the saying is something more than a
+mere statement of fact. You have only one cow, and you are certain to be
+at times without milk. Get by your industry and perseverance _two_ cows
+or three, and then you are pretty sure to have more or less milk all the
+year round.
+
+We have thus briefly touched the hem, so to speak, of a very interesting
+subject--a subject that in the Highlands of Scotland, at least, has
+never yet received a tittle of the attention it deserves. And let no one
+be afraid to meddle with it to any extent he pleases, for we promise him
+that he will meet with nothing in any way to shock his delicacy or
+offend his taste, no matter how fine so ever of edge and exquisite; and
+in this respect, at all events, the good old Gael is superior to that of
+any other people of whom we have any knowledge. We may, perhaps, deal
+more at large with the subject in a future number. Meantime, we may
+state that we are of the same opinion as the Editor of the _Inverness
+Courier_; there is abundance of room for the _Celtic Magazine_ if it
+continues to be well conducted, without, in the least degree,
+encroaching upon the territories of any other periodicals interested in
+Celtic affairs.
+
+    NETHER-LOCHABER, November 1875.
+
+
+
+
+IMAGINATION.
+
+_Dedicated by consent to_ ALFRED TENNYSON.
+
+
+    All hail! far-seeing and creative power,
+    Before whose might the universe bends low
+    In silent adoration! Guide my pen
+    While from my soul the sounds of music pour
+    Towards thy praises! For to thee belongs
+    The sounding stream of never-ending song.
+    When out of chaos rose the glorious world,
+    Sublime with mountains flowing from the skies,
+    On lonely seas, sweet with slow-winding vales,
+    Clasping the grandeur of the heavenly hills
+    With soft and tender arms, or lowly glens
+    Shrinking from glowing gaze of searching sun
+    Beneath the shade of the high-soaring hills;
+    Grand with great torrents roaring o'er fierce crags
+    In suicidal madness, sad with seas
+    That flash in silver of the gladdening sun,
+    Yet ever wail in sadness 'neath the skies
+    Of smiling heaven (like a lovely life
+    That wears a sunny face, and wintry soul),
+    Hopeful with fickle life renewing spring,
+    Gladden'd with summer's radiance, autumn's joy,
+    And sad and sullen with fierce winter's rain;
+    Ruled by the race of God-made men who rush
+    Towards eternity with half-shut eyes,
+    Blind to the glories of sweet sky and sea,
+    Wood-covered earth, and sun-reflecting hill,
+    Thou in the mind of God, almighty power!
+    Ruled, and directed his creative hand.
+    With thee the seas spread and the hills arose
+    To do thy Maker's will; the silvery stars
+    Like heavenly glow-worms, beautifully cold,
+    And gladly silent, gemmed the gloom of night,
+    And shed the gladdening glances of their eyes
+    On the sad face of the night-darken'd earth.
+    Without thy sweetening influence, the soul
+    Of nature's bard were like a sunless plain,
+    Or summer garden destitute of flowers,
+    A winter day ungladden'd by the gleam
+    Of flowing sun, or river searching wild
+    Through desert lands for ne'er appearing trees,
+    Or peaceful flowers that sandy scenes disdain.
+    No thought the philosophic mind imparts
+    To an enraptured world, but bears thy power,
+    And owns thee as the agent of its birth.
+    O'er the sweet landscape of the poet's mind
+    Thou sunlike shed'st the gladness of thy love,
+    Inspiring all the scenes that lie below,
+    Sweetening the bowers where Fancy loves to dwell,
+    And on the crest of some huge mountain-thought
+    Placing the glory of thy fleecy cloud,
+    To make its frowning grandeur greater still,
+    And heighten all its beauteous mystery.
+    Thro' the sweet-coloured plains of Poesy
+    Thou flowest like a sweetly-sounding stream,
+    Here, rushing furious o'er the rocky crags
+    Of wild, original thought, and there, 'neath bowers
+    Of imagery, winding on thy way
+    Peaceful and still towards the fadeless sea
+    Of all enduring immortality.
+    Like lightning flash for which no thunder-roar
+    Makes preparation, from th' astonished mind
+    On an astonished and admiring world
+    Thou dartest in thine overwhelming course,
+    Leaving a track of splendour in thy train,
+    And lighting up the regions of thy way.
+    With thee sweet music sings her various song,
+    And thrills the soul and elevates the mind
+    With "thoughts that often lie too deep for tears,"
+    And own a sadness sweeter than the rills,
+    A softer sweetness than the sinking sun
+    Gives to the sparkling face of pensive sea.
+    With thee great genius walketh hand in hand
+    Towards the loftiest thought, or sits in pride
+    Upon the golden throne of starry Fame.
+    Borne on thy wings the pensive poet flies
+    To the sweet-smiling land of sunny dreams,
+    Or pours his floods of music o'er the world.
+    With thy bright gleams his daily deeds are gemmed,
+    And by thy balmy influence, his life
+    Survives when he is dead!
+
+    MAIDENKIRK.                                       D. R. WILLIAMSON.
+
+
+
+
+LACHLAN MACKINNON,
+
+OR "LACHLAN MAC THEARLAICH OIG," THE SKYE BARD.
+
+
+AMONG many who have distinguished themselves by their display of
+poetical talents, the subject of the present brief memoir, holds a
+prominent place as a Gaelic poet. It is true that he was but little
+known to the world, but he was much admired as a bard, and greatly
+respected as a gentleman in his native "Isle of Mist."
+
+Lachlan Mackinnon, patronimically designated "Lachlan Mac Thearlaich
+Oig," was born in the parish of Strath, Isle of Skye, in the year 1665.
+He was son of Charles Mackinnon of Ceann-Uachdarach, a cadet of the old
+family of Mackinnon of Mackinnon of Strath. His mother was Mary Macleod,
+daughter of John Macleod of Drynoch, in the same island. The poetical
+genius of _Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ showed itself almost in his infancy.
+His father, like all Skye gentlemen in those good olden times, was a
+very social and hospitable man, who seemed never to be contented unless
+he had his house at Ceann-Uachdarach full of neighbours to enjoy
+themselves in his family circle. The company were often much amused with
+little Lachlan when a mere child, seeing the facility with which he
+composed couplets on any subject prescribed to him. At the age of eight
+he possessed a vigour of mind, and a vivacity of imagination rarely to
+be met with in youths of more than double his age. A predilection for
+poetry seemed to have gained an ascendency in his mind, over all other
+pursuits and amusements of his tender years. He received the rudiments
+of his education, under a tutor in his father's family, and as his
+native island had not, at that remote period, the advantage of public
+schools of any note, the young bard was sent, at the age of sixteen, to
+the school of Nairn, which, from its reputation at the time as an
+excellent seminary, was much resorted to by gentlemen's sons from all
+parts of the north. The young Hebridean remained at Nairn continuously
+for three years, and was greatly distinguished, not merely by his bright
+talents, but by his assiduity and perseverance in improving them. His
+studious disposition and diligent application were amply testified by
+the progress made by him, and no less duly appreciated by his superiors
+in the place. His love for study was enthusiastic, particularly in
+regard to the languages. He was by far the best Greek and Latin pupil at
+the Nairn Academy. His moments of relaxation were spent in the
+composition of poems in the English language while at Nairn, although,
+undoubtedly, the Gaelic was the medium which was most congenial to his
+mind for giving expression in rhyme to his sentiments. At Nairn,
+however, he composed several beautiful little pieces, and among the
+rest a song which was much admired, to the air subsequently immortalized
+by Burns as "Auld Lang Syne." Although his productions in English were
+much admired, yet, as it was to him an acquired language, they could
+bear no comparison with his truly superior compositions in Gaelic. It is
+a matter of much regret that so few of his Gaelic poems are extant. Like
+many bards he unfortunately trusted his productions to his memory; and
+although well qualified, as a Gaelic writer, to commit them to paper,
+yet he neglected it, and hence hundreds of our best pieces in Gaelic
+poetry are lost for ever. Had they been all preserved, and given to the
+public in a collected shape, they would have raised the talented author
+to that high rank among the Celtic bards, which his genius so richly
+merited.
+
+In appearance _Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ was tall, handsome, and
+fascinating. He was distinguished by a winning gentleness and modesty of
+manners, as well as by his generous sensibility and steadfast
+friendship. His presence was courted in every company, and he was
+everywhere made welcome. Of most of the chieftains and Highland lairds
+he was a very acceptable acquaintance, while no public assembly, or
+social meeting was considered complete if that object of universal
+favour, the bard of Strath, were absent.
+
+When a very young man he was united in marriage to Flora, daughter of Mr
+Campbell of Strond, in the Island of Harris. Fondly attached to his
+native isle, he rented from his chief the farm of Breakish, with the
+grazing Island of Pabbay, at £24 sterling annually. And as an instance
+of the many changes effected by time, it may be mentioned that the same
+tenement is now rented at about £250 a-year. From what has been said of
+the bard's amiable disposition and gentle manners, it will seem no wise
+surprising that he proved to be one of the most affectionate of
+husbands, and dutiful of fathers. The happiness of the matrimonial state
+was to him, however, but of short duration. His wife, to whom he was
+greatly attached, died in the prime and vigour of life. He was rendered
+so disconsolate by means of his sudden and unexpected bereavement, that
+he took a dislike to the scene of his transient happiness, and
+relinquished his farm in Strath. Having removed from Skye, he took
+possession of a new tenement of lands from Mackenzie in Kintail. Greatly
+struck by what he considered the unrefined manners of his new neighbours
+in that quarter, and contrasting them with the more genial deportment of
+his own distinguished clan in Strath, he had the misfortune to exercise
+his poetic genius in the composition of some pungent satires and
+lampoons directed against the unpolished customs of the natives of
+Kintail. It is needless to add that by these means he gained for himself
+many enemies, and forfeited the good wishes of all around him. Finding
+himself thus disagreeably situated, after an absence of four years, he
+returned to Skye, where he was cordially received by his chief, and put
+in possession of his former farm at Breakish. After being twelve years a
+widower he went to Inverness for the purpose of visiting some of his
+schoolfellows who resided there. Previous to his leaving the capital of
+the Highlands his acquaintances there urged upon him the propriety of
+marrying a widow lady of the name of Mackintosh, whom they represented
+as being possessed of considerable means. He reluctantly complied with
+their wishes, but it became soon too apparent to him that he did so at
+the expense of his own happiness. His bride was not only penniless but
+deeply involved in debt. Next morning after his marriage he was visited
+by messengers who served him with summonses for a heavy debt due by his
+wife. In the impulse of the moment, while he held the summons in his
+hand, he seized a pen, and having taken his bride's Bible, wrote the
+following expressive lines on the blank leaf:--
+
+    "Tha'n saoghal air a roinn,
+    Tha dà dhàn ann,
+    Tha dàn ann gu bhi sona,
+    Ach tha dàn an donuis ann."
+
+This marriage proved, in every respect, an unhappy one. The lady, as a
+stepmother, was peevish, harsh, and undutiful. Her cruelty to her
+husband's children was a continual source of grief to him, and of
+unhappiness to his domestic circle. On a certain day, the lady
+quarrelling with one of her step-daughters, told her she hated to see
+her face, and that she always considered the day an unlucky one on which
+she had the misfortune to meet her first in the morning. The girl,
+inheriting no doubt a share of her father's power of repartee, quickly
+answered her stepmother, and said, "You have every cause to believe that
+it is unlucky to meet me, for I was first-foot to my dear father the
+unfortunate morning on which he left home to marry you."
+
+Even amid his misfortunes, which he endured with much forbearance,
+_Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ was renowned for his hospitality and genuine
+Highland friendship. Remote though the period be since he lived, still
+his memory is fondly cherished in the place. He was possessed of so
+endearing accomplishments, that time itself can hardly wipe away his
+memory from the minds of his countrymen and clan. Many fragments of his
+numerous songs continued for ages to be repeated in the country, but it
+is feared, from all the changes which have taken place in the
+circumstances of the natives, that these are now irretrievably lost.
+Many of his witty sayings became proverbial in the island. He was one of
+the first sportsmen in the country, and was considered one of the most
+successful deer stalkers of his day. Along with his other
+accomplishments he was an excellent performer on the violin, and in this
+respect he had no equal in the Western Isles. Of him it may be justly
+said:--
+
+    "To thee harmonious powers belong,
+    That add to verse the charm of song;
+    Soft melody with numbers join,
+    And make the poet half divine!"
+
+As a proof of Lachlan Mackinnon's loyalty, it may be mentioned that,
+quite contrary to the wishes of his chief, he went along with some other
+loyal subjects, all the way from Skye to Inverness, in the year 1717, to
+sign a congratulatory address to George I. on his succeeding to the
+British throne. He spent the remainder of his days in his native isle
+and parish, and died universally regretted in the year 1734, at the age
+of sixty-nine. His funeral was attended by most of the Highland
+chieftains, and their principal vassals. His cousin-german, Alasdair
+Dubh of Glengarry, and all his gentlemen tacksmen were then present, as
+also Macdonald of the Isles, Macleod of Dunvegan, Mackinnon of
+Mackinnon, and Mackenzie of Applecross, with their chief retainers. A
+numerous band of Highland pipers preceded the bier playing the usual
+melancholy coronach. Amidst a vast assemblage of all ranks and classes
+his remains were consigned to their kindred dust in the old churchyard
+of Gillchrist, being the burying-ground of the parish which gave him
+birth. A rude flag, with an inscription, still marks the poet's grave;
+but the memory of his many virtues will be handed down in the place to
+generations yet unborn.
+
+_Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ composed a beautiful and pathetic song which is
+still preserved, to "Generosity, Love, and Liberality." He personified
+those three, and pretended that he met them as lonely outcasts in a
+dreary glen, and addressed them:--
+
+    Latha siubhal sleibhe dhomh,
+      'S mi 'falbh leam fein gu dlùth,
+    A chuideachd anns an astar sin
+      Air gunna glaic a's cù,
+    Gun thachair clann rium anns a' ghleann,
+      A'gul gu fann chion iùil;
+    Air leam gur h-iad a b' aillidh dreach
+      A chunnacas riamh le m' shùil.
+
+    Gu'm b' ioghnadh leam mar tharladh dhoibh
+      A'm fàsach fad air chùl,
+    Coimeas luchd an aghaidhean,
+      Gu'n tagha de cheann iùil,
+    Air beannachadh neo-fhiata dhomh
+      Gu'n d' fhiaraich mi, "Cò sùd?"
+    'S fhreagair iad gu cianail mi
+      A'm brïathraibh mine ciùin.
+
+    "Iochd, a's Gràdh, a's Fiughantas,
+      'Nar triùir gur h-e ar n-ainm,
+    Clann nan uaislean urramach,
+      A choisinn cliu 's gach ball,
+    'Nuair a phàigh an fheile cis d'an Eug
+      'Sa chaidh i fein air chàll
+    'Na thiomnadh dh' fhàg ar n-athair sinn
+      Aig maithibh Innse-Gall."
+
+                                                           SGIATHANACH.
+
+
+
+
+FINGAL.
+
+
+IN the yellow sunset of ancient Celtic glory appear the band of warriors
+known as the Ossianic heroes. Under the magnifying and beautifying
+influence of that sunset they tower upon our sight with a stature and
+illustriousness more than human. Of these heroes, the greatest and best
+was _Fionn_ or Fingal. Unless our traditions are extensively falsified
+he was a man in whom shone all those virtues which are the boast of our
+race. The unflinching performance of duty, the high sense of honour, the
+tenderness more than woman's, and the readiness to appreciate the
+virtues of others were among his more conspicuous characteristics. Now
+that Celtic anthropology is being so extensively discussed, is it not
+remarkable that Fingal, who so truly personifies the character of that
+race, is not adduced as the representative Celt? He was a Celt to the
+very core, and Celtic character has been in no small degree moulded by
+copying his example. He was, in truth, not the _ultimus_ but the _Primus
+Gaelorum_.
+
+Nevertheless, it must be confessed that to many English readers Fingal
+is nothing but a name, and that even to most of them he looms dark and
+dim through the mist of years. Unhappily, a nature so transcendently
+humane and heroic as his is not the sort to win the admiration of the
+vulgar. Nay, so far is its simple grandeur removed above the common
+materialism of modern life that the most refined cannot, at first sight,
+appreciate its exalted loveliness.
+
+The fullest and, we believe, the truest account of him is to be found in
+Ossian's poems. That the poetry so denominated was, in substance,
+composed by Ossian we have no doubt. At any rate the descriptions of
+Fingal therein contained are not only consistent throughout, but also in
+accordance with all that we know of him from other sources. But were we
+even to adopt the absurd theory that Fingal is a creation of
+Macpherson's imagination, the intrinsic beauty of the picture well
+deserves our study.
+
+An old man retaining all the energy, but not the rashness of youth; age
+with vigour instead of decrepitude, delighting in the words of sound
+wisdom rather than the usual tattle of second childhood; and, withal, an
+old man who is prone to moralise as old men are; a man able and willing
+to do his duty in the present though his heart is left in the past; such
+is the most prominent figure in these poems. He is pourtrayed as of
+tall, athletic frame and kingly port, his majestic front and hoary locks
+surmounted by the helm and eagle plume of the Celtic kings.
+
+Though the idea of Fingal pervades most of Ossian's poems he is seldom
+introduced _in propria persona_. Even when attention is directed to him
+the poet merely and meagerly sketches the herculean outline, and leaves
+our imagination to do the rest:--
+
+    At intervals a gleam of light afar
+    Glanced from the broad, blue, studded shield of war,
+    As moved the king of chiefs in stately pride;
+    With eager gaze his eye was turned aside
+    To where the warriors' closing ranks he sees;
+    Half-grey his ringlets floated in the breeze
+    Around that face so terrible in fight
+    And features glowing now with grim delight.--_Tem. B. V._
+
+In order to introduce his hero with the greater _eclat_, the bard first
+places his friends in great straits; represents them, though brave, as
+overcome by the enemy and without hope, apart from Fingal. Both friends
+and foes speak of him in terms of respect, and even the greatest leaders
+acknowledge his superiority. When Fingal appears on the scene the poet
+rouses himself to the utmost. He piles simile on simile to give an
+adequate idea of his first charge--
+
+    Through Morven's woods when countless tempests roar,
+    When from the height a hundred torrents pour,
+    Like storm-clouds rushing through the vault of heaven,
+    As when the mighty main on shore is driven,
+    So wide, so loud, so dark, so fierce the strain
+    When met the angry chiefs on Lena's plain.
+    The king rushed forward with resistless might,
+    Dreadful as Trenmor's awe-inspiring sprite,
+    When on the fitful blast he comes again
+    To Morven, his forefather's loved domain.
+    Loud in the gale the mountain oaks shall roar,
+    The mountain rocks shall fall his face before,
+    As by the lightning's gleam his form is spied
+    Stalking from hill to hill with giant stride.
+    More terrible in fight my father seemed
+    When in his hand of might his weapon gleamed,
+    On his own youth the king with gladness thought
+    When in the furious highland wars he fought.--_Fingal B. III._
+
+The notion that Ossian drew in part, at least from real life, is
+favoured by the wonderful calmness and absence of effort evinced in
+delineating so great a character. Expressions that go far to heighten
+our admiration of Fingal are employed in a quiet matter of course way.
+"The silence of the king is terrible," is an expressive sentence. Or
+this again, "The heroes ... looked in silence on each other marking the
+eyes of Fingal."
+
+Nor are the gentler feelings less fully brought out in Ossian's
+favourite character. Nothing could speak more for his affability than
+the attachment shown by his followers. "Fear, like a vapour winds not
+among the host! for he, the king, is near; the strength of streamy
+Selma. Gladness brightens the hero. We hear his words with joy."[A]
+
+Gallantry and philanthropy we might expect to find in his composition,
+but the tenderness he frequently displays strikes us as remarkable in an
+uncivilized chief. His lamentation over the British city on the Clyde is
+as pathetic as any similar passage in our language.
+
+Another surprising trait is the generosity he invariably displays to his
+vanquished foes. All the more surprising is it that a "savage" should
+show magnanimity when the heroes of civilized Greece, Rome, and Judea,
+counted it virtuous to torture their captured enemies. "None ever went
+sad from Fingal," he says himself. Over and over he is represented as
+lamenting the death of enemies when they fall, or granting them freedom
+and his friendship when they yield--"Come to my hill of feasts," he says
+to his wounded opponent Cathmor, "the mighty fail at times. No fire am I
+to lowlaid foes. I rejoice not over the fall of the brave."
+
+A notable fact about Fingal is, that though he lived in times of war, in
+disposition he was a man of peace. "Fingal delights not in battle though
+his arm is strong." "When will Fingal cease to fight?" he complains, "I
+was born in the midst of battles, and my steps must move in blood to the
+tomb." Under the influence of this desire for peace he formally gave up
+his arms to Ossian--
+
+    My son, around me roll my byegone years,
+    They come and whisper in the monarch's ears.
+    "Why does not grey-haired Fingal rest?" they say
+    "Why does he not within his fortress stay?
+    Dost thou in battle's gory wounds delight?
+    Lovest thou the tears of vanquished men of might?"
+    Ye hoary years! I will in quiet lie,
+    Nor profit nor delight in blood have I.
+    Like blustering storms from wintry skies that roll,
+    Tears waste with grief and dreariness the soul.
+    But when I stretch myself to rest, I hear
+    The voice of war come thundering on my ear
+    Within the royal hall, with loud command,
+    To rouse and draw again th' unwilling brand.--_Tem. B. VIII._
+
+Limited as were the means of communication in those pre-telegraphic
+times the fame of such a man must have spread. Accordingly, we read of
+his name being known and respected far and near. Foreign princes speak
+of him with admiration, and refugees from distant lands seek his
+protection.
+
+But it is on the power of his name in after times that we wish more
+particularly to dwell. There have been no people who honoured their
+heroes so much as the Celts. With them _valour_ and _value_ were
+synonymous terms. Theirs was not a nobility of money, or literature, or
+æsthetics, or even of territory. Nobleness should be the qualification
+of a nobleman, and strange as it may seem, it was among the uncivilised
+Celts of Ireland and Scotland that such a character was properly
+appreciated. But they held nobleness and heroism to be identical. They
+seem to have thoroughly believed that cowardice was but the result of
+vice. A fearless man, they felt, must be a true man, and he was honoured
+accordingly. _Flath-innis_, the _Isle of the Noble_, was their only name
+for heaven. _Allail_ or _divine_ they applied to their heroic men. To
+imitate such was the old Celtic religion as it was the primitive
+religion of most other peoples.
+
+Among all the heroes whom the ancient Gael worshipped there was no name
+so influential as Fingal's. Through the ages he has been the idol and
+ideal of the Celt. His example was their rule of justice. His maxims
+were cited much as we would quote Scripture. To the youth he was held up
+as the model after which their lives should be patterned, and where
+Christianity had not yet eradicated the old creed, a _post mortem_
+dwelling with him in _Flath-innis_ was deemed no mean incentive to
+goodness. He was, in fact, the god of the Gaelic people, worshipped with
+no outward altar, but enshrined in the hearts of his admirers. How far
+the more admirable traits of Highland character may be attributed to the
+assimilating influence of the idea of Fingal we cannot decide. That our
+character as a people has been largely influenced for good by the power
+of his example we have no doubt. The bards, an order of the old Druidic
+hierarchy, became the priests of the Fingalian hero-worship. Songs,
+elegies, and poetic legends formed their service of praise. To induce
+their countrymen to reverence and imitate so great and glorious a Gael
+as Fingal was the object of many of their bardic homilies. Taking into
+account the nature and circumstances of the ancient Caledonians, we must
+conclude that from position and influence none were more suitable to
+become their ethical and æsthetical advisers than these minstrel
+ministers of the Fingalian hero-olatry.
+
+Of course such a faith could not long withstand the more generous and
+cosmopolitan spirit of Christianity, yet we venture to assert that it
+was vastly preferable in its effects to some abortions of our common
+creed. That there was a conflict between the two religions we know. As
+late as the sixteenth century a Christian ecclesiastic complains that
+the leaders of Gaelic thought of the period were heathen enough to
+delight in "stories about the Tuath de Dhanond and about the sons of
+Milesius, and about the heroes and _Fionn_ (Fingal), the son of Cumhail
+with his Fingalians ... rather than to write and to compose and to
+support the faithful words of God and the perfect way of truth."
+
+Down to the present day the name of _Fionn_ is reverenced by the less
+sophisticated Highlanders and Islanders. That his name will in future be
+more extensively, if less intensely, respected we may confidently
+predict. As men's views become more broad and just, and their feelings
+become more cultivated and refined, we may hope that a superior
+character such as Fingal will by-and-bye be appreciated. Even now he is
+widely admired and we begin to read in the signs of the times the
+fulfilment of his own words:--
+
+        When then art crumbled into dust, O! stone;
+    Lost in the moss of years around thee grown;
+    My fame, which chiefs and heroes love to praise,
+    Shall shine a beam of light to future days,
+    Because I went in steel and faced th' alarms
+    Of war, to help and save the weak in arms.--_Tem. B. VIII._
+
+                                                     MINNIE LITTLEJOHN.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: The quotations in prose are from Macpherson's translation.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3,
+January 1876, by Various
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January
+1876, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January 1876
+       A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History,
+              Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and
+              Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Alexander Mackenzie
+        Alexander Macgregor
+        Alexander Macbain
+
+Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29969]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.</h1>
+
+<p class="lined">
+No. III.
+<span class="middle">JANUARY 1876.</span>
+</p>
+
+<h2>THE STATE OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.</h2>
+
+<p class="center">[<span class="smcap">Continued.</span>]</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mr Arnold</span> in that handsome, but slightly ambiguous admission of his,
+that the Celts in their intellectual capacity come very near the secret
+of nature and of natural magic, does not seem to imply more in reality
+than that they have a subtler sense of certain natural affinities than
+their Anglo-Saxon brethren have; that they apprehend more surely when,
+where, and how the truest impress of physical nature occurs on the
+percipient faculties of the soul, than men of a more phlegmatic
+constitution do; and that they can draw from such intuitions of their
+own a sort of inspiration, or second-sight of nature, comparable to
+prophecy, which gives their highest poetic utterance a rapt
+enthusiasm&mdash;and the accuracy of this estimate need not be disputed, but,
+so far as Ossian is concerned, it must be considerably extended. To read
+Ossian as we do, from the text of Macpherson, there was another sort of
+insight, purely scientific, into the mysteries of nature, inherited and
+expressed by him; a certain acquaintance with her hidden powers, and a
+certain augury of her possible future development, if men could only
+attain to it, far beyond the mere rapt enthusiasm of a poet, or the
+so-called second-sight of a seer. Whether this peculiar faith of his was
+derived by tradition, and if so, from whom; or whether it was the result
+of practical experiment in his own generation, is foreign for the moment
+to our present inquiry. But that it was relied upon as an endowment of
+the most gifted heroes; that it was exercised by them in extremity, as
+if to subdue nature from whom they had borrowed it, and to wrest the
+very power of destruction out of her hand; and that such practical
+conquest was sometimes achieved by them, or is said to have been
+achieved by them, is just as certain as that Macpherson's translation is
+before us now. What we refer to more especially for the present, is the
+secret of extracting or discharging electricity from the atmosphere by
+mechanical means&mdash;by the thrust of a spear, or of a sword, into the
+bosom of the low-hanging cloud, or lurid vapour, and so dislodging the
+imaginary spirit of evil by which they were supposed to be tenanted.
+Only the very best, and bravest, and wisest could prevail in such
+conflict with nature; but they did prevail, according to Ossian; and the
+weapons of their warfare, and the mode of their assault, were precisely
+similar to what an experimentalist in electricity might employ at the
+present day, or to what the Egyptians employed in the days of Moses. We
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>shall not now go further back in the prosecution of this inquiry, but
+would seriously recommend the reader who has any difficulty on the
+subject to compare, at his leisure, the work of Moses on the top of
+Mount Sinai and elsewhere, with an Egyptian "rod" in his hand, and the
+exploits of Fingal in conflict with the Spirit of Loda on the heights of
+Hoy, with a sword in his hand. There might have been a far-derived and
+long traditional secret connection between the two, most edifying, or at
+least most curious, to investigate; or they might both have resulted
+from that sort of intuition which only the most gifted of any nation
+enjoy independently, re-appearing again in Franklin, and now
+familiarised to the world. Let those who doubt, or who differ on this
+point, satisfy themselves. What we are now concerned to maintain and
+prove is, that the fact is more than once described by Ossian, in
+circumstances, in situations, and with instrumentalities, which render
+the allegation of it at least indubitable. In the case above referred
+to, for example, Fingal, challenged and assaulted in a thunderstorm by
+the Spirit of Loda, encounters his antagonist with a sword, on the very
+verge of a cliff overhanging the Atlantic; and by one or two scientific
+thrusts, with incredible daring, disarms the cloud, dissipates the
+storm, and sends his atmospheric adversary shrieking down the wind with
+such violence that "Innistore shook at the sound; the waves heard it on
+the deep, and stopped on their course with fear." The scene is described
+in that well-known passage in <i>Carric-Thura</i>, which Macpherson himself
+characterises as "the most extravagant fiction in all Ossian's poems."</p>
+
+<p>Now the question as regards the authenticity or reliability of this very
+passage, is whether Macpherson understood the meaning of it; what it
+represented, where the conflict occurred, or how it happened? It has
+been sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere&mdash;in "Ossian and the Clyde," pp.
+311-324&mdash;that the encounter took place near the celebrated "Dwarfie
+Stone" on the western headland of Hoy in the Orkneys&mdash;a region more
+remarkable for its sudden electric gatherings and violent atmospheric
+currents than almost any other in Great Britain, and at that particular
+spot so much so, that the very scene described in Ossian has been
+selected by Walter Scott for a similar electrical display in the
+"Pirate." But of this obvious fact, and of all that is connected with it
+in his own translation, Macpherson is so ignorant that he not only does
+not point it out, but does not understand it, and cannot even conjecture
+where it was. His great antagonist Laing is equally at fault on the
+subject, and by way of exposing, as he believes, the dishonesty of
+Macpherson, endeavours to show that in patching up his account
+Macpherson had mistaken Thurso for Thura. Macpherson, in fact, knew
+nothing either about Thurso or Thura&mdash;even less than Laing did; and it
+is only in the work above cited that either the scene has been
+identified, or the encounter explained.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, is a question, not of linguistic criticism, but of
+scientific fact&mdash;of geographical position, of atmospheric agency&mdash;which
+should be disposed of on its own merits, and which, like many others of
+the same sort, must ultimately transfer the whole inquiry to a much
+higher field than that of syllables and syntax.</p>
+
+<p>But the description in question, it may be objected, is very much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+exaggerated, and therefore cannot be relied on: which is the very
+objection Macpherson himself urged&mdash;that it is "the most extravagant
+fiction in all Ossian's poems." But if that was the case in his opinion,
+how could the passage be his own? It was easy enough either to remedy or
+explain it, if he could explain it, or not to introduce it. On the other
+hand, when rightly understood, there is no undue exaggeration in the
+account at all&mdash;not more than might be reasonably expected from a poet
+of the highest sensibility and the most vivid imagination in describing
+an incomprehensible natural phenomenon; not more, for example, than in
+"the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words" on Mount Sinai. Still it
+is not the question of descriptive exaggeration, but of scientific fact,
+that is now before us; and if the whole of the so-called conflict of
+Fingal with the Prince of the Power of the Air on Roraheid in Hoy was so
+utterly inexplicable to Macpherson, both as to place and character, that
+he speaks of it hopelessly as a story "concerning ghosts," on what
+principle of critical consistency, or of common sense, can he be said to
+have been the author of it? If the Septuagint translators, for example,
+had added a note of their own on the giving of the Law at Sinai, to the
+effect that it appeared "the most extravagant fiction" to them, at the
+same time transferring, in defiance of their own text, the entire scene
+from one end of the Red Sea to the other, would any reader in his senses
+accuse the Seventy of having fabricated not only the two chapters in
+question, but the whole Book of Exodus&mdash;even although the original had
+been now lost? Their very simplicity and ignorance would have acquitted
+them. Yet Macpherson, in similar circumstances, is to be held guilty,
+although he could have more easily cleared himself by altering or
+omitting the whole passage, than a man in London could prove by an
+<i>alibi</i> that he had been guilty of no forgery at Inverness or Edinburgh
+six hours before! But if this hitherto incomprehensible passage in
+Ossian be genuine then the entire poem of <i>Carric-Thura</i>, which is
+identified with it in every word and syllable from beginning to end,
+must be genuine also.</p>
+
+<p>In the same sort of field, but without the addition of supernatural
+agency, we have another scene of scientific import in the <i>War of
+Inisthona</i>. Inisthona, according to Macpherson, was on the coast of
+Norway&mdash;he did not know where; Inisthona, according to Laing, was a
+wilful corruption of Inis-owen in Lough Foyle; Inisthona, in point of
+fact, was Iceland&mdash;as clearly and distinctly so in Macpherson's own
+text, as latitude, longitude, and physical configuration can make it;
+far more distinctly recognisable than any <i>Ultima Thule</i> of the Romans.
+But here, in this Inisthona, we have first a fountain surrounded with
+mossy stones, in a grassy vale, at the head of a bay; then a wilderness
+of half a day's journey inland; then a lake at the end of the
+wilderness, exhaling pestilential vapours, called Lake Lano&mdash;but no
+volcano visible as yet: and in Iceland we have still the basin of the
+fountain, surrounded with its mossy stones, petrified and dried up by
+volcanic heat, at the head of the bay; we have still the dreary
+wilderness beyond it, now scorched and blackened, ending in the Plain of
+Thingvalla, where the King of Denmark was entertained more than a
+twelvemonth ago; we have still the lake beyond that, where it should be,
+but now relieved of its sulphurous vapours by eruptive jets of steam in
+its neighbourhood; and besides, we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> have now Mount Hecla in active
+operation, by whose accumulated fires and dreadful discharges, since
+Ossian's day, the whole island has been torn and desolated. Here,
+therefore, again, the same question of fact arises, and must be disposed
+of by all reasonable inquirers. In this one identification we have
+geography, geology, history, and navigation combined, beyond
+Macpherson's own comprehension&mdash;earthquakes, subterranean fires, latent
+volcanic forces; a beautiful island where there is now desolation; and a
+warlike people occupying its soil, subject to the Danes 600 years and
+more before the Danes themselves are supposed to have discovered it. In
+the face of such a revelation as this, nowhere else to be found but in
+Ossian, what does it signify that the Gaelic text of <i>Inisthona</i> has
+perished? The fact that it survives in English is only a greater
+miracle, for which we are indebted solely to the patience and fidelity
+of a man who has been called a liar and an impostor.</p>
+
+<p>One more miracle has yet to be added in the same field&mdash;viz., that Lake
+Lego or Lough Neagh in Ireland, and Lake Lano in Iceland, both emitting
+pestilential vapours, are geographically connected in Ossian with
+subterranean volcanic movements which pass from Ireland, by the west
+coast of Scotland, through the Orkneys to Inisthona; and thus the latest
+theories of the most accomplished geologists have been anticipated more
+than a hundred years before their announcement, by the work of a man who
+is supposed to have had no original to guide him, and who himself had
+not the remotest idea of what his own words conveyed.</p>
+
+<p>It remains then, after such illustrations, for those who still deny the
+authenticity of Ossian to declare whether they have ever studied him;
+and for those who still wrangle about the style of Macpherson's
+so-called Gaelic to decide whether they will continue such petty warfare
+among vowels and consonants, and ill-spelt mediæval legends, when the
+science, the history, the navigation, the atmospheric phenomena, and the
+impending volcanic changes of Western Europe fifteen hundred years ago,
+are all unveiled and detailed, with an accuracy and a minuteness beyond
+cavil or competition, in the matchless English translation before them.
+Will our most erudite grammarians never understand? Would they abandon
+Genesis, shall we say, because <i>Elohim</i> and <i>Jehovah</i> are sometimes
+interchanged in the text? Can they believe that any Jew, who could
+concoct a book like Genesis, did not also know that <i>Elohim</i> was a
+plural noun? Can they any more, then, believe that a Celtic man with
+brains enough to fabricate poems like <i>Fingal</i> and <i>Temora</i> did not know
+that the Gaelic name for the sun was feminine? Can they see no other way
+of accounting for such alleged variations of gender, and number, and
+case, than by forgery, when the very forger himself must have seen them?
+Or do they seriously prefer some letter of the Gaelic alphabet to a law
+of nature? Will they forego the facts of an epoch, for the orthography
+of a syllable? If so, then the friends of Ossian, who is one great mass
+of facts, must turn once more to the common sense of the public, and
+leave his etymological detractors at leisure to indulge their own
+predilections, and to entertain one another.</p>
+
+<p>In the present aspect of the controversy, indeed, the only antagonists
+entitled to anything like a patient hearing are the respectable,
+perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> venerable, geologists and antiquarians who still lodge or
+linger about the Roman Wall; who talk, with a solemn air, about stern
+facts; who are also fortified by the authority of Hugh Miller and Smith
+of Jordanhill, and are led on to continuous defeat on their own ground,
+under the auspices of the <i>Scotsman</i>, who knows well how to shut the
+door politely in any man's face who pursues them. These gentlemen are
+far from being either unimportant or unworthy antagonists, if they would
+only speak intelligently for themselves and not allow their credit to be
+usurped by some nameless reviewer in a newspaper, who may know less
+about the whole matter in dispute than they do about Sanscrit. But let
+them have patience. Their favourite haunts, and impregnable strongholds,
+about Dunglass and Duntocher, shall be investigated with religious care;
+and the waters of the Clyde, as high as they will honestly flow, let in
+upon them without ceremony or remorse. As for the others, who, with no
+great semblance of either grace or grammar to support them, persist in
+affirming, with point-blank stolid effrontery, that Macpherson "must
+have been an impostor," and that Ossian is a "fudge"&mdash;they may safely be
+consigned in silence to their legitimate fate.</p>
+
+<p class="rightbyline">
+P. HATELY WADDELL.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+(<i>To be Concluded in our next.</i>)
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>TO PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE.</h2>
+
+<p class="center">A LOCHABER LILT.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<div class="indent">
+
+<p>A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!<br />
+<span class="indent1">(I drink it in <i>mountain dew</i>)</span><br />
+With all the kindliest greetings<br />
+<span class="indent1">Of a heart that is leal and true.</span><br />
+Let happen what happen may<br />
+<span class="indent1">With others, by land or sea;</span><br />
+For me, I vow if I drink at all,<br />
+<span class="indent1">I'll drink a health to thee.</span></p>
+
+<p>A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!<br />
+<span class="indent1">A man of men art thou,</span><br />
+With thy lightsome step and form erect,<br />
+<span class="indent1">And thy broad and open brow;</span><br />
+With thy eagle eye and ringing voice<br />
+<span class="indent1">(Which yet can be soft and kind),</span><br />
+As wrapped in thy plaid thou passest by<br />
+<span class="indent1">With thy white locks in the wind!</span></p>
+
+<p>I greet thee as poet and scholar;<br />
+<span class="indent1">I greet thee as wise and good;</span><br />
+I greet thee ever lord of thyself&mdash;<br />
+<span class="indent1">No heritage mean, by the rood!</span><br />
+I greet thee and hold thee in honour,<br />
+<span class="indent1">That thou bendest to no man's nod&mdash;</span><br />
+Amidst the din of a world of sin,<br />
+<span class="indent1">Still lifting thine eye to God!</span></p>
+
+<p>Go, search me the world and find me;<br />
+<span class="indent1">Go, find me if you can,</span><br />
+From the distant Far&#339;s with their mists and snows,<br />
+<span class="indent1">To the green-clad Isle of Man;</span><br />
+From John O' Groats to Maidenkirk,<br />
+<span class="indent1">From far Poolewe to Prague&mdash;</span><br />
+Go, find me a better or wiser man<br />
+<span class="indent1">Than the Laird of Altnacraig.</span></p>
+
+<p>Now, here's to the honest and leal and true,<br />
+<span class="indent1">And here's to the learned and wise,</span><br />
+And to all who love our Highland glens<br />
+<span class="indent1">And our Bens that kiss the skies;</span><br />
+And here's to the native Celtic race,<br />
+<span class="indent1">And to each bright-eyed Celtic fair;</span><br />
+And here's to the Chief of Altnacraig&mdash;<br />
+<span class="indent1">And hurrah! for the Celtic Chair!</span></p>
+
+<p class="rightbylinepoetry"><span class="smcap">Nether-Lochaber.</span></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>GENERAL SIR ALAN CAMERON, K.C.B.,</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">COLONEL 79th CAMERON HIGHLANDERS</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A popular</span> writer<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> of the past generation, in some introductory
+observations to his historical essay, makes the following on Scotland
+and its natives:&mdash;Considering the limited population and extent of that
+country, it has made a distinguished figure in history. No country in
+modern times has produced characters more remarkable for learning,
+valour, or ability, or for knowledge in the most important arts, both of
+peace and of war; and though the natives of that formerly independent,
+and hitherto unconquered kingdom, have every reason to be proud of the
+name of <i>Britons</i>, which they have acquired since the Union; yet they
+ought not to relinquish all remembrance of the martial achievements, and
+the honourable characteristics of their ancestors. Acting on the
+recommendation embodied in the foregoing quotation; and as the
+conductors of the <i>Celtic Magazine</i> have intimated their intention of
+making biographies form occasionally part of its contents, the following
+sketch of one who, in his day was not the least distinguished among our
+Highland countrymen, but of whose eminent services to his country,
+little or nothing has appeared, may prove interesting. Biography is
+admitted to be one of the most interesting sections of literature. We
+therefore trust that this feature in the Magazine will be appreciated.
+The field will be found extensive, inasmuch that, happily for the
+country, its benefactors have been numerous, the record of whose deeds
+deserve to be remembered in this Celtic periodical for the
+entertainment, and may be, the emulation of its readers.</p>
+
+<p>The details of the life and public services of the gallant gentleman now
+submitted, and deserving record, are supplied partly from oral
+information collected at intervals, and partly from documents received
+by the writer, but which, although imperfect, it is hoped may be
+acceptable, even at this distance since the lifetime of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The absence of any adequate notice of Sir Alan Cameron's services, save
+that in a couple of pages of the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> at his death
+(1828) may be ascribed much to his own reticence in supplying
+information respecting them. Sir John Philliphart and Colonel David
+Stewart, when collecting materials for their respective "Military
+Annals," expressed their regret that Sir Alan's reply to their
+applications for particulars of his life and career was of the most
+meagre nature. Although in common with the majority of other
+distinguished men, averse to giving publicity to the incidents of his
+life, he was otherwise than reticent with his friends, and was never
+happier than when surrounded by them. His house in Gloucester Place was
+a rendezvous during many years for his companions in arms, and his
+"Highland cousins" (as he fondly termed them) were always received with
+a genial welcome. Notwithstanding the general absence of his name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> from
+unofficial publications, it may be affirmed, without hesitation, that in
+his day few were better known, and there was none whose fame stood
+higher than <i>Ailean an Earrachd</i>. In the army he was held in universal
+popularity, where, in consequence of his familiar habit of addressing
+the Irish and Highland soldiers with the Gaelic salute of "<i>Cia mar tha
+thu</i>," he was known as "Old cia mar tha." Indeed, he is so styled in Mr
+Lever's novel of "Charles O'Malley," where he is represented (vol. 1,
+chap, x.) as one of the friends of General Sir George Dashwood. Another
+writer (Miss Sinclair's "Scotland and the Scotch") refers to him as "a
+frequent visitor at her father's house in London, and a celebrity of the
+past generation who was said to have been one of the principals in the
+last duel fought with broadswords; and also known to his friends for the
+more than hearty grasp he shook their hands with." These distinctions,
+no doubt, combined many incidents for their existence. A tragic
+adventure at the outset of his career; his imprisonment during the
+American War; and afterwards his services with the Highlanders
+throughout the wars of the period. He was remarkable for the immense
+size and powerful structure of his person. In a verse from one of the
+many Gaelic songs written in honour of <i>Fear an Earrachd</i>, alluding to
+his majestic form and figure when in the Highland costume, the bard
+says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">
+Nuair theid thu 'n uidheam Gaidheil<br />
+Bu mhiann le Ban-Righ sealladh dhiot,<br />
+Le t-osan is math fiaradh,<br />
+Do chalp air fiamh na gallinné:<br />
+Sporan a bhruic-fhiadhaich,<br />
+Gun chruaidh shnaim riamh ga theannachadh,<br />
+Gur tric thu tarruing iall as<br />
+'S ga riachaidh a measg aineartaich.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>He was the firm friend of the soldier, and considered every man in his
+regiment committed to his personal care. In health he advised them; in
+sickness he saw that their wants were supplied; and once any became
+disabled, he was incessant in his efforts till he secured a pension for
+them. Numerous are the stories told of the encounters between Sir Harry
+Torrens (Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief) and himself for
+his persistent applications for pensions and promotions. These poor
+fellows, for whom he was never tired of interceding, were naturally
+grateful for his fatherly feeling towards them. Such is an outline of
+the characteristics of the subject of the following Biographical sketch.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> sires of the subject of our memoir were of the tribe of Camerons'
+known as <i>Sliochd Eoghainn 'ic Eoghainn</i>, and descended directly from
+the parent stock of the chiefs of the clan, to whom they stood next in
+relationship after the Fassiferns. The lands assigned for their
+occupation, and on which they lived from the earliest settlement of the
+Camerons in Lochaber, were within a short distance of the castle of the
+chiefs, and the homestead of Sir Alan's family was named <i>Earrachd</i>, and
+situated on an elevated plateau at the entrance of <i>Gleann Laoidh</i> (Glen
+Loy) which leads off in a westerly direction. It is close to, and seen
+from, the banks of that portion of the Caledonian Canal between
+Gairlochy and Banavie Locks.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The parents of Alan were Donald Cameron and <i>Marsali</i> (Marjory) MacLean
+(of the family of Drimnin in Morvern). Two incidents connected with the
+infancy of both father and son are peculiarly remarkable. The father was
+an infant in the arms of his mother when she went to the gathering place
+to support the Earl of Mar (1715) to bid farewell to her husband the day
+the clan left; and Alan was an infant in the arms of his mother when
+<i>his</i> father marched out with the clan to meet Prince Charles at
+Glenfinnan (1745). The battle of Sheriffmuir ended the career of Alan's
+grandfather, and the disasters on the field of Culloden made the father
+a wanderer from his hearth and home for the next three years, while his
+family were subjected during that time to cruelties and indignities,
+which were a disgrace to men calling themselves the soldiers of the
+king. Domiciliary visits were made at frequent intervals, and on every
+occasion numbers of cattle were driven off the lands for the use of the
+garrison at Fort-William. These spoliations continued for several months
+after the <i>rising</i> was suppressed, and proved ruinous to the poor people
+whose only crime was that they risked their lives in support of the
+claims of one whom they believed to be the rightful heir to the Crown of
+the United Kingdom. Their descendants, a quarter of a century
+afterwards, risked their lives in another cause with equal fidelity and
+bravery, asserting the rights and defending the honour of the British
+Crown. It is known that the Clan Cameron was the first to appear in
+support of the standard of the Prince. The gathering place of the clan
+was at <i>Drochaid Laoidh</i>, and there ten of the <i>twelve</i> tribes promptly
+answered the <i>Cothionnal</i> "<i>Thigibh a chlann na 'n con 's gheobh sibh
+feoil.</i>" The absentees were, the Camerons of Fassifern, and the Camerons
+of Glen Nevis; the proverbial caution of the first forbade their
+adherence, while the influence of the Whig Clan Grant prevailed with the
+latter. The defection of the Fassiferns gave the place of second in
+command, or Lieutenant of the clan, to Cameron of <i>Earrachd</i> (Alan's
+father). The clan turned out 600, but these were considerably augmented
+a few days afterwards. After a spirited address from the chief (the
+"gentle Lochiel"), the first march of that eventful movement commenced
+with pipers playing and banners flying, wending their way with steady
+demeanour and elastic step up Glen Loy, and over the hills that
+separated them from Glenfinnan.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the chiefs of Lochiel were, in addition to being men of great
+military renown and martial ardour, shrewd politicians. They encouraged
+other septs to dwell on their lands that they might be serviceable to
+assist them in keeping the jealous or more turbulent spirits of their
+own clansmen in subjection. At any rate, with the Camerons in this
+campaign, a third was composed of Maclachlans, Macmillans, Kennedies,
+Macphees, Mackinnons, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>The Governor of the garrison at Fort-William having heard of the
+intended gathering at Glenfinnan, sent out a company of soldiers by way
+of reconnoitring the proceedings. To avoid observance they followed a
+devious path over the hills, and most opportunely fell in with the
+Camerons, by whom they were surrounded, and without much difficulty made
+prisoners. Besides the <i>eclat</i> of this the first victory, the arms thus
+possessed were of considerable advantage to the Highlanders, most of
+whom were miserably equipped for the exigencies of the campaign.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A most cordial reception was given to Lochiel and his clan by the
+Prince, after which the Marquis of Tullibardine unfurled the standard,
+amidst unbounded enthusiasm. It was made of white and blue silk.
+Meanwhile the Laird of Keppoch was observed advancing with a contingent
+of 300 of his Macdonells. At the head of the diminutive force thus made
+up, Prince Charles embarked on a contest with a power the most
+formidable in Europe. And the daring of this small band was even more
+conspicuous when they at once determined to march direct on the capital
+of the kingdom. Glenfinnan, formed not unlike an amphitheatre, and easy
+of access for all parts of the Western Highlands, was admirably fitted
+for the rendezvous.</p>
+
+<p>The morning march of the little army took the route alongside of an arm
+of the sea named Lochiel (the same from which the chief takes his modern
+title) to Corpach. Here they encamped the first night, afterwards
+continuing their way up the Braes of Lochaber, Blair Athole, and towards
+the City of Perth, which they occupied as an intermediate resting place.
+A few days further march brought them within a short distance of
+Edinburgh. On nearing the capital a halt was made at Duddingston, and a
+council was held, at which it was decided to detach Lochiel's force to
+make the advance and demand the surrender of the city. The Camerons
+having been the first arrivals at Glenfinnan, may have been the cause of
+this selection. Lochiel having received some injury from a fall off his
+horse on the journey, he was unable to accompany his clansmen. Cameron
+of Earrachd consequently succeeded to the command of this important
+mission, and its success is matter of history. The events of the '45 are
+introduced into the career of Alan (the son) somewhat irrelevantly, but
+only to connect the latter with the singular incident that sixty-two
+years afterwards it fell to <i>his</i> lot to have been ordered by Sir Arthur
+Wellesley to take possession of the Citadel of Copenhagen (1807). Taking
+leave now of Prince Charles and his Highlanders, with their fortunes and
+their failures, the narrative of Alan Cameron will proceed without
+further divergence.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was during these turbulent times that Alan Cameron passed his
+infantile years&mdash;he was four years of age before he saw his father, and,
+although it was hoped that the settlement of the difficulties which had
+existed would favour his career in life, exempt from the toils and
+strifes of war, it was not so ordained, as the narrative will prove.</p>
+
+<p>Alan was the oldest son of a family of three sons and three daughters,
+some of whom found meet employment subsequently in his regiment. Their
+education was conducted as customary in those days by resident tutors
+from Aberdeen and St Andrews. With one of these Alan, on reaching a
+suitable age, went to the latter University for one or two sessions to
+complete his education. As the oldest son, it was intended that on
+arriving at a certain age he should relieve his father of the care and
+management of the lands and stock, and become the responsible
+representative of the family at home; while it was arranged that of the
+other sons, Donald was to enter the naval service of the Dutch East
+India Company,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> and the youngest, Ewan, was to find a commission in one
+of the Fencible Corps of the county of Argyll. But this arrangement was
+not to be, especially as regards the eldest and youngest sons. A
+circumstance of melancholy interest occurred before the former had taken
+to the succession of the farm, or the other had arrived at the age to be
+an effective officer of his regiment, which had the effect of exactly
+reversing these intentions. The occurrence referred to was of a tragical
+nature, and caused the utmost sensation among the families of the
+district, inasmuch as relationship was so general there that whatever
+brought affliction to the hearth of one family, would leave its portion
+also at the threshold of the others. Alan, like other youths, employed
+much of his juvenile years in the sports of a Highland country
+life&mdash;fox-hunting, deer-stalking, and fishing for salmon on the Lochy;
+at all of which he was more than ordinarily successful. The nearest
+house to his father's was that of another Cameron&mdash;chieftain of a
+considerable tribe (<i>Mac Ile' Onaich</i> or Sliochd Ile' Onaich), who had
+recently died of wounds received at Culloden. His widow and children
+occupied the house at Strone. The lady is reputed to have been very
+handsome, and would apparently answer <i>Donachadh Ban's</i> description of
+<i>Isabel og an or fhuilt bhuidhe</i>, leastways, to borrow a word from the
+Cockney&mdash;she was styled <i>par excellance</i>, <i>a Bhanntrach Ruadh</i>. Alan, like
+a friendly kinsman, was most generous in sharing the successes of his
+gun and rod with the widowed lady, for which, no doubt, she expressed
+her acknowledgments to the youthful sportsman. The course of this
+commendable neighbourship was rather unexpectedly interrupted by some
+words of misunderstanding which occurred between Alan and a gentleman
+(also a Cameron) who was closely related to the widow's late husband. He
+was known as <i>Fear Mhorsheirlich</i>; had been <i>out</i> in the '45 when quite
+a youth, and escaped to Holland, from which he had only returned a few
+months previous to the incident of this narrative. Contemporaries spoke
+of him as being most accomplished, and of gallant bearing. The real
+nature of the dispute has not descended sufficiently authentic to
+justify more minute reference than that rumour assigned it to have been
+an accusation that Alan was imprudently intimate with the handsome widow
+of Strone (<i>a Bhanntrach Ruadh</i>). The delicate insinuation was resented
+by Alan in language probably more plain than polite. Mr Cameron was
+Alan's senior by some twenty years or so, but notwithstanding this, his
+high spirit could not brook the rough retort of the accused; and, much
+to Alan's confusion, the result was that he received a peremptory demand
+to apologise or arrange a meeting for personal satisfaction. As he
+declined to return the one, he was obliged to grant the desperate
+alternative. Reading this account of men going out to engage in personal
+combat for a cause so small, will lead us to consider that such a result
+ought to have been prevented by the interposition of friends. But it
+must not be overlooked that the customs of the times are very much
+ameliorated from what prevailed in those days (1772). It is probable
+that even then if the management of the affair had been confided to
+skilful diplomatists the meeting might have been averted. Friends of
+such conciliating habits were either not at hand, or they were not
+consulted; and, as men equal in high spirits, the principals could not
+volunteer any compromise. Alan's chief anxiety was how to keep the event
+secret from his parents and family,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> therefore, he quietly repaired to a
+relative to request his attendance the following morning as his friend
+for the occasion. It is said that this gentleman used his utmost powers
+of dissuasion, although unsuccessful&mdash;determination had, in the interval
+of a few hours, become too settled for alteration. Alan, as the
+challenged, was, according to duelling etiquette, entitled to the choice
+of weapons and place of meeting. Although the pistol had in a measure
+superseded the rapier in England, the broadsword remained the favourite
+weapon in the north when required for the purpose of personal
+<i>satisfaction</i>. Highlanders had always a preference for the weapon named
+by Ossian&mdash;<i>An Lann tanna</i>&mdash;and by the modern bards&mdash;<i>Tagha nan Arm</i>.
+Alan decided on making choice of the steel blade, and named a certain
+obscure spot on the banks of the Lochy for the meeting on the following
+day at the grey hour of the morning. His difficulty now was how to get
+possession of one of these implements of war without exciting suspicion
+or inquiries. They numbered more than one in the armory of every
+Highland household, and in the case of those in his father's house they
+were preserved with a care due to articles which had been often used
+with effect in the past. Among them was one which had been <i>out</i> in the
+campaigns of 1689 (Dundee's), 1715 (Mar's), and in 1745-6. It was of
+Spanish manufacture, and remarkable for the length and symmetry of its
+blade, in consequence of which it received the sobriquet of <i>Rangaire
+Riabhach</i>.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> In his failure to find the keys of the arms depository, he
+bethought him to make a confident and enlist the sympathies of an
+elderly lady, who had been a member of the family since the days of his
+childhood. The aged Amazon not only promised her aid, but highly
+approved, and even encouraged, the spirit of her youthful relative.
+Having access to the keys of the armory, the <i>Rangaire</i> was soon in
+Alan's hands, and with it he repaired to the place appointed, "to
+vindicate his own honour and give <i>satisfaction</i> to his antagonist."</p>
+
+<p>The time of year when this event took place was in the early days of
+autumn. Daylight and the combatants arrived on the scene together. Vague
+particulars of the preliminaries between them have been variously
+retailed, but they are not necessary to the narrative, and therefore not
+referred to. The fact that the elder Cameron was reputed to be a skilled
+swordsman, also that it was not the first time he had met his foes in
+the field, may have had some effect on the nerves of his younger
+opponent, but there was no outward indication of it. The home-taught
+countryman, however, must have felt that he was standing face to face
+with no ordinary opponent. Alan, like the generality of young men, had
+such practice in the use of the weapon as to make him acquainted with
+the <i>cuts</i> and <i>guards</i>. The superiority of Mr Cameron was at first
+apparent and proved, inasmuch as he not only kept himself for some time
+uninjured, but inflicted a severe cut on Alan's left arm. This blow may
+be said to have brought the conflict to its sudden and fatal
+termination. The pain, together with the humiliation, roused Alan's
+wrath to desperation. It became manifest to the only two friends
+present, that the life of one, if not of the two combatants, would be
+sacrificed; but they found themselves quite powerless to restrain the
+rage of the wounded principal. Their anticipations were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> not long in
+being confirmed. The elder Cameron fell from a blow delivered on the
+head by the powerful arm of his opponent. The force may be imagined when
+it is stated that it was what is known as No. 7 cut, and that the
+wounded man's sword in defending was forced into his own forehead. He
+lived just long enough to reach Strone house&mdash;a mile or so distant. It
+is impossible, except to those who have experienced a similar trial, to
+estimate the state of feeling such a painful scene produced on the three
+now remaining on the field. Time, however, was not to be trifled with,
+for, although, there were no "men in blue" to make prisoners of the
+breakers of the peace; yet the vanquished combatant had friends who
+would not hesitate to take life for life. Alan's <i>achates</i> at once
+thought of that probability, or of revenge in some form. They,
+therefore, hurried him away from the field and across the river Lochy. A
+short consultation decided that he should remove himself entirely from
+the Cameron country for the time being. This was concurred in by Alan,
+who girded his claymore and determined on making direct for his uncle's
+house in Morvern&mdash;(Maclean of Drimnin)&mdash;distant about sixty miles, where
+he arrived without resting or drawing breath. The advice of his counsel,
+and the decision arrived at, proved to be not unnecessary, as the sequel
+proved. The fallen man was one of the cadets of a numerous tribe, and
+they would naturally, in accordance with the habit of the times, seek to
+avenge the death of their kinsman. They sought for the slayer of their
+friend with diligence and zeal. Their search was far and wide; but,
+fortunately for the fugitive, and thanks to the vigilance of his
+relatives, his pursuers were defeated in their attempt to capture their
+intended victim. The consternation of the uncle (Drimnin), on learning
+the cause of his nephew's sudden visit, may be surmised; but what was
+done could not be undone. When the Laird was satisfied with Alan's
+version, that <i>Morsheirlich</i> fell in fair fight, brought about by
+himself, his displeasure somewhat relented. Affection and sympathy
+mingled in the old Laird's bosom, and he decided to befriend his
+unfortunate nephew at all hazard. It was conjectured that the search of
+the avengers would be directed towards this district, where Alan's
+relatives were numerous, and where he would likely betake himself in
+this emergency. That he might elude his pursuers with greater certainty,
+the Laird of Drimnin had him escorted across the Sound of Mull by some
+trusty kinsmen, to the charge of another Maclean (Pennycross), and with
+whom he was to remain until he received further instructions respecting
+his future destination. The grief and revenge of <i>Morsheirlich's</i>
+friends had not yet subsided, and would not, for years to come, so that
+Alan would be unwise to return to his native home, or place himself in
+their path.</p>
+
+<p>The Collector of His Majesty's Customs at the Port of Greenock was an
+immediate relation to the Laird of Drimnin by marriage, and a
+correspondence was entered on with him with the view of ascertaining his
+opinion as to what was best to be done for Alan. Negotiations occupied
+more time for their conduct at that time than in the present day; at any
+rate nothing satisfactory was proposed to Alan, so that for a couple of
+years he continued wandering up and down the island of Mull, and through
+the glens of Morvern, entirely under the guidance of his uncle. At last
+a request came from the Collector to send the fugitive to him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> that he
+might find employment for him in his own office. The uncle decreed,
+rather against Alan's grain, that the offer of clerkship should
+meanwhile be accepted. He remained in this occupation for several
+months, until he received an invitation from another friend residing in
+Leith. This gentleman wrote to say that there was now an opportunity of
+giving him service in an enterprise likely to be congenial to "a man of
+metal" such as he conceived Alan to be. The war of American Independence
+had commenced, and the employment which the Leith friend proposed was
+that Alan should join a privateer which was fitting out in an English
+port, armed with letters of marque, to capture and destroy American
+shipping. Alan answered the invitation by repairing to Leith in person
+with all speed. The nature of the service offered, however, did not
+accord with his ideas of honourable warfare; in fact, he considered it
+more akin to piracy, and not such as a gentleman should take part in. He
+had no affection, he said, for clerkship, but he had still less for the
+life of a pirate.</p>
+
+<p>While Alan was oscillating in this manner, he learned that another
+relative of his mother's, Colonel Alan Maclean of Torloisk, who had
+emigrated to one of the North American colonies some years previously,
+had received a commission to embody a regiment of those of his
+countrymen who had become residents on free-grants of land at the same
+time with himself. To this gentleman Alan decided on going. Soldiering
+was more genial to his nature than marine freebooting, and he calculated
+on Colonel Maclean's assistance in that direction. (This Colonel
+Maclean's grand-daughter was Miss Clephane Maclean, afterwards
+Marchioness of Northampton.) Arrived in America, Alan was received
+kindly by his relative, and being a soldier himself he viewed the past
+event in Alan's life as of a nature not entirely without a certain
+amount of recommendation to a wanderer in search of fame. Alan was not
+long in the country when Colonel Maclean added him to his list of
+volunteers, in a body, which was soon afterwards enrolled as the "Royal
+Highland Emigrant Corps."</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>(To be Continued).</i></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Sir John Sinclair.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Brown or brindled wrangler.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>A. R. wants to know "the best standard for Gaelic orthography?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Cabar-feidh</span> would like to know if any of Grant's [<i>Bard Mor an
+t-Slagain</i>] Poems were ever published? If so, where? and by whom? It is
+believed many of his pieces, which were famous in his day, are still
+known in the Lochbroom and Dundonnell districts. <i>Cabar</i> requests that
+any of the readers of the <i>Celtic Magazine</i> to whom any of the poems are
+known would kindly forward them for publication. Grant knew more
+Ossianic poetry than any man of his day&mdash;1746 to 1842. Any information
+regarding him would be of interest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Macaoidh</span> enquires to what sept of the clan the famous pipers&mdash;the
+Mackays of Gairloch&mdash;belonged, and how did they find their way to that
+part of the country? Are there any of their descendants still living in
+this country or in North British America, where the last famous piper of
+the race emigrated? The "Blind Piper" and bard was the most famous of
+this remarkable family, and was a pupil in the celebrated College of the
+Macrimmon's in Skye.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Reply to "Glengarry's" Query</span>.&mdash;There are words in English to
+<i>Piobaireachd Mhic Ranuil</i> or <i>Cilliechriost</i>, and they, with
+particulars of the occasion on which the tune was composed, will appear
+in the next instalment of the <span class="smcap">Highland Ceilidh</span> in the <i>Celtic
+Magazine</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE HIGHLAND CEILIDH.</h2>
+
+<p class="center">BY ALASTAIR OG.<br />
+[<span class="smcap">Continued.</span>]</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> the conclusion of the "Spell of Cadboll" Norman received the hearty
+and unanimous congratulations of the circle. The frail old bard, pulling
+himself together, got up, went across the room, and shook him heartily
+with both hands. This special honour was a most unusual one. It was
+clear that <i>Alastair</i> was just in the mood when a little persuasion
+would suffice to get him to recite one of his own compositions. This he
+was generally very chary of doing, but Norman getting the hint from one
+of his immediate neighbours to ask the bard a special favour on this
+occasion at once begged the honour of hearing one of the bard's
+compositions from his own lips. The venerable old man bent himself
+forward, began to work the fingers of both hands and beat time on his
+leg as on a chanter, humming a quiet <i>cronan</i>. This was his usual
+practice when composing or reciting poetry, and it was at once seen that
+he would consent. "I will give you," says he, "a <i>Marbh-rann</i>, or Elegy
+which no one ever heard, and which I have recently composed to the late
+'Bailie Hector' of Dingwall, a son of my late esteemed friend
+'Letterewe,' on condition that you, Sir, will give us another story when
+I am done." Norman at once agreed, and the bard commenced as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<h3 class="gesperrt">MARBHRANN.</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Do Bhailidh Eachainn, Inbhir-Feotharan, Mac fear Leitir-iugh.</span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Air Fonn</span>&mdash;"<i>'S mi 'm shuidhe 'm 'onar.</i>"</p>
+
+<div class="indent25">
+
+<p>O 's truagh an sgeula tha 'n diugh ri fheutainn,<br />
+Thug gal air ceudan a measg an t-sluaigh,<br />
+Mu Eachainn gleusta 'bha fearail, feumail,<br />
+Gun da ghlac an t-eug thu a threun-laoich chruaidh:<br />
+'S mor bron do Chinnidh, mar eoin na tuinne<br />
+Tha 'n cronan duilich 's an ullaidh uath<br />
+'S bho nach duisg an gair thu, 's nach cluinn thu 'n gailich,<br />
+Se chlaoidh do chairdean do bhas cho luath.</p>
+
+<p>Tha do chairdean cianal, tha bron da'lionadh,<br />
+Tha 'n inntinn pianail bho n' ghlac thu 'm bas,<br />
+'S iad a ghnath fuidh thiorachd 's nach faigh iad sgial ort,<br />
+Ach thu bhi iosal an ciste chlar<br />
+Bu tu ceann na riaghailt 'us lamh na fialachd,<br />
+A sheoid gun fhiaradh, gun ghiamh gun sgath,<br />
+'Sa nis bho 'n thriall thu, 's sinn lan dha d' iargan,<br />
+'S nach eil 's na criochan fear a lionas d' ait.</p>
+
+<p>Bha d' aite miaghail 's gach cas an iarrt' thu,<br />
+A reir mo sgiala bu teirc do luach:<br />
+Bha thu pairteach, briathrach, ri ard 's ri iosal,<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>Gun chàs gun dioghaltas air an tuath.<br />
+Bha foghlum Iarl' agad 's ciall fear riaghlaidh<br />
+Bu mhor an diobhail nach da liath do ghruag,<br />
+'S ann a bharc an t-aog ort mas d' thainig aois ort,<br />
+A ghnuis bha faoilteach air chaochladh snuaidh.</p>
+
+<p>Bha do shnuadh cho aillidh 's nach fhaodainn s' aireamh,<br />
+Mar ròs a gharaidh ri maduinn dhriuchd,<br />
+Bu chuachach, faineach, do ghruag an caradh&mdash;<br />
+Mar theudan clarsaich an' inneal ciuil<br />
+Do ghruaidh dhearg dhathte, do shuil mar dhearcag,<br />
+Fuidh ghnuis na maise bu tapaidh sùrd<br />
+Rasg aotram, geanach, bho 'm b'fhaoilteach sealladh<br />
+Beul muirneach tairis, 's deud thana dhluth.</p>
+
+<p>O! 's dluth bha buaidhean a stri mu'n cuairt duit,<br />
+Cha b' eol dhomh suairceas nach robh 'do chrè<br />
+Bha thu ciallach, narach, 's tu briathrach, pairteach,<br />
+'S tu rianail, daimheil, ri d' chairdean fhein:<br />
+Bu tu firean, fallain, bha rioghail, geanach,<br />
+'Sa leoghann tapaidh bu ghlaine beus;<br />
+Bhiodh min 'us gairg' air, bhiodh sith 'us fearg air,<br />
+Nuair chit' air falbh e bhiodh colg na cheum.</p>
+
+<p>Se do cheum bu bhrisge 's bu shubailt iosgaid,<br />
+Bha moran ghibhtean ri d' leasraidh fuaight.<br />
+Bu tu glas nan Gaidheal, bho mhuir gu braighe<br />
+Gu crioch Chinntaile 's na tha bho thuath.<br />
+O! 's lionmhor oigfhear tha 'n diugh gu bronach<br />
+A fasgadh dhorn, 'us ruith-dheoir le ghruaidh,<br />
+'Bhiodh dana, sgaiteach, gun sgath gun ghealtachd,<br />
+Na 'm bu namhaid pears' bheireadh Eachainn bh' uainn.</p>
+
+<p>Bha thu mor an onair, bu mhor do mholadh,<br />
+Bu mhor do shonas, 's tu gun dolaidh gibht'<br />
+Bu mhor a b'fhiach thu, bu mhor do riaghailt,<br />
+Bu mhor do mhiagh ann an ciall 's an tuigs',<br />
+Bu mhor do churam, bu mhor do chuisean,<br />
+Bu mhor do chliu ann an cuirt 'sa meas,<br />
+Bu mhor do stata, 's bu mhor do nadur,<br />
+'S cha mhor nach d'fhag thu na Gaidheil brist'.</p>
+
+<p>O! 's priseil, laidir, a ghibhte 'dh-fhag sinn&mdash;<br />
+'S mios'da Ghaeltachd bàs an t-seoid,<br />
+Tha Mhachair tursach bho n' chaidh an uir ort,<br />
+'S tu dh-fhuasgladh cuis do gach cuirt mu bhord,<br />
+Bha 'Ghalldachd deurach ri cainnt ma d' dheighinn,<br />
+Gu ruig Dun-eidin nan steud 's nan cleoc,<br />
+'S cha ghabhainn gealtachd, air son a chantuinn,<br />
+Gur call do Bhreatuinn nach eil thu beo.</p>
+
+<p>'S tu chraobh a b'aillidh bha 'n tus a gharaidh<br />
+'S i ùr a fas ann fuidh bhlath 's fuidh dhos,<br />
+O! 's truagh a dh-fhag thu ma thuath na Gaidheil<br />
+Mar uain gun mhathair ni'n sgath ri frois,<br />
+'S tu b'urr' an tearnadh bho chunnart gabhaidh,<br />
+'S an curaidh laidir, chuireadh spairn na tost,<br />
+Tha 'n tuath gu craiteach, 's na h-uaislean càsai,<br />
+'S bho 'n chaidh am fàd ort 's truagh gair nam bochd.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ma ta 's math sibh fhein Alastair Bhuidhe; 's grinn comhnard a
+bhardachd a th'air a mharbhrainn, ach cha 'n eil i dad nas fhearr na
+thoill brod a Ghaidheil agus am fior dhuin' uasal dha'n d'rinn sibh i,"
+arsa Ruairidh Mor.</i> (Well done yourself, <i>Alastair Buidhe</i>, the
+composition of the Elegy is beautifully elegant and even, but not any
+better than the memory of the best of Highlanders and the truest of
+gentlemen, to whom you composed it, deserved, said Big Rory). This was
+the general verdict of the circle.</p>
+
+<p>Norman was now called upon to fulfil his part of the arrangement, which
+he promptly did by giving the Legend, of which the following is a
+translation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<h3>THE RAID OF CILLIECHRIOST.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> ancient Chapel of Cilliechriost, in the Parish of Urray, in Ross,
+was the scene of one of the bloodiest acts of ferocity and revenge that
+history has recorded. The original building has long since disappeared,
+but the lonely and beautifully situated burying-ground is still in use.
+The tragedy originated in the many quarrels which arose between the two
+chiefs of the North Highlands&mdash;Mackenzie of Kintail and Macdonald of
+Glengarry. As usual, the dispute was regarding land, but it were not
+easy to arrive at the degree of blame to which each party was entitled,
+enough that there was bad blood between these two paladins of the north.
+Of course, the quarrel was not allowed to go to sleep for lack of action
+on the part of their friends and clansmen. The Macdonalds having made
+several raids on the Mackenzie country, the Mackenzies retaliated by the
+spoiling of Morar with a large and overwhelming force. The Macdonalds,
+taking advantage of Kenneth Mackenzie's visit to Mull with the view to
+influence Maclean to induce the former to peace, once more committed
+great devastation in the Mackenzie country, under the leadership of
+Glengarry's son Angus. From Kintail and Lochalsh the clan of the
+Mackenzies gathered fast, but too late to prevent Macdonald from
+escaping to sea with his boats loaded with the foray. A portion of the
+Mackenzies ran to Eilean-donan, while another portion sped to the narrow
+strait of the Kyle between Skye and the mainland, through which the
+Macdonalds, on their return, of necessity, must pass. At Eilean-donan
+Lady Mackenzie furnished them with two boats, one ten-oared and one
+four-oared, also with arrows and ammunition. Though without their chief,
+the Mackenzies sallied forth, and rowing towards Kyleakin, lay in wait
+for the approach of the Macdonalds. The first of the Glengarry boats
+they allowed to pass unchallenged, but the second, which was the
+thirty-two-oared galley of the chief was furiously attacked. The
+unprepared Macdonalds rushing to the side of the heavily loaded boat,
+swamped the craft, and were all thrown into the sea, where they were
+despatched in large numbers, and those who escaped to the land were
+destroyed "by the Kintail men, who killed them like <i>sealchagan</i>."<a name="FNanchor_A_3" id="FNanchor_A_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_3" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>
+The body of young Glengarry was secured and buried in the very door-way
+of the Kirk of Kintail, that the Mackenzies might trample over it
+whenever they went to church. Time passed on, Donald <i>Gruamach</i>, the
+old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> chief, died ere he could mature matters for adequate retaliation of
+the Kyle tragedy and the loss of his son Angus. The chief of the clan
+was an infant in whom the feelings of revenge could not be worked out by
+action; but there was one, his cousin, who was the Captain or Leader in
+whom the bitterest thoughts exercised their fullest sway. It seems now
+impossible that such acts could have occurred, and it gives one a
+startling idea of the state of the country then, when such a terrible
+instance of private vengeance could have been carried out so recent as
+the beginning of the seventeenth century, without any notice being taken
+of it, even, in those days of general blood and rapine. Notwithstanding
+the hideousness of sacrilege and murder, which, certainly, in magnitude
+of atrocity, was scarcely ever equalled, there are many living, even in
+the immediate neighbourhood, who are ignorant of the cause of the act.
+Macranuil of Lundi, captain of the clan, whose personal prowess was only
+equalled by his intense ferocity, made many incursions into the
+Mackenzie country, sweeping away their cattle, and otherwise doing them
+serious injury; but these were but preludes to that sanguinary act on
+which his soul gloated, and by which he hoped effectually to avenge the
+loss of influence and property of which his clan were deprived by the
+Mackenzies, and more particularly wash out the records of death of his
+chief and clansmen at Kyleakin. In order to form his plans more
+effectually he wandered for some time as a mendicant among the
+Mackenzies in order the more successfully to fix on the best means and
+spot for his revenge. A solitary life offered up to expiate the manes of
+his relatives was not sufficient in his estimation, but the life's blood
+of such a number of his bitterest foemen, and an act at which the
+country should stand aghast was absolutely necessary. Returning home he
+gathered together a number of the most desperate of his clan, and by a
+forced march across the hills arrived at the Church of Cilliechriost on
+a Sunday forenoon, when it was filled by a crowd of worshippers of the
+clan Mackenzie. Without a moments delay, without a single pang of
+remorse, and while the song of praise ascended to heaven from fathers,
+mothers, and children, he surrounded the church with his band, and with
+lighted torches set fire to the roof. The building was thatched, and
+while a gentle breeze from the east fanned the fire, the song of praise,
+mingled with the crackling of the flames, until the imprisoned
+congregation, becoming conscious of their situation, rushed to the doors
+and windows, where they were met by a double row of bristling swords.
+Now, indeed, arose the wild wail of despair, the shrieks of women, the
+infuriated cries of men, and the helpless screaming of children, these
+mingled with the roaring of the flames appalled even the Macdonalds, but
+not so Allan Dubh. "Thrust them back into the flames" cried he, "for he
+that suffers ought to escape alive from Cilliechriost shall be branded
+as a traitor to his clan"; and they were thrust back or mercilessly hewn
+down within the narrow porch, until the dead bodies piled on each other
+opposed an unsurmountable barrier to the living. Anxious for the
+preservation of their young children, the scorching mothers threw them
+from the windows in the vain hope that the feelings of parents awakened
+in the breasts of the Macdonalds would induce them to spare them, but
+not so. At the command of Allan of Lundi they were received on the
+points of the broadswords<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> of men in whose breasts mercy had no place.
+It was a wild and fearful sight only witnessed by a wild and fearful
+race. During the tragedy they listened with delight to the piper of the
+band, who marching round the burning pile, played to drown the screams
+of the victims, an extempore pibroch, which has ever since been
+distinguished as the war tune of Glengarry under the title of
+"Cilliechriost." The flaming roof fell upon the burning victims, soon
+the screams ceased to be heard, a column of smoke and flame leapt into
+the air, the pibroch ceased, the last smothered groan of existence
+ascended into the still sky of that Sabbath morning, whispering as it
+died away that the agonies of the congregation were over.</p>
+
+<p>East, west, north, and south looked Allan Dubh Macranuil. Not a living
+soul met his eye. The fire he kindled had destroyed, like the spirit of
+desolation. Not a sound met his ear, and his own tiger soul sunk within
+him in dismay. The Parish of Cilliechriost seemed swept of every living
+thing. The fearful silence that prevailed, in a quarter lately so
+thickly peopled, struck his followers with dread; for they had given in
+one hour the inhabitants of a whole parish, one terrible grave. The
+desert which they had created filled them with dismay, heightened into
+terror by the howls of the masterless sheep dogs, and they turned to
+fly. Worn out with the suddenness of their long march from Glengarry,
+and with their late fiendish exertions, on their return they sat down to
+rest on the green face of Glenconvinth, which route they took in order
+to reach Lundi through the centre of Glenmorriston by Urquhart. Before
+they fled from Cilliechriost Allan divided his party into two, one
+passing by Inverness and the other as already mentioned; but the
+Macdonalds were not allowed to escape, for the flames had roused the
+Mackenzies as effectually as if the fiery cross had been sent through
+their territories. A youthful leader, a cadet of the family of Seaforth,
+in an incredibly short time, found himself surrounded by a determined
+band of Mackenzies eager for the fray; these were also divided into two
+bodies, one commanded by Murdoch Mackenzie of Redcastle, proceeded by
+Inverness, to follow the pursuit along the southern side of Loch Ness;
+another headed by Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, struck across the country
+from Beauly, to follow the party of the Macdonalds who fled along the
+northern side of Loch Ness under their leader Allan Dubh Macranuil. The
+party that fled by Inverness were surprised by Redcastle in a
+public-house at Torbreck, three miles to the west of the town where they
+stopped to refresh themselves. The house was set on fire, and they
+all&mdash;thirty-seven in number&mdash;suffered the death which, in the earlier
+part of the day, they had so wantonly inflicted. The Mackenzies, under
+Coul, after a few hours' hard running, came up with the Macdonalds as
+they sought a brief repose on the hills towards the burn of Aultsigh.
+There the Macdonalds maintained an unequal conflict, but as guilt only
+brings faint hearts to its unfortunate votaries they turned and again
+fled precipitately to the burn. Many, however, missed the ford, and the
+channel being rough and rocky several fell under the swords of the
+victorious Mackenzies. The remainder, with all the speed they could
+make, held on for miles lighted by a splendid and cloudless moon, and
+when the rays of the morning burst upon them, Allan Dubh Macranuil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> and
+his party were seen ascending the southern ridge of Glen Urquhart with
+the Mackenzies close in the rear. Allan casting an eye behind him and
+observing the superior numbers and determination of his pursuers, called
+to his band to disperse in order to confuse his pursuers and so divert
+the chase from himself. This being done, he again set forward at the
+height of his speed, and after a long run, drew breath to reconnoitre,
+when, to his dismay, he found that the avenging Mackenzies were still
+upon his track in one unbroken mass. Again he divided his men and bent
+his flight towards the shore of Loch Ness, but still he saw the foe with
+redoubled vigour, bearing down upon him. Becoming fearfully alive to his
+position, he cried to his few remaining companions again to disperse,
+until they left him, one by one, and he was alone. Allan, who as a mark
+of superiority and as Captain of the Glengarry Macdonalds, always wore a
+red jacket, was easily distinguished from the rest of his clansmen, and
+the Mackenzies being anxious for his capture, thus easily singled him
+out as the object of their joint and undiverted pursuit. Perceiving the
+sword of vengeance ready to descend on his head he took a resolution as
+desperate in its conception as unequalled in its accomplishment. Taking
+a short course towards the fearful ravine of Aultsigh he divested
+himself of his plaid and buckler, and turning to the leader of the
+Mackenzies, who had nearly come up with him, beckoned him to follow,
+then with a few yards of a run he sprang over the yawning chasm, never
+before contemplated without a shudder. The agitation of his mind at the
+moment completely overshadowed the danger of the attempt, and being of
+an athletic frame he succeeded in clearing the desperate leap. The young
+and reckless Mackenzie, full of ardour and determined at all hazards to
+capture the murderer followed; but, being a stranger to the real width
+of the chasm, perhaps of less nerve than his adversary, and certainly
+not stimulated by the same feelings, he only touched the opposite brink
+with his toes, and slipping downwards he clung by a slender shoot of
+hazel which grew over the tremendous abyss. Allan Dubh looking round on
+his pursuer and observing the agitation of the hazel bush, immediately
+guessed the cause, and returning with the ferocity of a demon who had
+succeeded in getting his victim into his fangs, hoarsely whispered, "I
+have given your race this day much, I shall give them this also, surely
+now the debt is paid," when cutting the hazel twig with his sword, the
+intrepid youth was dashed from crag to crag until he reached the stream
+below, a bloody and misshapen mass. Macranuil again commenced his
+flight, but one of the Mackenzies, who by this time had come up, sent a
+musket shot after him, by which he was wounded, and obliged to slacken
+his pace. None of his pursuers, however, on coming up to Aultsigh, dared
+or dreamt of taking a leap which had been so fatal to their youthful
+leader, and were therefore under the necessity of taking a circuitous
+route to gain the other side. This circumstance enabled Macranuil to
+increase the distance between him and his pursuers, but the loss of
+blood, occasioned by his wound, so weakened him that very soon he found
+his determined enemies were fast gaining on him. Like an infuriated wolf
+he hesitated whether to await the undivided attack of the Mackenzies or
+plunge into Loch Ness and attempt to swim across its waters. The shouts
+of his approaching enemies soon decided him, and he sprung into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> its
+deep and dark wave. Refreshed by its invigorating coolness he soon swam
+beyond the reach of their muskets; but in his weak and wounded state it
+is more than probable he would have sunk ere he had crossed half the
+breadth had not the firing and the shouts of his enemies proved the
+means of saving his life. Fraser of Foyers seeing a numerous band of
+armed men standing on the opposite bank of Loch Ness, and observing a
+single swimmer struggling in the water, ordered his boat to be launched,
+and pulling hard to the individual, discovered him to be his friend
+Allan Dubh, with whose family Fraser was on terms of friendship.
+Macranuil, thus rescued remained at the house of Foyers until he was
+cured of his wound, but the influence and the Clan of the Macdonalds
+henceforth declined, while that of the Mackenzies surely and steadily
+increased.</p>
+
+<p>The heavy ridge between the vale of Urquhart and Aultsigh where Allan
+Dubh Macranuil so often divided his men, is to this day called
+<i>Monadh-a-leumanaich</i> or "the Moor of the Leaper."</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>(To be Continued.)</i></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_3" id="Footnote_A_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_3"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Snails.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>CAN THIS BE THE LAND?</h2>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indent">"<i>How are the mighty fallen!</i>"</p>
+
+<div class="indent25">
+
+<p>
+Can this be the land where of old heroes flourished?<br />
+Can this be the land of the sons of the blast?<br />
+Gloom-wrapt as a monarch whose greatness hath perished,<br />
+Its beauty of loneliness speaks of the past:&mdash;<br />
+Tell me ye green valleys, dark glens, and blue mountains,<br />
+Where now are the mighty that round ye did dwell?<br />
+Ye wild-sweeping torrents, and woe-sounding fountains,<br />
+Say, is it their spirits that wail in your swell?</p>
+
+<p>Oft, oft have ye leaped when your children of battle,<br />
+With war-bearing footsteps rushed down your dark crests;<br />
+Oft, oft have ye thundered with far-rolling rattle,<br />
+The echoes of slogans that burst from their breasts:&mdash;<br />
+Wild music of cataracts peals in their gladness,&mdash;<br />
+Hoarse tempests still shriek to the clouds lightning-fired,&mdash;<br />
+Dark shadows of glory departed, in sadness<br />
+Still linger o'er ruins where dwelt the inspired.</p>
+
+<p>The voice of the silence for ever is breaking<br />
+Around the lone heaths of the glory-sung braves;<br />
+Dim ghosts haunt in sorrow, a land all forsaken,<br />
+And pour their mist tears o'er the heather-swept graves:&mdash;<br />
+Can this be the land of the thunder-toned numbers<br />
+That snowy bards sung in the fire of their bloom?<br />
+Deserted and blasted, in death's silent slumbers,<br />
+It glooms o'er my soul like the wreck of a tomb.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class="rightbylinepoetry">WM. ALLAN.</p>
+
+<p class="addressbyline">Sunderland.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>HIGHLAND FOLK-LORE.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By "Nether-Lochaber."</span></p>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Folk-Lore</span>&mdash;a word of recent importation from the German&mdash;is a big word,
+and Highland Folk-Lore is a big subject, so big and comprehensive that
+not one Magazine article, but a many-chaptered series of Magazine
+articles would be necessary ere one could aver that he had done his
+"text" anything like justice. On the present occasion, therefore, we do
+not pretend to enter into the heart of a subject so extensive and
+many-sided: we shall content ourselves with a little scouting and
+skirmishing, so to speak, along the borders of a territory which it is
+possible we may ask the readers at some future time to explore along
+with us more at large. A few of the many proverbs, wisdom words, and
+moral and prudential sentences in daily use shall, in clerical phrase,
+meantime form "the subject-matter of our discourse." Nor must the reader
+think that the subject is in any wise <i>infra dignitate</i>, unworthy, that
+is, or undignified. Of the world-renowned Seven Wise Men of Greece, five
+at least attained to all their eminence and fame no otherwise than
+because they were the cunning framers of maxims and proverbs that
+rightly interpreted were calculated to advance and consolidate the moral
+and material welfare of the nation around them. Of the remaining two, it
+is true that one was an eminent politician and legislator, and the other
+a natural philosopher of the first order; but it is questionable if
+either of them would have been considered entitled to their prominent
+place in the Grecian <i>Pleiades</i> of Wise Men had they not been
+proverb-makers and utterers of brief but pregnant "wisdom-words" as
+well. Even Solomon, the wisest of men, was less celebrated as a botanist
+and naturalist, though he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in
+Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and of
+beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes&mdash;less
+celebrated even as a lyrist, though his songs were a thousand and five,
+than for his proverbs and moral maxims of which the record takes care to
+tell us he spake no less than "three thousand." So much then for the
+dignity of our subject: what engaged the attention of Solomon and the
+Seven Sages of Greece cannot surely be unworthy some small share of our
+regard.</p>
+
+<p>"Six and half-a-dozen" is an English phrase, implying either that two
+things are exactly the same, or so very much alike as to be practically
+the same. The old Gael was not much of an arithmetician, he rarely
+meddled with numbers, and therefore no precisely similar phrase is to be
+found in his language; but he could express the same idea in his own
+way, and so pithily and emphatically that his version of the proverbial
+axiom is, perhaps, as good as is to be found in any other language
+whatever. The Gael's equivalent for "six and half-a-dozen" is, "<i>Bo
+mhaol odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol</i>"&mdash;(A cow that is doddled and dun, and
+a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> cow that is dun and doddled)&mdash;a phrase drawn, as are many of his most
+striking proverbs and prudential maxims, and very naturally too, from
+his pastoral surroundings. We recollect an admirable and very ludicrous
+application of this saying in a story once told us by the late Dr Norman
+Macleod of Glasgow, "old" Norman that is, not the Barony Doctor, but his
+father:&mdash;When a boy in Morven, of which parish his father was minister,
+there was a well-known character in that part of the country called
+"<i>Eoghann Gorach Chraigan Uibhir</i>," Daft Ewen of Craig-an-Ure in Mull, a
+born "natural," who, although a veritable "fool," had yet in him much of
+the quiet, keen-edged satire and roguery which is not unfrequently found
+in the better ranks of such "silly ones." Ewen regularly perambulated
+Mull and Morven, with an occasional raid into the neighbouring districts
+of Sunart and Ardnamurchan. He had sense enough to be able to carry the
+current news of the day from district to district, and on this account
+was always a welcome guest in every farm-house and hamlet on his beat;
+and as he sung a capital song, and was remarkable for much harmless
+drollery and "dafting," he was, it is needless to say, a great favourite
+everywhere. He took a great interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and
+always attended the church when the state of his wardrobe and other
+circumstances permitted. On one occasion Ewen was passing through
+Morven, and knowing that the annual communion time was approaching, he
+called upon the minister and begged to know who his assistants on that
+particular occasion were to be. He was going to pay a visit, he said, to
+all the glens and outlying hamlets in the parish, and as the people were
+sure to ask him the important question, he wished to have the proper
+answer direct from the minister himself. "<i>Tha raghadh 'us taghadh nam
+ministeiran, Eoghainn; An Doiteir A. B. a Inneraora, agus an Doiteir C.
+D. a Muille.</i>" (The pick and choice of ministers Ewen said the minister,
+Doctor A. B. from Inverary, and Doctor C. D. from Mull). "Whe-e-we!" in
+a contemptuously prolonged low whistle replied Ewen. "<i>An ann mar so a
+tha; Bo mhaol, odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol!</i>" (And is it even so; are
+these to be your assistants? A cow that is doddled and dun, and a cow
+that is dun and doddled!) Than which nothing could more emphatically
+convey Ewen's very small opinion of the "assistants" mentioned. They
+were much of a muchness; six and half-a-dozen; a cow doddled and dun,
+and a cow dun and doddled! The Gael was a keen observer of natural
+phenomena, and some of his best sayings were founded on the knowledge
+thus acquired. Meteorological "wisdom-words" for instance, are quite
+common. "<i>Mar chloich a ruith le gleann, tha feasgar fann foghairidh</i>"
+is an admirable example. (As is the headlong rush of a stone, atumbling
+down the glen, so hurried and of short duration is an autumnal
+afternoon.) The philosophy of the saying is that you are to begin your
+work betimes in the season of autumn; at early dawn if possible, and not
+to stop at all for dinner, seeing that once the day has passed its
+prime, the hour of sunset approaches with giant strides, and there is
+little or no twilight to help you if you have been foolish enough to
+dawdle your time in the hours of sunset proper. "<i>'S fas a chùil as nach
+goirear</i>" is another pregnant adage. (Desert, indeed, is the corner
+whence no voice of bird is heard.) Some people are very quiet, almost
+dumb indeed, but on the occurrence of some event, or on the back of
+some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> remark of yours, they speak, and speak so clearly and well that
+you are surprised, and quote the saying that it is a solitary and silent
+glade indeed whence no voice is heard. "<i>Am fear a bhios na thamh,
+saoilidh e gur i lamh fhein as fhearr air an stiùir</i>" is a common saying
+of much meaning and wide application. (He that is idle [a mere
+spectator] thinks that he could steer the boat better than the man
+actually in charge.) And we all know how apt we are to meddle, and
+generally unwisely, with the proper labours of others. Nothing, for
+instance, is more annoying and dangerous even than to put forth your
+hand by way of helping a driver in managing his horses, or to interfere
+with the tiller of a boat at which a perfectly competent man is already
+seated. We have known the saying just quoted scores of times suffice to
+stop the unwise and gratuitous intermeddling of such as were disposed to
+interfere with what did not properly belong to them. "<i>Bidh fear an aon
+mhairt aig uairean gun bhainne</i>" is a frequent saying, and implies more
+than is at first sight apparent. (The man with only one cow will be at
+times without milk.) The import of the saying is something more than a
+mere statement of fact. You have only one cow, and you are certain to be
+at times without milk. Get by your industry and perseverance <i>two</i> cows
+or three, and then you are pretty sure to have more or less milk all the
+year round.</p>
+
+<p>We have thus briefly touched the hem, so to speak, of a very interesting
+subject&mdash;a subject that in the Highlands of Scotland, at least, has
+never yet received a tittle of the attention it deserves. And let no one
+be afraid to meddle with it to any extent he pleases, for we promise him
+that he will meet with nothing in any way to shock his delicacy or
+offend his taste, no matter how fine so ever of edge and exquisite; and
+in this respect, at all events, the good old Gael is superior to that of
+any other people of whom we have any knowledge. We may, perhaps, deal
+more at large with the subject in a future number. Meantime, we may
+state that we are of the same opinion as the Editor of the <i>Inverness
+Courier</i>; there is abundance of room for the <i>Celtic Magazine</i> if it
+continues to be well conducted, without, in the least degree,
+encroaching upon the territories of any other periodicals interested in
+Celtic affairs.</p>
+
+<p class="leftbyline"><span class="smcap">Nether-Lochaber</span>, November 1875.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>IMAGINATION.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Dedicated by consent to</i> <span class="smcap">Alfred Tennyson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indent30">
+All hail! far-seeing and creative power,<br />
+Before whose might the universe bends low<br />
+In silent adoration! Guide my pen<br />
+While from my soul the sounds of music pour<br />
+Towards thy praises! For to thee belongs<br />
+The sounding stream of never-ending song.<br />
+When out of chaos rose the glorious world,<br />
+Sublime with mountains flowing from the skies,<br />
+On lonely seas, sweet with slow-winding vales,<br />
+Clasping the grandeur of the heavenly hills<br />
+With soft and tender arms, or lowly glens<br />
+Shrinking from glowing gaze of searching sun<br />
+Beneath the shade of the high-soaring hills;<br />
+Grand with great torrents roaring o'er fierce crags<br />
+In suicidal madness, sad with seas<br />
+That flash in silver of the gladdening sun,<br />
+Yet ever wail in sadness 'neath the skies<br />
+Of smiling heaven (like a lovely life<br />
+That wears a sunny face, and wintry soul),<br />
+Hopeful with fickle life renewing spring,<br />
+Gladden'd with summer's radiance, autumn's joy,<br />
+And sad and sullen with fierce winter's rain;<br />
+Ruled by the race of God-made men who rush<br />
+Towards eternity with half-shut eyes,<br />
+Blind to the glories of sweet sky and sea,<br />
+Wood-covered earth, and sun-reflecting hill,<br />
+Thou in the mind of God, almighty power!<br />
+Ruled, and directed his creative hand.<br />
+With thee the seas spread and the hills arose<br />
+To do thy Maker's will; the silvery stars<br />
+Like heavenly glow-worms, beautifully cold,<br />
+And gladly silent, gemmed the gloom of night,<br />
+And shed the gladdening glances of their eyes<br />
+On the sad face of the night-darken'd earth.<br />
+Without thy sweetening influence, the soul<br />
+Of nature's bard were like a sunless plain,<br />
+Or summer garden destitute of flowers,<br />
+A winter day ungladden'd by the gleam<br />
+Of flowing sun, or river searching wild<br />
+Through desert lands for ne'er appearing trees,<br />
+Or peaceful flowers that sandy scenes disdain.<br />
+No thought the philosophic mind imparts<br />
+To an enraptured world, but bears thy power,<br />
+And owns thee as the agent of its birth.<br />
+O'er the sweet landscape of the poet's mind<br />
+Thou sunlike shed'st the gladness of thy love,<br />
+Inspiring all the scenes that lie below,<br />
+Sweetening the bowers where Fancy loves to dwell,<br />
+And on the crest of some huge mountain-thought<br />
+Placing the glory of thy fleecy cloud,<br />
+To make its frowning grandeur greater still,<br />
+And heighten all its beauteous mystery.<br />
+Thro' the sweet-coloured plains of Poesy<br />
+Thou flowest like a sweetly-sounding stream,<br />
+Here, rushing furious o'er the rocky crags<br />
+Of wild, original thought, and there, 'neath bowers<br />
+Of imagery, winding on thy way<br />
+Peaceful and still towards the fadeless sea<br />
+Of all enduring immortality.<br />
+Like lightning flash for which no thunder-roar<br />
+Makes preparation, from th' astonished mind<br />
+On an astonished and admiring world<br />
+Thou dartest in thine overwhelming course,<br />
+Leaving a track of splendour in thy train,<br />
+And lighting up the regions of thy way.<br />
+With thee sweet music sings her various song,<br />
+And thrills the soul and elevates the mind<br />
+With "thoughts that often lie too deep for tears,"<br />
+And own a sadness sweeter than the rills,<br />
+A softer sweetness than the sinking sun<br />
+Gives to the sparkling face of pensive sea.<br />
+With thee great genius walketh hand in hand<br />
+Towards the loftiest thought, or sits in pride<br />
+Upon the golden throne of starry Fame.<br />
+Borne on thy wings the pensive poet flies<br />
+To the sweet-smiling land of sunny dreams,<br />
+Or pours his floods of music o'er the world.<br />
+With thy bright gleams his daily deeds are gemmed,<br />
+And by thy balmy influence, his life<br />
+Survives when he is dead!<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="rightbylinepoetry">D. R. WILLIAMSON.</p>
+
+<p class="addressbyline">Maidenkirk.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2 class="gesperrt">LACHLAN MACKINNON,</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">or "LACHLAN MAC THEARLAICH OIG," the SKYE BARD</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Among</span> many who have distinguished themselves by their display of
+poetical talents, the subject of the present brief memoir, holds a
+prominent place as a Gaelic poet. It is true that he was but little
+known to the world, but he was much admired as a bard, and greatly
+respected as a gentleman in his native "Isle of Mist."</p>
+
+<p>Lachlan Mackinnon, patronimically designated "Lachlan Mac Thearlaich
+Oig," was born in the parish of Strath, Isle of Skye, in the year 1665.
+He was son of Charles Mackinnon of Ceann-Uachdarach, a cadet of the old
+family of Mackinnon of Mackinnon of Strath. His mother was Mary Macleod,
+daughter of John Macleod of Drynoch, in the same island. The poetical
+genius of <i>Lachlan Mac Thearlaich</i> showed itself almost in his infancy.
+His father, like all Skye gentlemen in those good olden times, was a
+very social and hospitable man, who seemed never to be contented unless
+he had his house at Ceann-Uachdarach full of neighbours to enjoy
+themselves in his family circle. The company were often much amused with
+little Lachlan when a mere child, seeing the facility with which he
+composed couplets on any subject prescribed to him. At the age of eight
+he possessed a vigour of mind, and a vivacity of imagination rarely to
+be met with in youths of more than double his age. A predilection for
+poetry seemed to have gained an ascendency in his mind, over all other
+pursuits and amusements of his tender years. He received the rudiments
+of his education, under a tutor in his father's family, and as his
+native island had not, at that remote period, the advantage of public
+schools of any note, the young bard was sent, at the age of sixteen, to
+the school of Nairn, which, from its reputation at the time as an
+excellent seminary, was much resorted to by gentlemen's sons from all
+parts of the north. The young Hebridean remained at Nairn continuously
+for three years, and was greatly distinguished, not merely by his bright
+talents, but by his assiduity and perseverance in improving them. His
+studious disposition and diligent application were amply testified by
+the progress made by him, and no less duly appreciated by his superiors
+in the place. His love for study was enthusiastic, particularly in
+regard to the languages. He was by far the best Greek and Latin pupil at
+the Nairn Academy. His moments of relaxation were spent in the
+composition of poems in the English language while at Nairn, although,
+undoubtedly, the Gaelic was the medium which was most congenial to his
+mind for giving expression in rhyme to his sentiments. At Nairn,
+however, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> composed several beautiful little pieces, and among the
+rest a song which was much admired, to the air subsequently immortalized
+by Burns as "Auld Lang Syne." Although his productions in English were
+much admired, yet, as it was to him an acquired language, they could
+bear no comparison with his truly superior compositions in Gaelic. It is
+a matter of much regret that so few of his Gaelic poems are extant. Like
+many bards he unfortunately trusted his productions to his memory; and
+although well qualified, as a Gaelic writer, to commit them to paper,
+yet he neglected it, and hence hundreds of our best pieces in Gaelic
+poetry are lost for ever. Had they been all preserved, and given to the
+public in a collected shape, they would have raised the talented author
+to that high rank among the Celtic bards, which his genius so richly
+merited.</p>
+
+<p>In appearance <i>Lachlan Mac Thearlaich</i> was tall, handsome, and
+fascinating. He was distinguished by a winning gentleness and modesty of
+manners, as well as by his generous sensibility and steadfast
+friendship. His presence was courted in every company, and he was
+everywhere made welcome. Of most of the chieftains and Highland lairds
+he was a very acceptable acquaintance, while no public assembly, or
+social meeting was considered complete if that object of universal
+favour, the bard of Strath, were absent.</p>
+
+<p>When a very young man he was united in marriage to Flora, daughter of Mr
+Campbell of Strond, in the Island of Harris. Fondly attached to his
+native isle, he rented from his chief the farm of Breakish, with the
+grazing Island of Pabbay, at £24 sterling annually. And as an instance
+of the many changes effected by time, it may be mentioned that the same
+tenement is now rented at about £250 a-year. From what has been said of
+the bard's amiable disposition and gentle manners, it will seem no wise
+surprising that he proved to be one of the most affectionate of
+husbands, and dutiful of fathers. The happiness of the matrimonial state
+was to him, however, but of short duration. His wife, to whom he was
+greatly attached, died in the prime and vigour of life. He was rendered
+so disconsolate by means of his sudden and unexpected bereavement, that
+he took a dislike to the scene of his transient happiness, and
+relinquished his farm in Strath. Having removed from Skye, he took
+possession of a new tenement of lands from Mackenzie in Kintail. Greatly
+struck by what he considered the unrefined manners of his new neighbours
+in that quarter, and contrasting them with the more genial deportment of
+his own distinguished clan in Strath, he had the misfortune to exercise
+his poetic genius in the composition of some pungent satires and
+lampoons directed against the unpolished customs of the natives of
+Kintail. It is needless to add that by these means he gained for himself
+many enemies, and forfeited the good wishes of all around him. Finding
+himself thus disagreeably situated, after an absence of four years, he
+returned to Skye, where he was cordially received by his chief, and put
+in possession of his former farm at Breakish. After being twelve years a
+widower he went to Inverness for the purpose of visiting some of his
+schoolfellows who resided there. Previous to his leaving the capital of
+the Highlands his acquaintances there urged upon him the propriety of
+marrying a widow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> lady of the name of Mackintosh, whom they represented
+as being possessed of considerable means. He reluctantly complied with
+their wishes, but it became soon too apparent to him that he did so at
+the expense of his own happiness. His bride was not only penniless but
+deeply involved in debt. Next morning after his marriage he was visited
+by messengers who served him with summonses for a heavy debt due by his
+wife. In the impulse of the moment, while he held the summons in his
+hand, he seized a pen, and having taken his bride's Bible, wrote the
+following expressive lines on the blank leaf:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">
+"Tha'n saoghal air a roinn,<br />
+Tha dà dhàn ann,<br />
+Tha dàn ann gu bhi sona,<br />
+Ach tha dàn an donuis ann."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This marriage proved, in every respect, an unhappy one. The lady, as a
+stepmother, was peevish, harsh, and undutiful. Her cruelty to her
+husband's children was a continual source of grief to him, and of
+unhappiness to his domestic circle. On a certain day, the lady
+quarrelling with one of her step-daughters, told her she hated to see
+her face, and that she always considered the day an unlucky one on which
+she had the misfortune to meet her first in the morning. The girl,
+inheriting no doubt a share of her father's power of repartee, quickly
+answered her stepmother, and said, "You have every cause to believe that
+it is unlucky to meet me, for I was first-foot to my dear father the
+unfortunate morning on which he left home to marry you."</p>
+
+<p>Even amid his misfortunes, which he endured with much forbearance,
+<i>Lachlan Mac Thearlaich</i> was renowned for his hospitality and genuine
+Highland friendship. Remote though the period be since he lived, still
+his memory is fondly cherished in the place. He was possessed of so
+endearing accomplishments, that time itself can hardly wipe away his
+memory from the minds of his countrymen and clan. Many fragments of his
+numerous songs continued for ages to be repeated in the country, but it
+is feared, from all the changes which have taken place in the
+circumstances of the natives, that these are now irretrievably lost.
+Many of his witty sayings became proverbial in the island. He was one of
+the first sportsmen in the country, and was considered one of the most
+successful deer stalkers of his day. Along with his other
+accomplishments he was an excellent performer on the violin, and in this
+respect he had no equal in the Western Isles. Of him it may be justly
+said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">
+"To thee harmonious powers belong,<br />
+That add to verse the charm of song;<br />
+Soft melody with numbers join,<br />
+And make the poet half divine!"<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>As a proof of Lachlan Mackinnon's loyalty, it may be mentioned that,
+quite contrary to the wishes of his chief, he went along with some other
+loyal subjects, all the way from Skye to Inverness, in the year 1717, to
+sign a congratulatory address to George I. on his succeeding to the
+British throne. He spent the remainder of his days in his native isle
+and parish, and died universally regretted in the year 1734, at the age
+of sixty-nine. His funeral was attended by most of the Highland
+chieftains, and their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> principal vassals. His cousin-german, Alasdair
+Dubh of Glengarry, and all his gentlemen tacksmen were then present, as
+also Macdonald of the Isles, Macleod of Dunvegan, Mackinnon of
+Mackinnon, and Mackenzie of Applecross, with their chief retainers. A
+numerous band of Highland pipers preceded the bier playing the usual
+melancholy coronach. Amidst a vast assemblage of all ranks and classes
+his remains were consigned to their kindred dust in the old churchyard
+of Gillchrist, being the burying-ground of the parish which gave him
+birth. A rude flag, with an inscription, still marks the poet's grave;
+but the memory of his many virtues will be handed down in the place to
+generations yet unborn.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lachlan Mac Thearlaich</i> composed a beautiful and pathetic song which is
+still preserved, to "Generosity, Love, and Liberality." He personified
+those three, and pretended that he met them as lonely outcasts in a
+dreary glen, and addressed them:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="indent">
+
+<p>Latha siubhal sl&#275;ibhe dhomh,<br />
+<span class="indent1">'S mi 'falbh leam fein gu dlùth,</span><br />
+A chuideachd anns an astar sin<br />
+<span class="indent1">Air gunna glaic a's cù,</span><br />
+Gun thachair clann rium anns a' ghleann,<br />
+<span class="indent1">A'gul gu fann chion iùil;</span><br />
+Air leam gur h-iad a b' aillidh dreach<br />
+<span class="indent1">A chunnacas riamh le m' shùil.</span></p>
+
+<p>Gu'm b' ioghnadh leam mar tharladh dhoibh<br />
+<span class="indent1">A'm fàsach fad air chùl,</span><br />
+Coimeas luchd an aghaidhean,<br />
+<span class="indent1">Gu'n tagha de cheann iùil,</span><br />
+Air beannachadh neo-fhiata dhomh<br />
+<span class="indent1">Gu'n d' fhiaraich mi, "Cò sùd?"</span><br />
+'S fhreagair iad gu cianail mi<br />
+<span class="indent1">A'm brïathraibh mine ciùin.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Iochd, a's Gràdh, a's Fiughantas,<br />
+<span class="indent1">'Nar triùir gur h-e ar n-ainm,</span><br />
+Clann nan uaislean urramach,<br />
+<span class="indent1">A choisinn cliu 's gach ball,</span><br />
+'Nuair a phàigh an fh&#275;ile cis d'an E&#363;g<br />
+<span class="indent1">'Sa chaidh i fein air chàll</span><br />
+'Na thiomnadh dh' fhàg ar n-athair sinn<br />
+<span class="indent1">Aig maithibh Innse-Gall."</span></p>
+
+<p class="rightbylinepoetry">SGIATHANACH.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>FINGAL.</h2>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/dec.png" width="100" height="22" alt="" />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the yellow sunset of ancient Celtic glory appear the band of warriors
+known as the Ossianic heroes. Under the magnifying and beautifying
+influence of that sunset they tower upon our sight with a stature and
+illustriousness more than human. Of these heroes, the greatest and best
+was <i>Fionn</i> or Fingal. Unless our traditions are extensively falsified
+he was a man in whom shone all those virtues which are the boast of our
+race. The unflinching performance of duty, the high sense of honour, the
+tenderness more than woman's, and the readiness to appreciate the
+virtues of others were among his more conspicuous characteristics. Now
+that Celtic anthropology is being so extensively discussed, is it not
+remarkable that Fingal, who so truly personifies the character of that
+race, is not adduced as the representative Celt? He was a Celt to the
+very core, and Celtic character has been in no small degree moulded by
+copying his example. He was, in truth, not the <i>ultimus</i> but the <i>Primus
+Gaelorum</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, it must be confessed that to many English readers Fingal
+is nothing but a name, and that even to most of them he looms dark and
+dim through the mist of years. Unhappily, a nature so transcendently
+humane and heroic as his is not the sort to win the admiration of the
+vulgar. Nay, so far is its simple grandeur removed above the common
+materialism of modern life that the most refined cannot, at first sight,
+appreciate its exalted loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>The fullest and, we believe, the truest account of him is to be found in
+Ossian's poems. That the poetry so denominated was, in substance,
+composed by Ossian we have no doubt. At any rate the descriptions of
+Fingal therein contained are not only consistent throughout, but also in
+accordance with all that we know of him from other sources. But were we
+even to adopt the absurd theory that Fingal is a creation of
+Macpherson's imagination, the intrinsic beauty of the picture well
+deserves our study.</p>
+
+<p>An old man retaining all the energy, but not the rashness of youth; age
+with vigour instead of decrepitude, delighting in the words of sound
+wisdom rather than the usual tattle of second childhood; and, withal, an
+old man who is prone to moralise as old men are; a man able and willing
+to do his duty in the present though his heart is left in the past; such
+is the most prominent figure in these poems. He is pourtrayed as of
+tall, athletic frame and kingly port, his majestic front and hoary locks
+surmounted by the helm and eagle plume of the Celtic kings.</p>
+
+<p>Though the idea of Fingal pervades most of Ossian's poems he is seldom
+introduced <i>in propria persona</i>. Even when attention is directed to him
+the poet merely and meagerly sketches the herculean outline, and leaves
+our imagination to do the rest:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent25">
+At intervals a gleam of light afar<br />
+Glanced from the broad, blue, studded shield of war,<br />
+As moved the king of chiefs in stately pride;<br />
+With eager gaze his eye was turned aside<br />
+To where the warriors' closing ranks he sees;<br />
+Half-grey his ringlets floated in the breeze<br />
+Around that face so terrible in fight<br />
+And features glowing now with grim delight.&mdash;<i>Tem. B. V.</i></p>
+
+<p>In order to introduce his hero with the greater <i>eclat</i>, the bard first
+places his friends in great straits; represents them, though brave, as
+overcome by the enemy and without hope, apart from Fingal. Both friends
+and foes speak of him in terms of respect, and even the greatest leaders
+acknowledge his superiority. When Fingal appears on the scene the poet
+rouses himself to the utmost. He piles simile on simile to give an
+adequate idea of his first charge&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent25">
+Through Morven's woods when countless tempests roar,<br />
+When from the height a hundred torrents pour,<br />
+Like storm-clouds rushing through the vault of heaven,<br />
+As when the mighty main on shore is driven,<br />
+So wide, so loud, so dark, so fierce the strain<br />
+When met the angry chiefs on Lena's plain.<br />
+The king rushed forward with resistless might,<br />
+Dreadful as Trenmor's awe-inspiring sprite,<br />
+When on the fitful blast he comes again<br />
+To Morven, his forefather's loved domain.<br />
+Loud in the gale the mountain oaks shall roar,<br />
+The mountain rocks shall fall his face before,<br />
+As by the lightning's gleam his form is spied<br />
+Stalking from hill to hill with giant stride.<br />
+More terrible in fight my father seemed<br />
+When in his hand of might his weapon gleamed,<br />
+On his own youth the king with gladness thought<br />
+When in the furious highland wars he fought.&mdash;<i>Fingal B. III.</i></p>
+
+<p>The notion that Ossian drew in part, at least from real life, is
+favoured by the wonderful calmness and absence of effort evinced in
+delineating so great a character. Expressions that go far to heighten
+our admiration of Fingal are employed in a quiet matter of course way.
+"The silence of the king is terrible," is an expressive sentence. Or
+this again, "The heroes ... looked in silence on each other marking the
+eyes of Fingal."</p>
+
+<p>Nor are the gentler feelings less fully brought out in Ossian's
+favourite character. Nothing could speak more for his affability than
+the attachment shown by his followers. "Fear, like a vapour winds not
+among the host! for he, the king, is near; the strength of streamy
+Selma. Gladness brightens the hero. We hear his words with joy."<a name="FNanchor_A_4" id="FNanchor_A_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_4" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<p>Gallantry and philanthropy we might expect to find in his composition,
+but the tenderness he frequently displays strikes us as remarkable in an
+uncivilized chief. His lamentation over the British city on the Clyde is
+as pathetic as any similar passage in our language.</p>
+
+<p>Another surprising trait is the generosity he invariably displays to his
+vanquished foes. All the more surprising is it that a "savage" should
+show magnanimity when the heroes of civilized Greece, Rome, and Judea,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>counted it virtuous to torture their captured enemies. "None ever went
+sad from Fingal," he says himself. Over and over he is represented as
+lamenting the death of enemies when they fall, or granting them freedom
+and his friendship when they yield&mdash;"Come to my hill of feasts," he says
+to his wounded opponent Cathmor, "the mighty fail at times. No fire am I
+to lowlaid foes. I rejoice not over the fall of the brave."</p>
+
+<p>A notable fact about Fingal is, that though he lived in times of war, in
+disposition he was a man of peace. "Fingal delights not in battle though
+his arm is strong." "When will Fingal cease to fight?" he complains, "I
+was born in the midst of battles, and my steps must move in blood to the
+tomb." Under the influence of this desire for peace he formally gave up
+his arms to Ossian&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent25">
+My son, around me roll my byegone years,<br />
+They come and whisper in the monarch's ears.<br />
+"Why does not grey-haired Fingal rest?" they say<br />
+"Why does he not within his fortress stay?<br />
+Dost thou in battle's gory wounds delight?<br />
+Lovest thou the tears of vanquished men of might?"<br />
+Ye hoary years! I will in quiet lie,<br />
+Nor profit nor delight in blood have I.<br />
+Like blustering storms from wintry skies that roll,<br />
+Tears waste with grief and dreariness the soul.<br />
+But when I stretch myself to rest, I hear<br />
+The voice of war come thundering on my ear<br />
+Within the royal hall, with loud command,<br />
+To rouse and draw again th' unwilling brand.&mdash;<i>Tem. B. VIII.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Limited as were the means of communication in those pre-telegraphic
+times the fame of such a man must have spread. Accordingly, we read of
+his name being known and respected far and near. Foreign princes speak
+of him with admiration, and refugees from distant lands seek his
+protection.</p>
+
+<p>But it is on the power of his name in after times that we wish more
+particularly to dwell. There have been no people who honoured their
+heroes so much as the Celts. With them <i>valour</i> and <i>value</i> were
+synonymous terms. Theirs was not a nobility of money, or literature, or
+æsthetics, or even of territory. Nobleness should be the qualification
+of a nobleman, and strange as it may seem, it was among the uncivilised
+Celts of Ireland and Scotland that such a character was properly
+appreciated. But they held nobleness and heroism to be identical. They
+seem to have thoroughly believed that cowardice was but the result of
+vice. A fearless man, they felt, must be a true man, and he was honoured
+accordingly. <i>Flath-innis</i>, the <i>Isle of the Noble</i>, was their only name
+for heaven. <i>Allail</i> or <i>divine</i> they applied to their heroic men. To
+imitate such was the old Celtic religion as it was the primitive
+religion of most other peoples.</p>
+
+<p>Among all the heroes whom the ancient Gael worshipped there was no name
+so influential as Fingal's. Through the ages he has been the idol and
+ideal of the Celt. His example was their rule of justice. His maxims
+were cited much as we would quote Scripture. To the youth he was held up
+as the model after which their lives should be patterned, and where
+Christianity had not yet eradicated the old creed, a <i>post mortem</i>
+dwelling with him in <i>Flath-innis</i> was deemed no mean incentive to
+goodness. He was, in fact, the god of the Gaelic people, worshipped with
+no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> outward altar, but enshrined in the hearts of his admirers. How far
+the more admirable traits of Highland character may be attributed to the
+assimilating influence of the idea of Fingal we cannot decide. That our
+character as a people has been largely influenced for good by the power
+of his example we have no doubt. The bards, an order of the old Druidic
+hierarchy, became the priests of the Fingalian hero-worship. Songs,
+elegies, and poetic legends formed their service of praise. To induce
+their countrymen to reverence and imitate so great and glorious a Gael
+as Fingal was the object of many of their bardic homilies. Taking into
+account the nature and circumstances of the ancient Caledonians, we must
+conclude that from position and influence none were more suitable to
+become their ethical and æsthetical advisers than these minstrel
+ministers of the Fingalian hero-olatry.</p>
+
+<p>Of course such a faith could not long withstand the more generous and
+cosmopolitan spirit of Christianity, yet we venture to assert that it
+was vastly preferable in its effects to some abortions of our common
+creed. That there was a conflict between the two religions we know. As
+late as the sixteenth century a Christian ecclesiastic complains that
+the leaders of Gaelic thought of the period were heathen enough to
+delight in "stories about the Tuath de Dhanond and about the sons of
+Milesius, and about the heroes and <i>Fionn</i> (Fingal), the son of Cumhail
+with his Fingalians ... rather than to write and to compose and to
+support the faithful words of God and the perfect way of truth."</p>
+
+<p>Down to the present day the name of <i>Fionn</i> is reverenced by the less
+sophisticated Highlanders and Islanders. That his name will in future be
+more extensively, if less intensely, respected we may confidently
+predict. As men's views become more broad and just, and their feelings
+become more cultivated and refined, we may hope that a superior
+character such as Fingal will by-and-bye be appreciated. Even now he is
+widely admired and we begin to read in the signs of the times the
+fulfilment of his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent25">
+<span class="indent2">When then art crumbled into dust, O! stone;</span><br />
+Lost in the moss of years around thee grown;<br />
+My fame, which chiefs and heroes love to praise,<br />
+Shall shine a beam of light to future days,<br />
+Because I went in steel and faced th' alarms<br />
+Of war, to help and save the weak in arms.&mdash;<i>Tem. B. VIII.</i></p>
+
+<p class="rightbyline">MINNIE LITTLEJOHN.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_4" id="Footnote_A_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_4"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The quotations in prose are from Macpherson's translation.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3,
+January 1876, by Various
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January
+1876, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January 1876
+       A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History,
+       Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and
+       Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Alexander Mackenzie
+        Alexander Macgregor
+        Alexander Macbain
+
+Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29969]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
+
+No. III. JANUARY 1876.
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.
+
+[CONTINUED.]
+
+
+MR ARNOLD in that handsome, but slightly ambiguous admission of his,
+that the Celts in their intellectual capacity come very near the secret
+of nature and of natural magic, does not seem to imply more in reality
+than that they have a subtler sense of certain natural affinities than
+their Anglo-Saxon brethren have; that they apprehend more surely when,
+where, and how the truest impress of physical nature occurs on the
+percipient faculties of the soul, than men of a more phlegmatic
+constitution do; and that they can draw from such intuitions of their
+own a sort of inspiration, or second-sight of nature, comparable to
+prophecy, which gives their highest poetic utterance a rapt
+enthusiasm--and the accuracy of this estimate need not be disputed, but,
+so far as Ossian is concerned, it must be considerably extended. To read
+Ossian as we do, from the text of Macpherson, there was another sort of
+insight, purely scientific, into the mysteries of nature, inherited and
+expressed by him; a certain acquaintance with her hidden powers, and a
+certain augury of her possible future development, if men could only
+attain to it, far beyond the mere rapt enthusiasm of a poet, or the
+so-called second-sight of a seer. Whether this peculiar faith of his was
+derived by tradition, and if so, from whom; or whether it was the result
+of practical experiment in his own generation, is foreign for the moment
+to our present inquiry. But that it was relied upon as an endowment of
+the most gifted heroes; that it was exercised by them in extremity, as
+if to subdue nature from whom they had borrowed it, and to wrest the
+very power of destruction out of her hand; and that such practical
+conquest was sometimes achieved by them, or is said to have been
+achieved by them, is just as certain as that Macpherson's translation is
+before us now. What we refer to more especially for the present, is the
+secret of extracting or discharging electricity from the atmosphere by
+mechanical means--by the thrust of a spear, or of a sword, into the
+bosom of the low-hanging cloud, or lurid vapour, and so dislodging the
+imaginary spirit of evil by which they were supposed to be tenanted.
+Only the very best, and bravest, and wisest could prevail in such
+conflict with nature; but they did prevail, according to Ossian; and the
+weapons of their warfare, and the mode of their assault, were precisely
+similar to what an experimentalist in electricity might employ at the
+present day, or to what the Egyptians employed in the days of Moses. We
+shall not now go further back in the prosecution of this inquiry, but
+would seriously recommend the reader who has any difficulty on the
+subject to compare, at his leisure, the work of Moses on the top of
+Mount Sinai and elsewhere, with an Egyptian "rod" in his hand, and the
+exploits of Fingal in conflict with the Spirit of Loda on the heights of
+Hoy, with a sword in his hand. There might have been a far-derived and
+long traditional secret connection between the two, most edifying, or at
+least most curious, to investigate; or they might both have resulted
+from that sort of intuition which only the most gifted of any nation
+enjoy independently, re-appearing again in Franklin, and now
+familiarised to the world. Let those who doubt, or who differ on this
+point, satisfy themselves. What we are now concerned to maintain and
+prove is, that the fact is more than once described by Ossian, in
+circumstances, in situations, and with instrumentalities, which render
+the allegation of it at least indubitable. In the case above referred
+to, for example, Fingal, challenged and assaulted in a thunderstorm by
+the Spirit of Loda, encounters his antagonist with a sword, on the very
+verge of a cliff overhanging the Atlantic; and by one or two scientific
+thrusts, with incredible daring, disarms the cloud, dissipates the
+storm, and sends his atmospheric adversary shrieking down the wind with
+such violence that "Innistore shook at the sound; the waves heard it on
+the deep, and stopped on their course with fear." The scene is described
+in that well-known passage in _Carric-Thura_, which Macpherson himself
+characterises as "the most extravagant fiction in all Ossian's poems."
+
+Now the question as regards the authenticity or reliability of this very
+passage, is whether Macpherson understood the meaning of it; what it
+represented, where the conflict occurred, or how it happened? It has
+been sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere--in "Ossian and the Clyde," pp.
+311-324--that the encounter took place near the celebrated "Dwarfie
+Stone" on the western headland of Hoy in the Orkneys--a region more
+remarkable for its sudden electric gatherings and violent atmospheric
+currents than almost any other in Great Britain, and at that particular
+spot so much so, that the very scene described in Ossian has been
+selected by Walter Scott for a similar electrical display in the
+"Pirate." But of this obvious fact, and of all that is connected with it
+in his own translation, Macpherson is so ignorant that he not only does
+not point it out, but does not understand it, and cannot even conjecture
+where it was. His great antagonist Laing is equally at fault on the
+subject, and by way of exposing, as he believes, the dishonesty of
+Macpherson, endeavours to show that in patching up his account
+Macpherson had mistaken Thurso for Thura. Macpherson, in fact, knew
+nothing either about Thurso or Thura--even less than Laing did; and it
+is only in the work above cited that either the scene has been
+identified, or the encounter explained.
+
+Here, then, is a question, not of linguistic criticism, but of
+scientific fact--of geographical position, of atmospheric agency--which
+should be disposed of on its own merits, and which, like many others of
+the same sort, must ultimately transfer the whole inquiry to a much
+higher field than that of syllables and syntax.
+
+But the description in question, it may be objected, is very much
+exaggerated, and therefore cannot be relied on: which is the very
+objection Macpherson himself urged--that it is "the most extravagant
+fiction in all Ossian's poems." But if that was the case in his opinion,
+how could the passage be his own? It was easy enough either to remedy or
+explain it, if he could explain it, or not to introduce it. On the other
+hand, when rightly understood, there is no undue exaggeration in the
+account at all--not more than might be reasonably expected from a poet
+of the highest sensibility and the most vivid imagination in describing
+an incomprehensible natural phenomenon; not more, for example, than in
+"the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words" on Mount Sinai. Still it
+is not the question of descriptive exaggeration, but of scientific fact,
+that is now before us; and if the whole of the so-called conflict of
+Fingal with the Prince of the Power of the Air on Roraheid in Hoy was so
+utterly inexplicable to Macpherson, both as to place and character, that
+he speaks of it hopelessly as a story "concerning ghosts," on what
+principle of critical consistency, or of common sense, can he be said to
+have been the author of it? If the Septuagint translators, for example,
+had added a note of their own on the giving of the Law at Sinai, to the
+effect that it appeared "the most extravagant fiction" to them, at the
+same time transferring, in defiance of their own text, the entire scene
+from one end of the Red Sea to the other, would any reader in his senses
+accuse the Seventy of having fabricated not only the two chapters in
+question, but the whole Book of Exodus--even although the original had
+been now lost? Their very simplicity and ignorance would have acquitted
+them. Yet Macpherson, in similar circumstances, is to be held guilty,
+although he could have more easily cleared himself by altering or
+omitting the whole passage, than a man in London could prove by an
+_alibi_ that he had been guilty of no forgery at Inverness or Edinburgh
+six hours before! But if this hitherto incomprehensible passage in
+Ossian be genuine then the entire poem of _Carric-Thura_, which is
+identified with it in every word and syllable from beginning to end,
+must be genuine also.
+
+In the same sort of field, but without the addition of supernatural
+agency, we have another scene of scientific import in the _War of
+Inisthona_. Inisthona, according to Macpherson, was on the coast of
+Norway--he did not know where; Inisthona, according to Laing, was a
+wilful corruption of Inis-owen in Lough Foyle; Inisthona, in point of
+fact, was Iceland--as clearly and distinctly so in Macpherson's own
+text, as latitude, longitude, and physical configuration can make it;
+far more distinctly recognisable than any _Ultima Thule_ of the Romans.
+But here, in this Inisthona, we have first a fountain surrounded with
+mossy stones, in a grassy vale, at the head of a bay; then a wilderness
+of half a day's journey inland; then a lake at the end of the wilderness,
+exhaling pestilential vapours, called Lake Lano--but no volcano visible
+as yet: and in Iceland we have still the basin of the fountain,
+surrounded with its mossy stones, petrified and dried up by volcanic heat,
+at the head of the bay; we have still the dreary wilderness beyond it,
+now scorched and blackened, ending in the Plain of Thingvalla, where the
+King of Denmark was entertained more than a twelvemonth ago; we have
+still the lake beyond that, where it should be, but now relieved of its
+sulphurous vapours by eruptive jets of steam in its neighbourhood; and
+besides, we have now Mount Hecla in active operation, by whose accumulated
+fires and dreadful discharges, since Ossian's day, the whole island has
+been torn and desolated. Here, therefore, again, the same question of
+fact arises, and must be disposed of by all reasonable inquirers. In this
+one identification we have geography, geology, history, and navigation
+combined, beyond Macpherson's own comprehension--earthquakes, subterranean
+fires, latent volcanic forces; a beautiful island where there is now
+desolation; and a warlike people occupying its soil, subject to the Danes
+600 years and more before the Danes themselves are supposed to have
+discovered it. In the face of such a revelation as this, nowhere else to
+be found but in Ossian, what does it signify that the Gaelic text of
+_Inisthona_ has perished? The fact that it survives in English is only
+a greater miracle, for which we are indebted solely to the patience and
+fidelity of a man who has been called a liar and an impostor.
+
+One more miracle has yet to be added in the same field--viz., that Lake
+Lego or Lough Neagh in Ireland, and Lake Lano in Iceland, both emitting
+pestilential vapours, are geographically connected in Ossian with
+subterranean volcanic movements which pass from Ireland, by the west
+coast of Scotland, through the Orkneys to Inisthona; and thus the latest
+theories of the most accomplished geologists have been anticipated more
+than a hundred years before their announcement, by the work of a man who
+is supposed to have had no original to guide him, and who himself had
+not the remotest idea of what his own words conveyed.
+
+It remains then, after such illustrations, for those who still deny the
+authenticity of Ossian to declare whether they have ever studied him;
+and for those who still wrangle about the style of Macpherson's
+so-called Gaelic to decide whether they will continue such petty warfare
+among vowels and consonants, and ill-spelt mediaeval legends, when the
+science, the history, the navigation, the atmospheric phenomena, and the
+impending volcanic changes of Western Europe fifteen hundred years ago,
+are all unveiled and detailed, with an accuracy and a minuteness beyond
+cavil or competition, in the matchless English translation before them.
+Will our most erudite grammarians never understand? Would they abandon
+Genesis, shall we say, because _Elohim_ and _Jehovah_ are sometimes
+interchanged in the text? Can they believe that any Jew, who could
+concoct a book like Genesis, did not also know that _Elohim_ was a
+plural noun? Can they any more, then, believe that a Celtic man with
+brains enough to fabricate poems like _Fingal_ and _Temora_ did not know
+that the Gaelic name for the sun was feminine? Can they see no other way
+of accounting for such alleged variations of gender, and number, and
+case, than by forgery, when the very forger himself must have seen them?
+Or do they seriously prefer some letter of the Gaelic alphabet to a law
+of nature? Will they forego the facts of an epoch, for the orthography
+of a syllable? If so, then the friends of Ossian, who is one great mass
+of facts, must turn once more to the common sense of the public, and
+leave his etymological detractors at leisure to indulge their own
+predilections, and to entertain one another.
+
+In the present aspect of the controversy, indeed, the only antagonists
+entitled to anything like a patient hearing are the respectable,
+perhaps venerable, geologists and antiquarians who still lodge or
+linger about the Roman Wall; who talk, with a solemn air, about stern
+facts; who are also fortified by the authority of Hugh Miller and Smith
+of Jordanhill, and are led on to continuous defeat on their own ground,
+under the auspices of the _Scotsman_, who knows well how to shut the
+door politely in any man's face who pursues them. These gentlemen are
+far from being either unimportant or unworthy antagonists, if they would
+only speak intelligently for themselves and not allow their credit to be
+usurped by some nameless reviewer in a newspaper, who may know less
+about the whole matter in dispute than they do about Sanscrit. But let
+them have patience. Their favourite haunts, and impregnable strongholds,
+about Dunglass and Duntocher, shall be investigated with religious care;
+and the waters of the Clyde, as high as they will honestly flow, let in
+upon them without ceremony or remorse. As for the others, who, with no
+great semblance of either grace or grammar to support them, persist in
+affirming, with point-blank stolid effrontery, that Macpherson "must
+have been an impostor," and that Ossian is a "fudge"--they may safely be
+consigned in silence to their legitimate fate.
+
+                                                     P. HATELY WADDELL.
+
+                   (_To be Concluded in our next._)
+
+
+
+
+TO PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE.
+
+A LOCHABER LILT.
+
+
+    A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!
+      (I drink it in _mountain dew_)
+    With all the kindliest greetings
+      Of a heart that is leal and true.
+    Let happen what happen may
+      With others, by land or sea;
+    For me, I vow if I drink at all,
+      I'll drink a health to thee.
+
+    A health to thee, Stuart Blackie!
+      A man of men art thou,
+    With thy lightsome step and form erect,
+      And thy broad and open brow;
+    With thy eagle eye and ringing voice
+      (Which yet can be soft and kind),
+    As wrapped in thy plaid thou passest by
+      With thy white locks in the wind!
+
+    I greet thee as poet and scholar;
+      I greet thee as wise and good;
+    I greet thee ever lord of thyself--
+      No heritage mean, by the rood!
+    I greet thee and hold thee in honour,
+      That thou bendest to no man's nod--
+    Amidst the din of a world of sin,
+      Still lifting thine eye to God!
+
+    Go, search me the world and find me;
+      Go, find me if you can,
+    From the distant Faroes with their mists and snows,
+      To the green-clad Isle of Man;
+    From John O' Groats to Maidenkirk,
+      From far Poolewe to Prague--
+    Go, find me a better or wiser man
+      Than the Laird of Altnacraig.
+
+    Now, here's to the honest and leal and true,
+      And here's to the learned and wise,
+    And to all who love our Highland glens
+      And our Bens that kiss the skies;
+    And here's to the native Celtic race,
+      And to each bright-eyed Celtic fair;
+    And here's to the Chief of Altnacraig--
+      And hurrah! for the Celtic Chair!
+
+                                                       NETHER-LOCHABER.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL SIR ALAN CAMERON, K.C.B.,
+
+COLONEL 79th CAMERON HIGHLANDERS.
+
+
+A POPULAR writer[A] of the past generation, in some introductory
+observations to his historical essay, makes the following on Scotland
+and its natives:--Considering the limited population and extent of that
+country, it has made a distinguished figure in history. No country in
+modern times has produced characters more remarkable for learning,
+valour, or ability, or for knowledge in the most important arts, both of
+peace and of war; and though the natives of that formerly independent,
+and hitherto unconquered kingdom, have every reason to be proud of the
+name of _Britons_, which they have acquired since the Union; yet they
+ought not to relinquish all remembrance of the martial achievements, and
+the honourable characteristics of their ancestors. Acting on the
+recommendation embodied in the foregoing quotation; and as the
+conductors of the _Celtic Magazine_ have intimated their intention of
+making biographies form occasionally part of its contents, the following
+sketch of one who, in his day was not the least distinguished among our
+Highland countrymen, but of whose eminent services to his country,
+little or nothing has appeared, may prove interesting. Biography is
+admitted to be one of the most interesting sections of literature. We
+therefore trust that this feature in the Magazine will be appreciated.
+The field will be found extensive, inasmuch that, happily for the
+country, its benefactors have been numerous, the record of whose deeds
+deserve to be remembered in this Celtic periodical for the
+entertainment, and may be, the emulation of its readers.
+
+The details of the life and public services of the gallant gentleman now
+submitted, and deserving record, are supplied partly from oral
+information collected at intervals, and partly from documents received
+by the writer, but which, although imperfect, it is hoped may be
+acceptable, even at this distance since the lifetime of the subject.
+
+The absence of any adequate notice of Sir Alan Cameron's services, save
+that in a couple of pages of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ at his death
+(1828) may be ascribed much to his own reticence in supplying
+information respecting them. Sir John Philliphart and Colonel David
+Stewart, when collecting materials for their respective "Military
+Annals," expressed their regret that Sir Alan's reply to their
+applications for particulars of his life and career was of the most
+meagre nature. Although in common with the majority of other
+distinguished men, averse to giving publicity to the incidents of his
+life, he was otherwise than reticent with his friends, and was never
+happier than when surrounded by them. His house in Gloucester Place was
+a rendezvous during many years for his companions in arms, and his
+"Highland cousins" (as he fondly termed them) were always received with
+a genial welcome. Notwithstanding the general absence of his name from
+unofficial publications, it may be affirmed, without hesitation, that in
+his day few were better known, and there was none whose fame stood
+higher than _Ailean an Earrachd_. In the army he was held in universal
+popularity, where, in consequence of his familiar habit of addressing
+the Irish and Highland soldiers with the Gaelic salute of "_Cia mar tha
+thu_," he was known as "Old cia mar tha." Indeed, he is so styled in Mr
+Lever's novel of "Charles O'Malley," where he is represented (vol. 1,
+chap, x.) as one of the friends of General Sir George Dashwood. Another
+writer (Miss Sinclair's "Scotland and the Scotch") refers to him as "a
+frequent visitor at her father's house in London, and a celebrity of the
+past generation who was said to have been one of the principals in the
+last duel fought with broadswords; and also known to his friends for the
+more than hearty grasp he shook their hands with." These distinctions,
+no doubt, combined many incidents for their existence. A tragic
+adventure at the outset of his career; his imprisonment during the
+American War; and afterwards his services with the Highlanders
+throughout the wars of the period. He was remarkable for the immense
+size and powerful structure of his person. In a verse from one of the
+many Gaelic songs written in honour of _Fear an Earrachd_, alluding to
+his majestic form and figure when in the Highland costume, the bard
+says:--
+
+    Nuair theid thu 'n uidheam Gaidheil
+    Bu mhiann le Ban-Righ sealladh dhiot,
+    Le t-osan is math fiaradh,
+    Do chalp air fiamh na gallinne:
+    Sporan a bhruic-fhiadhaich,
+    Gun chruaidh shnaim riamh ga theannachadh,
+    Gur tric thu tarruing iall as
+    'S ga riachaidh a measg aineartaich.
+
+He was the firm friend of the soldier, and considered every man in his
+regiment committed to his personal care. In health he advised them; in
+sickness he saw that their wants were supplied; and once any became
+disabled, he was incessant in his efforts till he secured a pension for
+them. Numerous are the stories told of the encounters between Sir Harry
+Torrens (Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief) and himself for
+his persistent applications for pensions and promotions. These poor
+fellows, for whom he was never tired of interceding, were naturally
+grateful for his fatherly feeling towards them. Such is an outline of
+the characteristics of the subject of the following Biographical sketch.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE sires of the subject of our memoir were of the tribe of Camerons'
+known as _Sliochd Eoghainn 'ic Eoghainn_, and descended directly from
+the parent stock of the chiefs of the clan, to whom they stood next in
+relationship after the Fassiferns. The lands assigned for their
+occupation, and on which they lived from the earliest settlement of the
+Camerons in Lochaber, were within a short distance of the castle of the
+chiefs, and the homestead of Sir Alan's family was named _Earrachd_, and
+situated on an elevated plateau at the entrance of _Gleann Laoidh_ (Glen
+Loy) which leads off in a westerly direction. It is close to, and seen
+from, the banks of that portion of the Caledonian Canal between
+Gairlochy and Banavie Locks.
+
+The parents of Alan were Donald Cameron and _Marsali_ (Marjory) MacLean
+(of the family of Drimnin in Morvern). Two incidents connected with the
+infancy of both father and son are peculiarly remarkable. The father was
+an infant in the arms of his mother when she went to the gathering place
+to support the Earl of Mar (1715) to bid farewell to her husband the day
+the clan left; and Alan was an infant in the arms of his mother when
+_his_ father marched out with the clan to meet Prince Charles at
+Glenfinnan (1745). The battle of Sheriffmuir ended the career of Alan's
+grandfather, and the disasters on the field of Culloden made the father
+a wanderer from his hearth and home for the next three years, while his
+family were subjected during that time to cruelties and indignities,
+which were a disgrace to men calling themselves the soldiers of the
+king. Domiciliary visits were made at frequent intervals, and on every
+occasion numbers of cattle were driven off the lands for the use of the
+garrison at Fort-William. These spoliations continued for several months
+after the _rising_ was suppressed, and proved ruinous to the poor people
+whose only crime was that they risked their lives in support of the
+claims of one whom they believed to be the rightful heir to the Crown of
+the United Kingdom. Their descendants, a quarter of a century
+afterwards, risked their lives in another cause with equal fidelity and
+bravery, asserting the rights and defending the honour of the British
+Crown. It is known that the Clan Cameron was the first to appear in
+support of the standard of the Prince. The gathering place of the clan
+was at _Drochaid Laoidh_, and there ten of the _twelve_ tribes promptly
+answered the _Cothionnal_ "_Thigibh a chlann na 'n con 's gheobh sibh
+feoil._" The absentees were, the Camerons of Fassifern, and the Camerons
+of Glen Nevis; the proverbial caution of the first forbade their
+adherence, while the influence of the Whig Clan Grant prevailed with the
+latter. The defection of the Fassiferns gave the place of second in
+command, or Lieutenant of the clan, to Cameron of _Earrachd_ (Alan's
+father). The clan turned out 600, but these were considerably augmented
+a few days afterwards. After a spirited address from the chief (the
+"gentle Lochiel"), the first march of that eventful movement commenced
+with pipers playing and banners flying, wending their way with steady
+demeanour and elastic step up Glen Loy, and over the hills that
+separated them from Glenfinnan.
+
+Many of the chiefs of Lochiel were, in addition to being men of great
+military renown and martial ardour, shrewd politicians. They encouraged
+other septs to dwell on their lands that they might be serviceable to
+assist them in keeping the jealous or more turbulent spirits of their
+own clansmen in subjection. At any rate, with the Camerons in this
+campaign, a third was composed of Maclachlans, Macmillans, Kennedies,
+Macphees, Mackinnons, &c.
+
+The Governor of the garrison at Fort-William having heard of the
+intended gathering at Glenfinnan, sent out a company of soldiers by way
+of reconnoitring the proceedings. To avoid observance they followed a
+devious path over the hills, and most opportunely fell in with the
+Camerons, by whom they were surrounded, and without much difficulty made
+prisoners. Besides the _eclat_ of this the first victory, the arms thus
+possessed were of considerable advantage to the Highlanders, most of
+whom were miserably equipped for the exigencies of the campaign.
+
+A most cordial reception was given to Lochiel and his clan by the
+Prince, after which the Marquis of Tullibardine unfurled the standard,
+amidst unbounded enthusiasm. It was made of white and blue silk.
+Meanwhile the Laird of Keppoch was observed advancing with a contingent
+of 300 of his Macdonells. At the head of the diminutive force thus made
+up, Prince Charles embarked on a contest with a power the most
+formidable in Europe. And the daring of this small band was even more
+conspicuous when they at once determined to march direct on the capital
+of the kingdom. Glenfinnan, formed not unlike an amphitheatre, and easy
+of access for all parts of the Western Highlands, was admirably fitted
+for the rendezvous.
+
+The morning march of the little army took the route alongside of an arm
+of the sea named Lochiel (the same from which the chief takes his modern
+title) to Corpach. Here they encamped the first night, afterwards
+continuing their way up the Braes of Lochaber, Blair Athole, and towards
+the City of Perth, which they occupied as an intermediate resting place.
+A few days further march brought them within a short distance of
+Edinburgh. On nearing the capital a halt was made at Duddingston, and a
+council was held, at which it was decided to detach Lochiel's force to
+make the advance and demand the surrender of the city. The Camerons
+having been the first arrivals at Glenfinnan, may have been the cause of
+this selection. Lochiel having received some injury from a fall off his
+horse on the journey, he was unable to accompany his clansmen. Cameron
+of Earrachd consequently succeeded to the command of this important
+mission, and its success is matter of history. The events of the '45 are
+introduced into the career of Alan (the son) somewhat irrelevantly, but
+only to connect the latter with the singular incident that sixty-two
+years afterwards it fell to _his_ lot to have been ordered by Sir Arthur
+Wellesley to take possession of the Citadel of Copenhagen (1807). Taking
+leave now of Prince Charles and his Highlanders, with their fortunes and
+their failures, the narrative of Alan Cameron will proceed without
+further divergence.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IT was during these turbulent times that Alan Cameron passed his
+infantile years--he was four years of age before he saw his father, and,
+although it was hoped that the settlement of the difficulties which had
+existed would favour his career in life, exempt from the toils and
+strifes of war, it was not so ordained, as the narrative will prove.
+
+Alan was the oldest son of a family of three sons and three daughters,
+some of whom found meet employment subsequently in his regiment. Their
+education was conducted as customary in those days by resident tutors
+from Aberdeen and St Andrews. With one of these Alan, on reaching a
+suitable age, went to the latter University for one or two sessions to
+complete his education. As the oldest son, it was intended that on
+arriving at a certain age he should relieve his father of the care and
+management of the lands and stock, and become the responsible
+representative of the family at home; while it was arranged that of the
+other sons, Donald was to enter the naval service of the Dutch East
+India Company, and the youngest, Ewan, was to find a commission in one
+of the Fencible Corps of the county of Argyll. But this arrangement was
+not to be, especially as regards the eldest and youngest sons. A
+circumstance of melancholy interest occurred before the former had taken
+to the succession of the farm, or the other had arrived at the age to be
+an effective officer of his regiment, which had the effect of exactly
+reversing these intentions. The occurrence referred to was of a tragical
+nature, and caused the utmost sensation among the families of the
+district, inasmuch as relationship was so general there that whatever
+brought affliction to the hearth of one family, would leave its portion
+also at the threshold of the others. Alan, like other youths, employed
+much of his juvenile years in the sports of a Highland country
+life--fox-hunting, deer-stalking, and fishing for salmon on the Lochy;
+at all of which he was more than ordinarily successful. The nearest
+house to his father's was that of another Cameron--chieftain of a
+considerable tribe (_Mac Ile' Onaich_ or Sliochd Ile' Onaich), who had
+recently died of wounds received at Culloden. His widow and children
+occupied the house at Strone. The lady is reputed to have been very
+handsome, and would apparently answer _Donachadh Ban's_ description of
+_Isabel og an or fhuilt bhuidhe_, leastways, to borrow a word from the
+Cockney--she was styled _par excellance_, _a Bhanntrach Ruadh_. Alan, like
+a friendly kinsman, was most generous in sharing the successes of his
+gun and rod with the widowed lady, for which, no doubt, she expressed
+her acknowledgments to the youthful sportsman. The course of this
+commendable neighbourship was rather unexpectedly interrupted by some
+words of misunderstanding which occurred between Alan and a gentleman
+(also a Cameron) who was closely related to the widow's late husband. He
+was known as _Fear Mhorsheirlich_; had been _out_ in the '45 when quite
+a youth, and escaped to Holland, from which he had only returned a few
+months previous to the incident of this narrative. Contemporaries spoke
+of him as being most accomplished, and of gallant bearing. The real
+nature of the dispute has not descended sufficiently authentic to
+justify more minute reference than that rumour assigned it to have been
+an accusation that Alan was imprudently intimate with the handsome widow
+of Strone (_a Bhanntrach Ruadh_). The delicate insinuation was resented
+by Alan in language probably more plain than polite. Mr Cameron was
+Alan's senior by some twenty years or so, but notwithstanding this, his
+high spirit could not brook the rough retort of the accused; and, much
+to Alan's confusion, the result was that he received a peremptory demand
+to apologise or arrange a meeting for personal satisfaction. As he
+declined to return the one, he was obliged to grant the desperate
+alternative. Reading this account of men going out to engage in personal
+combat for a cause so small, will lead us to consider that such a result
+ought to have been prevented by the interposition of friends. But it
+must not be overlooked that the customs of the times are very much
+ameliorated from what prevailed in those days (1772). It is probable
+that even then if the management of the affair had been confided to
+skilful diplomatists the meeting might have been averted. Friends of
+such conciliating habits were either not at hand, or they were not
+consulted; and, as men equal in high spirits, the principals could not
+volunteer any compromise. Alan's chief anxiety was how to keep the event
+secret from his parents and family, therefore, he quietly repaired to a
+relative to request his attendance the following morning as his friend
+for the occasion. It is said that this gentleman used his utmost powers
+of dissuasion, although unsuccessful--determination had, in the interval
+of a few hours, become too settled for alteration. Alan, as the
+challenged, was, according to duelling etiquette, entitled to the choice
+of weapons and place of meeting. Although the pistol had in a measure
+superseded the rapier in England, the broadsword remained the favourite
+weapon in the north when required for the purpose of personal
+_satisfaction_. Highlanders had always a preference for the weapon named
+by Ossian--_An Lann tanna_--and by the modern bards--_Tagha nan Arm_.
+Alan decided on making choice of the steel blade, and named a certain
+obscure spot on the banks of the Lochy for the meeting on the following
+day at the grey hour of the morning. His difficulty now was how to get
+possession of one of these implements of war without exciting suspicion
+or inquiries. They numbered more than one in the armory of every
+Highland household, and in the case of those in his father's house they
+were preserved with a care due to articles which had been often used
+with effect in the past. Among them was one which had been _out_ in the
+campaigns of 1689 (Dundee's), 1715 (Mar's), and in 1745-6. It was of
+Spanish manufacture, and remarkable for the length and symmetry of its
+blade, in consequence of which it received the sobriquet of _Rangaire
+Riabhach_.[B] In his failure to find the keys of the arms depository, he
+bethought him to make a confident and enlist the sympathies of an
+elderly lady, who had been a member of the family since the days of his
+childhood. The aged Amazon not only promised her aid, but highly
+approved, and even encouraged, the spirit of her youthful relative.
+Having access to the keys of the armory, the _Rangaire_ was soon in
+Alan's hands, and with it he repaired to the place appointed, "to
+vindicate his own honour and give _satisfaction_ to his antagonist."
+
+The time of year when this event took place was in the early days of
+autumn. Daylight and the combatants arrived on the scene together. Vague
+particulars of the preliminaries between them have been variously
+retailed, but they are not necessary to the narrative, and therefore not
+referred to. The fact that the elder Cameron was reputed to be a skilled
+swordsman, also that it was not the first time he had met his foes in
+the field, may have had some effect on the nerves of his younger
+opponent, but there was no outward indication of it. The home-taught
+countryman, however, must have felt that he was standing face to face
+with no ordinary opponent. Alan, like the generality of young men, had
+such practice in the use of the weapon as to make him acquainted with
+the _cuts_ and _guards_. The superiority of Mr Cameron was at first
+apparent and proved, inasmuch as he not only kept himself for some time
+uninjured, but inflicted a severe cut on Alan's left arm. This blow may
+be said to have brought the conflict to its sudden and fatal
+termination. The pain, together with the humiliation, roused Alan's
+wrath to desperation. It became manifest to the only two friends
+present, that the life of one, if not of the two combatants, would be
+sacrificed; but they found themselves quite powerless to restrain the
+rage of the wounded principal. Their anticipations were not long in
+being confirmed. The elder Cameron fell from a blow delivered on the
+head by the powerful arm of his opponent. The force may be imagined when
+it is stated that it was what is known as No. 7 cut, and that the
+wounded man's sword in defending was forced into his own forehead. He
+lived just long enough to reach Strone house--a mile or so distant. It
+is impossible, except to those who have experienced a similar trial, to
+estimate the state of feeling such a painful scene produced on the three
+now remaining on the field. Time, however, was not to be trifled with,
+for, although, there were no "men in blue" to make prisoners of the
+breakers of the peace; yet the vanquished combatant had friends who
+would not hesitate to take life for life. Alan's _achates_ at once
+thought of that probability, or of revenge in some form. They,
+therefore, hurried him away from the field and across the river Lochy. A
+short consultation decided that he should remove himself entirely from
+the Cameron country for the time being. This was concurred in by Alan,
+who girded his claymore and determined on making direct for his uncle's
+house in Morvern--(Maclean of Drimnin)--distant about sixty miles, where
+he arrived without resting or drawing breath. The advice of his counsel,
+and the decision arrived at, proved to be not unnecessary, as the sequel
+proved. The fallen man was one of the cadets of a numerous tribe, and
+they would naturally, in accordance with the habit of the times, seek to
+avenge the death of their kinsman. They sought for the slayer of their
+friend with diligence and zeal. Their search was far and wide; but,
+fortunately for the fugitive, and thanks to the vigilance of his
+relatives, his pursuers were defeated in their attempt to capture their
+intended victim. The consternation of the uncle (Drimnin), on learning
+the cause of his nephew's sudden visit, may be surmised; but what was
+done could not be undone. When the Laird was satisfied with Alan's
+version, that _Morsheirlich_ fell in fair fight, brought about by
+himself, his displeasure somewhat relented. Affection and sympathy
+mingled in the old Laird's bosom, and he decided to befriend his
+unfortunate nephew at all hazard. It was conjectured that the search of
+the avengers would be directed towards this district, where Alan's
+relatives were numerous, and where he would likely betake himself in
+this emergency. That he might elude his pursuers with greater certainty,
+the Laird of Drimnin had him escorted across the Sound of Mull by some
+trusty kinsmen, to the charge of another Maclean (Pennycross), and with
+whom he was to remain until he received further instructions respecting
+his future destination. The grief and revenge of _Morsheirlich's_
+friends had not yet subsided, and would not, for years to come, so that
+Alan would be unwise to return to his native home, or place himself in
+their path.
+
+The Collector of His Majesty's Customs at the Port of Greenock was an
+immediate relation to the Laird of Drimnin by marriage, and a
+correspondence was entered on with him with the view of ascertaining his
+opinion as to what was best to be done for Alan. Negotiations occupied
+more time for their conduct at that time than in the present day; at any
+rate nothing satisfactory was proposed to Alan, so that for a couple of
+years he continued wandering up and down the island of Mull, and through
+the glens of Morvern, entirely under the guidance of his uncle. At last
+a request came from the Collector to send the fugitive to him, that he
+might find employment for him in his own office. The uncle decreed,
+rather against Alan's grain, that the offer of clerkship should
+meanwhile be accepted. He remained in this occupation for several
+months, until he received an invitation from another friend residing in
+Leith. This gentleman wrote to say that there was now an opportunity of
+giving him service in an enterprise likely to be congenial to "a man of
+metal" such as he conceived Alan to be. The war of American Independence
+had commenced, and the employment which the Leith friend proposed was
+that Alan should join a privateer which was fitting out in an English
+port, armed with letters of marque, to capture and destroy American
+shipping. Alan answered the invitation by repairing to Leith in person
+with all speed. The nature of the service offered, however, did not
+accord with his ideas of honourable warfare; in fact, he considered it
+more akin to piracy, and not such as a gentleman should take part in. He
+had no affection, he said, for clerkship, but he had still less for the
+life of a pirate.
+
+While Alan was oscillating in this manner, he learned that another
+relative of his mother's, Colonel Alan Maclean of Torloisk, who had
+emigrated to one of the North American colonies some years previously,
+had received a commission to embody a regiment of those of his
+countrymen who had become residents on free-grants of land at the same
+time with himself. To this gentleman Alan decided on going. Soldiering
+was more genial to his nature than marine freebooting, and he calculated
+on Colonel Maclean's assistance in that direction. (This Colonel
+Maclean's grand-daughter was Miss Clephane Maclean, afterwards
+Marchioness of Northampton.) Arrived in America, Alan was received
+kindly by his relative, and being a soldier himself he viewed the past
+event in Alan's life as of a nature not entirely without a certain
+amount of recommendation to a wanderer in search of fame. Alan was not
+long in the country when Colonel Maclean added him to his list of
+volunteers, in a body, which was soon afterwards enrolled as the "Royal
+Highland Emigrant Corps."
+
+                         (_To be Continued._)
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Sir John Sinclair.]
+
+[Footnote B: Brown or brindled wrangler.]
+
+
+
+
+A. R. wants to know "the best standard for Gaelic orthography?"
+
+CABAR-FEIDH would like to know if any of Grant's [_Bard Mor an
+t-Slagain_] Poems were ever published? If so, where? and by whom? It is
+believed many of his pieces, which were famous in his day, are still
+known in the Lochbroom and Dundonnell districts. _Cabar_ requests that
+any of the readers of the _Celtic Magazine_ to whom any of the poems are
+known would kindly forward them for publication. Grant knew more
+Ossianic poetry than any man of his day--1746 to 1842. Any information
+regarding him would be of interest.
+
+MACAOIDH enquires to what sept of the clan the famous pipers--the
+Mackays of Gairloch--belonged, and how did they find their way to that
+part of the country? Are there any of their descendants still living in
+this country or in North British America, where the last famous piper of
+the race emigrated? The "Blind Piper" and bard was the most famous of
+this remarkable family, and was a pupil in the celebrated College of the
+Macrimmon's in Skye.
+
+
+
+
+REPLY TO "GLENGARRY'S" QUERY.--There are words in English to
+_Piobaireachd Mhic Ranuil_ or _Cilliechriost_, and they, with
+particulars of the occasion on which the tune was composed, will appear
+in the next instalment of the HIGHLAND CEILIDH in the _Celtic
+Magazine_.
+
+
+
+
+THE HIGHLAND CEILIDH.
+
+BY ALASTAIR OG.
+
+[CONTINUED.]
+
+
+ON the conclusion of the "Spell of Cadboll" Norman received the hearty
+and unanimous congratulations of the circle. The frail old bard, pulling
+himself together, got up, went across the room, and shook him heartily
+with both hands. This special honour was a most unusual one. It was
+clear that _Alastair_ was just in the mood when a little persuasion
+would suffice to get him to recite one of his own compositions. This he
+was generally very chary of doing, but Norman getting the hint from one
+of his immediate neighbours to ask the bard a special favour on this
+occasion at once begged the honour of hearing one of the bard's
+compositions from his own lips. The venerable old man bent himself
+forward, began to work the fingers of both hands and beat time on his
+leg as on a chanter, humming a quiet _cronan_. This was his usual
+practice when composing or reciting poetry, and it was at once seen that
+he would consent. "I will give you," says he, "a _Marbh-rann_, or Elegy
+which no one ever heard, and which I have recently composed to the late
+'Bailie Hector' of Dingwall, a son of my late esteemed friend
+'Letterewe,' on condition that you, Sir, will give us another story when
+I am done." Norman at once agreed, and the bard commenced as follows:--
+
+
+MARBHRANN.
+
+DO BHAILIDH EACHAINN, INBHIR-FEOTHARAN, MAC FEAR LEITIR-IUGH.
+
+          AIR FONN--"_'S mi 'm shuidhe 'm 'onar._"
+
+    O 's truagh an sgeula tha 'n diugh ri fheutainn,
+    Thug gal air ceudan a measg an t-sluaigh,
+    Mu Eachainn gleusta 'bha fearail, feumail,
+    Gun da ghlac an t-eug thu a threun-laoich chruaidh:
+    'S mor bron do Chinnidh, mar eoin na tuinne
+    Tha 'n cronan duilich 's an ullaidh uath
+    'S bho nach duisg an gair thu, 's nach cluinn thu 'n gailich,
+    Se chlaoidh do chairdean do bhas cho luath.
+
+    Tha do chairdean cianal, tha bron da'lionadh,
+    Tha 'n inntinn pianail bho n' ghlac thu 'm bas,
+    'S iad a ghnath fuidh thiorachd 's nach faigh iad sgial ort,
+    Ach thu bhi iosal an ciste chlar
+    Bu tu ceann na riaghailt 'us lamh na fialachd,
+    A sheoid gun fhiaradh, gun ghiamh gun sgath,
+    'Sa nis bho 'n thriall thu, 's sinn lan dha d' iargan,
+    'S nach eil 's na criochan fear a lionas d' ait.
+
+    Bha d' aite miaghail 's gach cas an iarrt' thu,
+    A reir mo sgiala bu teirc do luach:
+    Bha thu pairteach, briathrach, ri ard 's ri iosal,
+    Gun chas gun dioghaltas air an tuath.
+    Bha foghlum Iarl' agad 's ciall fear riaghlaidh
+    Bu mhor an diobhail nach da liath do ghruag,
+    'S ann a bharc an t-aog ort mas d' thainig aois ort,
+    A ghnuis bha faoilteach air chaochladh snuaidh.
+
+    Bha do shnuadh cho aillidh 's nach fhaodainn s' aireamh,
+    Mar ros a gharaidh ri maduinn dhriuchd,
+    Bu chuachach, faineach, do ghruag an caradh--
+    Mar theudan clarsaich an' inneal ciuil
+    Do ghruaidh dhearg dhathte, do shuil mar dhearcag,
+    Fuidh ghnuis na maise bu tapaidh surd
+    Rasg aotram, geanach, bho 'm b'fhaoilteach sealladh
+    Beul muirneach tairis, 's deud thana dhluth.
+
+    O! 's dluth bha buaidhean a stri mu'n cuairt duit,
+    Cha b' eol dhomh suairceas nach robh 'do chre
+    Bha thu ciallach, narach, 's tu briathrach, pairteach,
+    'S tu rianail, daimheil, ri d' chairdean fhein:
+    Bu tu firean, fallain, bha rioghail, geanach,
+    'Sa leoghann tapaidh bu ghlaine beus;
+    Bhiodh min 'us gairg' air, bhiodh sith 'us fearg air,
+    Nuair chit' air falbh e bhiodh colg na cheum.
+
+    Se do cheum bu bhrisge 's bu shubailt iosgaid,
+    Bha moran ghibhtean ri d' leasraidh fuaight.
+    Bu tu glas nan Gaidheal, bho mhuir gu braighe
+    Gu crioch Chinntaile 's na tha bho thuath.
+    O! 's lionmhor oigfhear tha 'n diugh gu bronach
+    A fasgadh dhorn, 'us ruith-dheoir le ghruaidh,
+    'Bhiodh dana, sgaiteach, gun sgath gun ghealtachd,
+    Na 'm bu namhaid pears' bheireadh Eachainn bh' uainn.
+
+    Bha thu mor an onair, bu mhor do mholadh,
+    Bu mhor do shonas, 's tu gun dolaidh gibht'
+    Bu mhor a b'fhiach thu, bu mhor do riaghailt,
+    Bu mhor do mhiagh ann an ciall 's an tuigs',
+    Bu mhor do churam, bu mhor do chuisean,
+    Bu mhor do chliu ann an cuirt 'sa meas,
+    Bu mhor do stata, 's bu mhor do nadur,
+    'S cha mhor nach d'fhag thu na Gaidheil brist'.
+
+    O! 's priseil, laidir, a ghibhte 'dh-fhag sinn--
+    'S mios'da Ghaeltachd bas an t-seoid,
+    Tha Mhachair tursach bho n' chaidh an uir ort,
+    'S tu dh-fhuasgladh cuis do gach cuirt mu bhord,
+    Bha 'Ghalldachd deurach ri cainnt ma d' dheighinn,
+    Gu ruig Dun-eidin nan steud 's nan cleoc,
+    'S cha ghabhainn gealtachd, air son a chantuinn,
+    Gur call do Bhreatuinn nach eil thu beo.
+
+    'S tu chraobh a b'aillidh bha 'n tus a gharaidh
+    'S i ur a fas ann fuidh bhlath 's fuidh dhos,
+    O! 's truagh a dh-fhag thu ma thuath na Gaidheil
+    Mar uain gun mhathair ni'n sgath ri frois,
+    'S tu b'urr' an tearnadh bho chunnart gabhaidh,
+    'S an curaidh laidir, chuireadh spairn na tost,
+    Tha 'n tuath gu craiteach, 's na h-uaislean casai,
+    'S bho 'n chaidh am fad ort 's truagh gair nam bochd.
+
+"_Ma ta 's math sibh fhein Alastair Bhuidhe; 's grinn comhnard a
+bhardachd a th'air a mharbhrainn, ach cha 'n eil i dad nas fhearr na
+thoill brod a Ghaidheil agus am fior dhuin' uasal dha'n d'rinn sibh i,"
+arsa Ruairidh Mor._ (Well done yourself, _Alastair Buidhe_, the
+composition of the Elegy is beautifully elegant and even, but not any
+better than the memory of the best of Highlanders and the truest of
+gentlemen, to whom you composed it, deserved, said Big Rory). This was
+the general verdict of the circle.
+
+Norman was now called upon to fulfil his part of the arrangement, which
+he promptly did by giving the Legend, of which the following is a
+translation:--
+
+
+THE RAID OF CILLIECHRIOST.
+
+THE ancient Chapel of Cilliechriost, in the Parish of Urray, in Ross,
+was the scene of one of the bloodiest acts of ferocity and revenge that
+history has recorded. The original building has long since disappeared,
+but the lonely and beautifully situated burying-ground is still in use.
+The tragedy originated in the many quarrels which arose between the two
+chiefs of the North Highlands--Mackenzie of Kintail and Macdonald of
+Glengarry. As usual, the dispute was regarding land, but it were not
+easy to arrive at the degree of blame to which each party was entitled,
+enough that there was bad blood between these two paladins of the north.
+Of course, the quarrel was not allowed to go to sleep for lack of action
+on the part of their friends and clansmen. The Macdonalds having made
+several raids on the Mackenzie country, the Mackenzies retaliated by the
+spoiling of Morar with a large and overwhelming force. The Macdonalds,
+taking advantage of Kenneth Mackenzie's visit to Mull with the view to
+influence Maclean to induce the former to peace, once more committed
+great devastation in the Mackenzie country, under the leadership of
+Glengarry's son Angus. From Kintail and Lochalsh the clan of the
+Mackenzies gathered fast, but too late to prevent Macdonald from
+escaping to sea with his boats loaded with the foray. A portion of the
+Mackenzies ran to Eilean-donan, while another portion sped to the narrow
+strait of the Kyle between Skye and the mainland, through which the
+Macdonalds, on their return, of necessity, must pass. At Eilean-donan
+Lady Mackenzie furnished them with two boats, one ten-oared and one
+four-oared, also with arrows and ammunition. Though without their chief,
+the Mackenzies sallied forth, and rowing towards Kyleakin, lay in wait
+for the approach of the Macdonalds. The first of the Glengarry boats
+they allowed to pass unchallenged, but the second, which was the
+thirty-two-oared galley of the chief was furiously attacked. The
+unprepared Macdonalds rushing to the side of the heavily loaded boat,
+swamped the craft, and were all thrown into the sea, where they were
+despatched in large numbers, and those who escaped to the land were
+destroyed "by the Kintail men, who killed them like _sealchagan_."[A]
+The body of young Glengarry was secured and buried in the very door-way
+of the Kirk of Kintail, that the Mackenzies might trample over it
+whenever they went to church. Time passed on, Donald _Gruamach_, the
+old chief, died ere he could mature matters for adequate retaliation of
+the Kyle tragedy and the loss of his son Angus. The chief of the clan
+was an infant in whom the feelings of revenge could not be worked out by
+action; but there was one, his cousin, who was the Captain or Leader in
+whom the bitterest thoughts exercised their fullest sway. It seems now
+impossible that such acts could have occurred, and it gives one a
+startling idea of the state of the country then, when such a terrible
+instance of private vengeance could have been carried out so recent as
+the beginning of the seventeenth century, without any notice being taken
+of it, even, in those days of general blood and rapine. Notwithstanding
+the hideousness of sacrilege and murder, which, certainly, in magnitude
+of atrocity, was scarcely ever equalled, there are many living, even in
+the immediate neighbourhood, who are ignorant of the cause of the act.
+Macranuil of Lundi, captain of the clan, whose personal prowess was only
+equalled by his intense ferocity, made many incursions into the
+Mackenzie country, sweeping away their cattle, and otherwise doing them
+serious injury; but these were but preludes to that sanguinary act on
+which his soul gloated, and by which he hoped effectually to avenge the
+loss of influence and property of which his clan were deprived by the
+Mackenzies, and more particularly wash out the records of death of his
+chief and clansmen at Kyleakin. In order to form his plans more
+effectually he wandered for some time as a mendicant among the
+Mackenzies in order the more successfully to fix on the best means and
+spot for his revenge. A solitary life offered up to expiate the manes of
+his relatives was not sufficient in his estimation, but the life's blood
+of such a number of his bitterest foemen, and an act at which the
+country should stand aghast was absolutely necessary. Returning home he
+gathered together a number of the most desperate of his clan, and by a
+forced march across the hills arrived at the Church of Cilliechriost on
+a Sunday forenoon, when it was filled by a crowd of worshippers of the
+clan Mackenzie. Without a moments delay, without a single pang of
+remorse, and while the song of praise ascended to heaven from fathers,
+mothers, and children, he surrounded the church with his band, and with
+lighted torches set fire to the roof. The building was thatched, and
+while a gentle breeze from the east fanned the fire, the song of praise,
+mingled with the crackling of the flames, until the imprisoned
+congregation, becoming conscious of their situation, rushed to the doors
+and windows, where they were met by a double row of bristling swords.
+Now, indeed, arose the wild wail of despair, the shrieks of women, the
+infuriated cries of men, and the helpless screaming of children, these
+mingled with the roaring of the flames appalled even the Macdonalds, but
+not so Allan Dubh. "Thrust them back into the flames" cried he, "for he
+that suffers ought to escape alive from Cilliechriost shall be branded
+as a traitor to his clan"; and they were thrust back or mercilessly hewn
+down within the narrow porch, until the dead bodies piled on each other
+opposed an unsurmountable barrier to the living. Anxious for the
+preservation of their young children, the scorching mothers threw them
+from the windows in the vain hope that the feelings of parents awakened
+in the breasts of the Macdonalds would induce them to spare them, but
+not so. At the command of Allan of Lundi they were received on the
+points of the broadswords of men in whose breasts mercy had no place.
+It was a wild and fearful sight only witnessed by a wild and fearful
+race. During the tragedy they listened with delight to the piper of the
+band, who marching round the burning pile, played to drown the screams
+of the victims, an extempore pibroch, which has ever since been
+distinguished as the war tune of Glengarry under the title of
+"Cilliechriost." The flaming roof fell upon the burning victims, soon
+the screams ceased to be heard, a column of smoke and flame leapt into
+the air, the pibroch ceased, the last smothered groan of existence
+ascended into the still sky of that Sabbath morning, whispering as it
+died away that the agonies of the congregation were over.
+
+East, west, north, and south looked Allan Dubh Macranuil. Not a living
+soul met his eye. The fire he kindled had destroyed, like the spirit of
+desolation. Not a sound met his ear, and his own tiger soul sunk within
+him in dismay. The Parish of Cilliechriost seemed swept of every living
+thing. The fearful silence that prevailed, in a quarter lately so
+thickly peopled, struck his followers with dread; for they had given in
+one hour the inhabitants of a whole parish, one terrible grave. The
+desert which they had created filled them with dismay, heightened into
+terror by the howls of the masterless sheep dogs, and they turned to
+fly. Worn out with the suddenness of their long march from Glengarry,
+and with their late fiendish exertions, on their return they sat down to
+rest on the green face of Glenconvinth, which route they took in order
+to reach Lundi through the centre of Glenmorriston by Urquhart. Before
+they fled from Cilliechriost Allan divided his party into two, one
+passing by Inverness and the other as already mentioned; but the
+Macdonalds were not allowed to escape, for the flames had roused the
+Mackenzies as effectually as if the fiery cross had been sent through
+their territories. A youthful leader, a cadet of the family of Seaforth,
+in an incredibly short time, found himself surrounded by a determined
+band of Mackenzies eager for the fray; these were also divided into two
+bodies, one commanded by Murdoch Mackenzie of Redcastle, proceeded by
+Inverness, to follow the pursuit along the southern side of Loch Ness;
+another headed by Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, struck across the country
+from Beauly, to follow the party of the Macdonalds who fled along the
+northern side of Loch Ness under their leader Allan Dubh Macranuil. The
+party that fled by Inverness were surprised by Redcastle in a
+public-house at Torbreck, three miles to the west of the town where they
+stopped to refresh themselves. The house was set on fire, and they
+all--thirty-seven in number--suffered the death which, in the earlier
+part of the day, they had so wantonly inflicted. The Mackenzies, under
+Coul, after a few hours' hard running, came up with the Macdonalds as
+they sought a brief repose on the hills towards the burn of Aultsigh.
+There the Macdonalds maintained an unequal conflict, but as guilt only
+brings faint hearts to its unfortunate votaries they turned and again
+fled precipitately to the burn. Many, however, missed the ford, and the
+channel being rough and rocky several fell under the swords of the
+victorious Mackenzies. The remainder, with all the speed they could
+make, held on for miles lighted by a splendid and cloudless moon, and
+when the rays of the morning burst upon them, Allan Dubh Macranuil and
+his party were seen ascending the southern ridge of Glen Urquhart with
+the Mackenzies close in the rear. Allan casting an eye behind him and
+observing the superior numbers and determination of his pursuers, called
+to his band to disperse in order to confuse his pursuers and so divert
+the chase from himself. This being done, he again set forward at the
+height of his speed, and after a long run, drew breath to reconnoitre,
+when, to his dismay, he found that the avenging Mackenzies were still
+upon his track in one unbroken mass. Again he divided his men and bent
+his flight towards the shore of Loch Ness, but still he saw the foe with
+redoubled vigour, bearing down upon him. Becoming fearfully alive to his
+position, he cried to his few remaining companions again to disperse,
+until they left him, one by one, and he was alone. Allan, who as a mark
+of superiority and as Captain of the Glengarry Macdonalds, always wore a
+red jacket, was easily distinguished from the rest of his clansmen, and
+the Mackenzies being anxious for his capture, thus easily singled him
+out as the object of their joint and undiverted pursuit. Perceiving the
+sword of vengeance ready to descend on his head he took a resolution as
+desperate in its conception as unequalled in its accomplishment. Taking
+a short course towards the fearful ravine of Aultsigh he divested
+himself of his plaid and buckler, and turning to the leader of the
+Mackenzies, who had nearly come up with him, beckoned him to follow,
+then with a few yards of a run he sprang over the yawning chasm, never
+before contemplated without a shudder. The agitation of his mind at the
+moment completely overshadowed the danger of the attempt, and being of
+an athletic frame he succeeded in clearing the desperate leap. The young
+and reckless Mackenzie, full of ardour and determined at all hazards to
+capture the murderer followed; but, being a stranger to the real width
+of the chasm, perhaps of less nerve than his adversary, and certainly
+not stimulated by the same feelings, he only touched the opposite brink
+with his toes, and slipping downwards he clung by a slender shoot of
+hazel which grew over the tremendous abyss. Allan Dubh looking round on
+his pursuer and observing the agitation of the hazel bush, immediately
+guessed the cause, and returning with the ferocity of a demon who had
+succeeded in getting his victim into his fangs, hoarsely whispered, "I
+have given your race this day much, I shall give them this also, surely
+now the debt is paid," when cutting the hazel twig with his sword, the
+intrepid youth was dashed from crag to crag until he reached the stream
+below, a bloody and misshapen mass. Macranuil again commenced his
+flight, but one of the Mackenzies, who by this time had come up, sent a
+musket shot after him, by which he was wounded, and obliged to slacken
+his pace. None of his pursuers, however, on coming up to Aultsigh, dared
+or dreamt of taking a leap which had been so fatal to their youthful
+leader, and were therefore under the necessity of taking a circuitous
+route to gain the other side. This circumstance enabled Macranuil to
+increase the distance between him and his pursuers, but the loss of
+blood, occasioned by his wound, so weakened him that very soon he found
+his determined enemies were fast gaining on him. Like an infuriated wolf
+he hesitated whether to await the undivided attack of the Mackenzies or
+plunge into Loch Ness and attempt to swim across its waters. The shouts
+of his approaching enemies soon decided him, and he sprung into its
+deep and dark wave. Refreshed by its invigorating coolness he soon swam
+beyond the reach of their muskets; but in his weak and wounded state it
+is more than probable he would have sunk ere he had crossed half the
+breadth had not the firing and the shouts of his enemies proved the
+means of saving his life. Fraser of Foyers seeing a numerous band of
+armed men standing on the opposite bank of Loch Ness, and observing a
+single swimmer struggling in the water, ordered his boat to be launched,
+and pulling hard to the individual, discovered him to be his friend
+Allan Dubh, with whose family Fraser was on terms of friendship.
+Macranuil, thus rescued remained at the house of Foyers until he was
+cured of his wound, but the influence and the Clan of the Macdonalds
+henceforth declined, while that of the Mackenzies surely and steadily
+increased.
+
+The heavy ridge between the vale of Urquhart and Aultsigh where Allan
+Dubh Macranuil so often divided his men, is to this day called
+_Monadh-a-leumanaich_ or "the Moor of the Leaper."
+
+                         (_To be Continued._)
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Snails.]
+
+
+
+
+CAN THIS BE THE LAND?
+
+
+          "_How are the mighty fallen!_"
+
+    Can this be the land where of old heroes flourished?
+    Can this be the land of the sons of the blast?
+    Gloom-wrapt as a monarch whose greatness hath perished,
+    Its beauty of loneliness speaks of the past:--
+    Tell me ye green valleys, dark glens, and blue mountains,
+    Where now are the mighty that round ye did dwell?
+    Ye wild-sweeping torrents, and woe-sounding fountains,
+    Say, is it their spirits that wail in your swell?
+
+    Oft, oft have ye leaped when your children of battle,
+    With war-bearing footsteps rushed down your dark crests;
+    Oft, oft have ye thundered with far-rolling rattle,
+    The echoes of slogans that burst from their breasts:--
+    Wild music of cataracts peals in their gladness,--
+    Hoarse tempests still shriek to the clouds lightning-fired,--
+    Dark shadows of glory departed, in sadness
+    Still linger o'er ruins where dwelt the inspired.
+
+    The voice of the silence for ever is breaking
+    Around the lone heaths of the glory-sung braves;
+    Dim ghosts haunt in sorrow, a land all forsaken,
+    And pour their mist tears o'er the heather-swept graves:--
+    Can this be the land of the thunder-toned numbers
+    That snowy bards sung in the fire of their bloom?
+    Deserted and blasted, in death's silent slumbers,
+    It glooms o'er my soul like the wreck of a tomb.
+
+    SUNDERLAND.                                              WM. ALLAN.
+
+
+
+
+HIGHLAND FOLK-LORE.
+
+BY "NETHER-LOCHABER."
+
+
+FOLK-LORE--a word of recent importation from the German--is a big word,
+and Highland Folk-Lore is a big subject, so big and comprehensive that
+not one Magazine article, but a many-chaptered series of Magazine
+articles would be necessary ere one could aver that he had done his
+"text" anything like justice. On the present occasion, therefore, we do
+not pretend to enter into the heart of a subject so extensive and
+many-sided: we shall content ourselves with a little scouting and
+skirmishing, so to speak, along the borders of a territory which it is
+possible we may ask the readers at some future time to explore along
+with us more at large. A few of the many proverbs, wisdom words, and
+moral and prudential sentences in daily use shall, in clerical phrase,
+meantime form "the subject-matter of our discourse." Nor must the reader
+think that the subject is in any wise _infra dignitate_, unworthy, that
+is, or undignified. Of the world-renowned Seven Wise Men of Greece, five
+at least attained to all their eminence and fame no otherwise than
+because they were the cunning framers of maxims and proverbs that
+rightly interpreted were calculated to advance and consolidate the moral
+and material welfare of the nation around them. Of the remaining two, it
+is true that one was an eminent politician and legislator, and the other
+a natural philosopher of the first order; but it is questionable if
+either of them would have been considered entitled to their prominent
+place in the Grecian _Pleiades_ of Wise Men had they not been
+proverb-makers and utterers of brief but pregnant "wisdom-words" as
+well. Even Solomon, the wisest of men, was less celebrated as a botanist
+and naturalist, though he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in
+Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and of
+beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes--less
+celebrated even as a lyrist, though his songs were a thousand and five,
+than for his proverbs and moral maxims of which the record takes care to
+tell us he spake no less than "three thousand." So much then for the
+dignity of our subject: what engaged the attention of Solomon and the
+Seven Sages of Greece cannot surely be unworthy some small share of our
+regard.
+
+"Six and half-a-dozen" is an English phrase, implying either that two
+things are exactly the same, or so very much alike as to be practically
+the same. The old Gael was not much of an arithmetician, he rarely
+meddled with numbers, and therefore no precisely similar phrase is to be
+found in his language; but he could express the same idea in his own
+way, and so pithily and emphatically that his version of the proverbial
+axiom is, perhaps, as good as is to be found in any other language
+whatever. The Gael's equivalent for "six and half-a-dozen" is, "_Bo
+mhaol odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol_"--(A cow that is doddled and dun, and
+a cow that is dun and doddled)--a phrase drawn, as are many of his most
+striking proverbs and prudential maxims, and very naturally too, from
+his pastoral surroundings. We recollect an admirable and very ludicrous
+application of this saying in a story once told us by the late Dr Norman
+Macleod of Glasgow, "old" Norman that is, not the Barony Doctor, but his
+father:--When a boy in Morven, of which parish his father was minister,
+there was a well-known character in that part of the country called
+"_Eoghann Gorach Chraigan Uibhir_," Daft Ewen of Craig-an-Ure in Mull, a
+born "natural," who, although a veritable "fool," had yet in him much of
+the quiet, keen-edged satire and roguery which is not unfrequently found
+in the better ranks of such "silly ones." Ewen regularly perambulated
+Mull and Morven, with an occasional raid into the neighbouring districts
+of Sunart and Ardnamurchan. He had sense enough to be able to carry the
+current news of the day from district to district, and on this account
+was always a welcome guest in every farm-house and hamlet on his beat;
+and as he sung a capital song, and was remarkable for much harmless
+drollery and "dafting," he was, it is needless to say, a great favourite
+everywhere. He took a great interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and
+always attended the church when the state of his wardrobe and other
+circumstances permitted. On one occasion Ewen was passing through
+Morven, and knowing that the annual communion time was approaching, he
+called upon the minister and begged to know who his assistants on that
+particular occasion were to be. He was going to pay a visit, he said, to
+all the glens and outlying hamlets in the parish, and as the people were
+sure to ask him the important question, he wished to have the proper
+answer direct from the minister himself. "_Tha raghadh 'us taghadh nam
+ministeiran, Eoghainn; An Doiteir A. B. a Inneraora, agus an Doiteir C.
+D. a Muille._" (The pick and choice of ministers Ewen said the minister,
+Doctor A. B. from Inverary, and Doctor C. D. from Mull). "Whe-e-we!" in
+a contemptuously prolonged low whistle replied Ewen. "_An ann mar so a
+tha; Bo mhaol, odhar, agus bo odhar, mhaol!_" (And is it even so; are
+these to be your assistants? A cow that is doddled and dun, and a cow
+that is dun and doddled!) Than which nothing could more emphatically
+convey Ewen's very small opinion of the "assistants" mentioned. They
+were much of a muchness; six and half-a-dozen; a cow doddled and dun,
+and a cow dun and doddled! The Gael was a keen observer of natural
+phenomena, and some of his best sayings were founded on the knowledge
+thus acquired. Meteorological "wisdom-words" for instance, are quite
+common. "_Mar chloich a ruith le gleann, tha feasgar fann foghairidh_"
+is an admirable example. (As is the headlong rush of a stone, atumbling
+down the glen, so hurried and of short duration is an autumnal
+afternoon.) The philosophy of the saying is that you are to begin your
+work betimes in the season of autumn; at early dawn if possible, and not
+to stop at all for dinner, seeing that once the day has passed its
+prime, the hour of sunset approaches with giant strides, and there is
+little or no twilight to help you if you have been foolish enough to
+dawdle your time in the hours of sunset proper. "_'S fas a chuil as nach
+goirear_" is another pregnant adage. (Desert, indeed, is the corner
+whence no voice of bird is heard.) Some people are very quiet, almost
+dumb indeed, but on the occurrence of some event, or on the back of
+some remark of yours, they speak, and speak so clearly and well that
+you are surprised, and quote the saying that it is a solitary and silent
+glade indeed whence no voice is heard. "_Am fear a bhios na thamh,
+saoilidh e gur i lamh fhein as fhearr air an stiuir_" is a common saying
+of much meaning and wide application. (He that is idle [a mere
+spectator] thinks that he could steer the boat better than the man
+actually in charge.) And we all know how apt we are to meddle, and
+generally unwisely, with the proper labours of others. Nothing, for
+instance, is more annoying and dangerous even than to put forth your
+hand by way of helping a driver in managing his horses, or to interfere
+with the tiller of a boat at which a perfectly competent man is already
+seated. We have known the saying just quoted scores of times suffice to
+stop the unwise and gratuitous intermeddling of such as were disposed to
+interfere with what did not properly belong to them. "_Bidh fear an aon
+mhairt aig uairean gun bhainne_" is a frequent saying, and implies more
+than is at first sight apparent. (The man with only one cow will be at
+times without milk.) The import of the saying is something more than a
+mere statement of fact. You have only one cow, and you are certain to be
+at times without milk. Get by your industry and perseverance _two_ cows
+or three, and then you are pretty sure to have more or less milk all the
+year round.
+
+We have thus briefly touched the hem, so to speak, of a very interesting
+subject--a subject that in the Highlands of Scotland, at least, has
+never yet received a tittle of the attention it deserves. And let no one
+be afraid to meddle with it to any extent he pleases, for we promise him
+that he will meet with nothing in any way to shock his delicacy or
+offend his taste, no matter how fine so ever of edge and exquisite; and
+in this respect, at all events, the good old Gael is superior to that of
+any other people of whom we have any knowledge. We may, perhaps, deal
+more at large with the subject in a future number. Meantime, we may
+state that we are of the same opinion as the Editor of the _Inverness
+Courier_; there is abundance of room for the _Celtic Magazine_ if it
+continues to be well conducted, without, in the least degree,
+encroaching upon the territories of any other periodicals interested in
+Celtic affairs.
+
+    NETHER-LOCHABER, November 1875.
+
+
+
+
+IMAGINATION.
+
+_Dedicated by consent to_ ALFRED TENNYSON.
+
+
+    All hail! far-seeing and creative power,
+    Before whose might the universe bends low
+    In silent adoration! Guide my pen
+    While from my soul the sounds of music pour
+    Towards thy praises! For to thee belongs
+    The sounding stream of never-ending song.
+    When out of chaos rose the glorious world,
+    Sublime with mountains flowing from the skies,
+    On lonely seas, sweet with slow-winding vales,
+    Clasping the grandeur of the heavenly hills
+    With soft and tender arms, or lowly glens
+    Shrinking from glowing gaze of searching sun
+    Beneath the shade of the high-soaring hills;
+    Grand with great torrents roaring o'er fierce crags
+    In suicidal madness, sad with seas
+    That flash in silver of the gladdening sun,
+    Yet ever wail in sadness 'neath the skies
+    Of smiling heaven (like a lovely life
+    That wears a sunny face, and wintry soul),
+    Hopeful with fickle life renewing spring,
+    Gladden'd with summer's radiance, autumn's joy,
+    And sad and sullen with fierce winter's rain;
+    Ruled by the race of God-made men who rush
+    Towards eternity with half-shut eyes,
+    Blind to the glories of sweet sky and sea,
+    Wood-covered earth, and sun-reflecting hill,
+    Thou in the mind of God, almighty power!
+    Ruled, and directed his creative hand.
+    With thee the seas spread and the hills arose
+    To do thy Maker's will; the silvery stars
+    Like heavenly glow-worms, beautifully cold,
+    And gladly silent, gemmed the gloom of night,
+    And shed the gladdening glances of their eyes
+    On the sad face of the night-darken'd earth.
+    Without thy sweetening influence, the soul
+    Of nature's bard were like a sunless plain,
+    Or summer garden destitute of flowers,
+    A winter day ungladden'd by the gleam
+    Of flowing sun, or river searching wild
+    Through desert lands for ne'er appearing trees,
+    Or peaceful flowers that sandy scenes disdain.
+    No thought the philosophic mind imparts
+    To an enraptured world, but bears thy power,
+    And owns thee as the agent of its birth.
+    O'er the sweet landscape of the poet's mind
+    Thou sunlike shed'st the gladness of thy love,
+    Inspiring all the scenes that lie below,
+    Sweetening the bowers where Fancy loves to dwell,
+    And on the crest of some huge mountain-thought
+    Placing the glory of thy fleecy cloud,
+    To make its frowning grandeur greater still,
+    And heighten all its beauteous mystery.
+    Thro' the sweet-coloured plains of Poesy
+    Thou flowest like a sweetly-sounding stream,
+    Here, rushing furious o'er the rocky crags
+    Of wild, original thought, and there, 'neath bowers
+    Of imagery, winding on thy way
+    Peaceful and still towards the fadeless sea
+    Of all enduring immortality.
+    Like lightning flash for which no thunder-roar
+    Makes preparation, from th' astonished mind
+    On an astonished and admiring world
+    Thou dartest in thine overwhelming course,
+    Leaving a track of splendour in thy train,
+    And lighting up the regions of thy way.
+    With thee sweet music sings her various song,
+    And thrills the soul and elevates the mind
+    With "thoughts that often lie too deep for tears,"
+    And own a sadness sweeter than the rills,
+    A softer sweetness than the sinking sun
+    Gives to the sparkling face of pensive sea.
+    With thee great genius walketh hand in hand
+    Towards the loftiest thought, or sits in pride
+    Upon the golden throne of starry Fame.
+    Borne on thy wings the pensive poet flies
+    To the sweet-smiling land of sunny dreams,
+    Or pours his floods of music o'er the world.
+    With thy bright gleams his daily deeds are gemmed,
+    And by thy balmy influence, his life
+    Survives when he is dead!
+
+    MAIDENKIRK.                                       D. R. WILLIAMSON.
+
+
+
+
+LACHLAN MACKINNON,
+
+OR "LACHLAN MAC THEARLAICH OIG," THE SKYE BARD.
+
+
+AMONG many who have distinguished themselves by their display of
+poetical talents, the subject of the present brief memoir, holds a
+prominent place as a Gaelic poet. It is true that he was but little
+known to the world, but he was much admired as a bard, and greatly
+respected as a gentleman in his native "Isle of Mist."
+
+Lachlan Mackinnon, patronimically designated "Lachlan Mac Thearlaich
+Oig," was born in the parish of Strath, Isle of Skye, in the year 1665.
+He was son of Charles Mackinnon of Ceann-Uachdarach, a cadet of the old
+family of Mackinnon of Mackinnon of Strath. His mother was Mary Macleod,
+daughter of John Macleod of Drynoch, in the same island. The poetical
+genius of _Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ showed itself almost in his infancy.
+His father, like all Skye gentlemen in those good olden times, was a
+very social and hospitable man, who seemed never to be contented unless
+he had his house at Ceann-Uachdarach full of neighbours to enjoy
+themselves in his family circle. The company were often much amused with
+little Lachlan when a mere child, seeing the facility with which he
+composed couplets on any subject prescribed to him. At the age of eight
+he possessed a vigour of mind, and a vivacity of imagination rarely to
+be met with in youths of more than double his age. A predilection for
+poetry seemed to have gained an ascendency in his mind, over all other
+pursuits and amusements of his tender years. He received the rudiments
+of his education, under a tutor in his father's family, and as his
+native island had not, at that remote period, the advantage of public
+schools of any note, the young bard was sent, at the age of sixteen, to
+the school of Nairn, which, from its reputation at the time as an
+excellent seminary, was much resorted to by gentlemen's sons from all
+parts of the north. The young Hebridean remained at Nairn continuously
+for three years, and was greatly distinguished, not merely by his bright
+talents, but by his assiduity and perseverance in improving them. His
+studious disposition and diligent application were amply testified by
+the progress made by him, and no less duly appreciated by his superiors
+in the place. His love for study was enthusiastic, particularly in
+regard to the languages. He was by far the best Greek and Latin pupil at
+the Nairn Academy. His moments of relaxation were spent in the
+composition of poems in the English language while at Nairn, although,
+undoubtedly, the Gaelic was the medium which was most congenial to his
+mind for giving expression in rhyme to his sentiments. At Nairn,
+however, he composed several beautiful little pieces, and among the
+rest a song which was much admired, to the air subsequently immortalized
+by Burns as "Auld Lang Syne." Although his productions in English were
+much admired, yet, as it was to him an acquired language, they could
+bear no comparison with his truly superior compositions in Gaelic. It is
+a matter of much regret that so few of his Gaelic poems are extant. Like
+many bards he unfortunately trusted his productions to his memory; and
+although well qualified, as a Gaelic writer, to commit them to paper,
+yet he neglected it, and hence hundreds of our best pieces in Gaelic
+poetry are lost for ever. Had they been all preserved, and given to the
+public in a collected shape, they would have raised the talented author
+to that high rank among the Celtic bards, which his genius so richly
+merited.
+
+In appearance _Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ was tall, handsome, and
+fascinating. He was distinguished by a winning gentleness and modesty of
+manners, as well as by his generous sensibility and steadfast
+friendship. His presence was courted in every company, and he was
+everywhere made welcome. Of most of the chieftains and Highland lairds
+he was a very acceptable acquaintance, while no public assembly, or
+social meeting was considered complete if that object of universal
+favour, the bard of Strath, were absent.
+
+When a very young man he was united in marriage to Flora, daughter of Mr
+Campbell of Strond, in the Island of Harris. Fondly attached to his
+native isle, he rented from his chief the farm of Breakish, with the
+grazing Island of Pabbay, at L24 sterling annually. And as an instance
+of the many changes effected by time, it may be mentioned that the same
+tenement is now rented at about L250 a-year. From what has been said of
+the bard's amiable disposition and gentle manners, it will seem no wise
+surprising that he proved to be one of the most affectionate of
+husbands, and dutiful of fathers. The happiness of the matrimonial state
+was to him, however, but of short duration. His wife, to whom he was
+greatly attached, died in the prime and vigour of life. He was rendered
+so disconsolate by means of his sudden and unexpected bereavement, that
+he took a dislike to the scene of his transient happiness, and
+relinquished his farm in Strath. Having removed from Skye, he took
+possession of a new tenement of lands from Mackenzie in Kintail. Greatly
+struck by what he considered the unrefined manners of his new neighbours
+in that quarter, and contrasting them with the more genial deportment of
+his own distinguished clan in Strath, he had the misfortune to exercise
+his poetic genius in the composition of some pungent satires and
+lampoons directed against the unpolished customs of the natives of
+Kintail. It is needless to add that by these means he gained for himself
+many enemies, and forfeited the good wishes of all around him. Finding
+himself thus disagreeably situated, after an absence of four years, he
+returned to Skye, where he was cordially received by his chief, and put
+in possession of his former farm at Breakish. After being twelve years a
+widower he went to Inverness for the purpose of visiting some of his
+schoolfellows who resided there. Previous to his leaving the capital of
+the Highlands his acquaintances there urged upon him the propriety of
+marrying a widow lady of the name of Mackintosh, whom they represented
+as being possessed of considerable means. He reluctantly complied with
+their wishes, but it became soon too apparent to him that he did so at
+the expense of his own happiness. His bride was not only penniless but
+deeply involved in debt. Next morning after his marriage he was visited
+by messengers who served him with summonses for a heavy debt due by his
+wife. In the impulse of the moment, while he held the summons in his
+hand, he seized a pen, and having taken his bride's Bible, wrote the
+following expressive lines on the blank leaf:--
+
+    "Tha'n saoghal air a roinn,
+    Tha da dhan ann,
+    Tha dan ann gu bhi sona,
+    Ach tha dan an donuis ann."
+
+This marriage proved, in every respect, an unhappy one. The lady, as a
+stepmother, was peevish, harsh, and undutiful. Her cruelty to her
+husband's children was a continual source of grief to him, and of
+unhappiness to his domestic circle. On a certain day, the lady
+quarrelling with one of her step-daughters, told her she hated to see
+her face, and that she always considered the day an unlucky one on which
+she had the misfortune to meet her first in the morning. The girl,
+inheriting no doubt a share of her father's power of repartee, quickly
+answered her stepmother, and said, "You have every cause to believe that
+it is unlucky to meet me, for I was first-foot to my dear father the
+unfortunate morning on which he left home to marry you."
+
+Even amid his misfortunes, which he endured with much forbearance,
+_Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ was renowned for his hospitality and genuine
+Highland friendship. Remote though the period be since he lived, still
+his memory is fondly cherished in the place. He was possessed of so
+endearing accomplishments, that time itself can hardly wipe away his
+memory from the minds of his countrymen and clan. Many fragments of his
+numerous songs continued for ages to be repeated in the country, but it
+is feared, from all the changes which have taken place in the
+circumstances of the natives, that these are now irretrievably lost.
+Many of his witty sayings became proverbial in the island. He was one of
+the first sportsmen in the country, and was considered one of the most
+successful deer stalkers of his day. Along with his other
+accomplishments he was an excellent performer on the violin, and in this
+respect he had no equal in the Western Isles. Of him it may be justly
+said:--
+
+    "To thee harmonious powers belong,
+    That add to verse the charm of song;
+    Soft melody with numbers join,
+    And make the poet half divine!"
+
+As a proof of Lachlan Mackinnon's loyalty, it may be mentioned that,
+quite contrary to the wishes of his chief, he went along with some other
+loyal subjects, all the way from Skye to Inverness, in the year 1717, to
+sign a congratulatory address to George I. on his succeeding to the
+British throne. He spent the remainder of his days in his native isle
+and parish, and died universally regretted in the year 1734, at the age
+of sixty-nine. His funeral was attended by most of the Highland
+chieftains, and their principal vassals. His cousin-german, Alasdair
+Dubh of Glengarry, and all his gentlemen tacksmen were then present, as
+also Macdonald of the Isles, Macleod of Dunvegan, Mackinnon of
+Mackinnon, and Mackenzie of Applecross, with their chief retainers. A
+numerous band of Highland pipers preceded the bier playing the usual
+melancholy coronach. Amidst a vast assemblage of all ranks and classes
+his remains were consigned to their kindred dust in the old churchyard
+of Gillchrist, being the burying-ground of the parish which gave him
+birth. A rude flag, with an inscription, still marks the poet's grave;
+but the memory of his many virtues will be handed down in the place to
+generations yet unborn.
+
+_Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ composed a beautiful and pathetic song which is
+still preserved, to "Generosity, Love, and Liberality." He personified
+those three, and pretended that he met them as lonely outcasts in a
+dreary glen, and addressed them:--
+
+    Latha siubhal sleibhe dhomh,
+      'S mi 'falbh leam fein gu dluth,
+    A chuideachd anns an astar sin
+      Air gunna glaic a's cu,
+    Gun thachair clann rium anns a' ghleann,
+      A'gul gu fann chion iuil;
+    Air leam gur h-iad a b' aillidh dreach
+      A chunnacas riamh le m' shuil.
+
+    Gu'm b' ioghnadh leam mar tharladh dhoibh
+      A'm fasach fad air chul,
+    Coimeas luchd an aghaidhean,
+      Gu'n tagha de cheann iuil,
+    Air beannachadh neo-fhiata dhomh
+      Gu'n d' fhiaraich mi, "Co sud?"
+    'S fhreagair iad gu cianail mi
+      A'm briathraibh mine ciuin.
+
+    "Iochd, a's Gradh, a's Fiughantas,
+      'Nar triuir gur h-e ar n-ainm,
+    Clann nan uaislean urramach,
+      A choisinn cliu 's gach ball,
+    'Nuair a phaigh an fheile cis d'an Eug
+      'Sa chaidh i fein air chall
+    'Na thiomnadh dh' fhag ar n-athair sinn
+      Aig maithibh Innse-Gall."
+
+                                                           SGIATHANACH.
+
+
+
+
+FINGAL.
+
+
+IN the yellow sunset of ancient Celtic glory appear the band of warriors
+known as the Ossianic heroes. Under the magnifying and beautifying
+influence of that sunset they tower upon our sight with a stature and
+illustriousness more than human. Of these heroes, the greatest and best
+was _Fionn_ or Fingal. Unless our traditions are extensively falsified
+he was a man in whom shone all those virtues which are the boast of our
+race. The unflinching performance of duty, the high sense of honour, the
+tenderness more than woman's, and the readiness to appreciate the
+virtues of others were among his more conspicuous characteristics. Now
+that Celtic anthropology is being so extensively discussed, is it not
+remarkable that Fingal, who so truly personifies the character of that
+race, is not adduced as the representative Celt? He was a Celt to the
+very core, and Celtic character has been in no small degree moulded by
+copying his example. He was, in truth, not the _ultimus_ but the _Primus
+Gaelorum_.
+
+Nevertheless, it must be confessed that to many English readers Fingal
+is nothing but a name, and that even to most of them he looms dark and
+dim through the mist of years. Unhappily, a nature so transcendently
+humane and heroic as his is not the sort to win the admiration of the
+vulgar. Nay, so far is its simple grandeur removed above the common
+materialism of modern life that the most refined cannot, at first sight,
+appreciate its exalted loveliness.
+
+The fullest and, we believe, the truest account of him is to be found in
+Ossian's poems. That the poetry so denominated was, in substance,
+composed by Ossian we have no doubt. At any rate the descriptions of
+Fingal therein contained are not only consistent throughout, but also in
+accordance with all that we know of him from other sources. But were we
+even to adopt the absurd theory that Fingal is a creation of
+Macpherson's imagination, the intrinsic beauty of the picture well
+deserves our study.
+
+An old man retaining all the energy, but not the rashness of youth; age
+with vigour instead of decrepitude, delighting in the words of sound
+wisdom rather than the usual tattle of second childhood; and, withal, an
+old man who is prone to moralise as old men are; a man able and willing
+to do his duty in the present though his heart is left in the past; such
+is the most prominent figure in these poems. He is pourtrayed as of
+tall, athletic frame and kingly port, his majestic front and hoary locks
+surmounted by the helm and eagle plume of the Celtic kings.
+
+Though the idea of Fingal pervades most of Ossian's poems he is seldom
+introduced _in propria persona_. Even when attention is directed to him
+the poet merely and meagerly sketches the herculean outline, and leaves
+our imagination to do the rest:--
+
+    At intervals a gleam of light afar
+    Glanced from the broad, blue, studded shield of war,
+    As moved the king of chiefs in stately pride;
+    With eager gaze his eye was turned aside
+    To where the warriors' closing ranks he sees;
+    Half-grey his ringlets floated in the breeze
+    Around that face so terrible in fight
+    And features glowing now with grim delight.--_Tem. B. V._
+
+In order to introduce his hero with the greater _eclat_, the bard first
+places his friends in great straits; represents them, though brave, as
+overcome by the enemy and without hope, apart from Fingal. Both friends
+and foes speak of him in terms of respect, and even the greatest leaders
+acknowledge his superiority. When Fingal appears on the scene the poet
+rouses himself to the utmost. He piles simile on simile to give an
+adequate idea of his first charge--
+
+    Through Morven's woods when countless tempests roar,
+    When from the height a hundred torrents pour,
+    Like storm-clouds rushing through the vault of heaven,
+    As when the mighty main on shore is driven,
+    So wide, so loud, so dark, so fierce the strain
+    When met the angry chiefs on Lena's plain.
+    The king rushed forward with resistless might,
+    Dreadful as Trenmor's awe-inspiring sprite,
+    When on the fitful blast he comes again
+    To Morven, his forefather's loved domain.
+    Loud in the gale the mountain oaks shall roar,
+    The mountain rocks shall fall his face before,
+    As by the lightning's gleam his form is spied
+    Stalking from hill to hill with giant stride.
+    More terrible in fight my father seemed
+    When in his hand of might his weapon gleamed,
+    On his own youth the king with gladness thought
+    When in the furious highland wars he fought.--_Fingal B. III._
+
+The notion that Ossian drew in part, at least from real life, is
+favoured by the wonderful calmness and absence of effort evinced in
+delineating so great a character. Expressions that go far to heighten
+our admiration of Fingal are employed in a quiet matter of course way.
+"The silence of the king is terrible," is an expressive sentence. Or
+this again, "The heroes ... looked in silence on each other marking the
+eyes of Fingal."
+
+Nor are the gentler feelings less fully brought out in Ossian's
+favourite character. Nothing could speak more for his affability than
+the attachment shown by his followers. "Fear, like a vapour winds not
+among the host! for he, the king, is near; the strength of streamy
+Selma. Gladness brightens the hero. We hear his words with joy."[A]
+
+Gallantry and philanthropy we might expect to find in his composition,
+but the tenderness he frequently displays strikes us as remarkable in an
+uncivilized chief. His lamentation over the British city on the Clyde is
+as pathetic as any similar passage in our language.
+
+Another surprising trait is the generosity he invariably displays to his
+vanquished foes. All the more surprising is it that a "savage" should
+show magnanimity when the heroes of civilized Greece, Rome, and Judea,
+counted it virtuous to torture their captured enemies. "None ever went
+sad from Fingal," he says himself. Over and over he is represented as
+lamenting the death of enemies when they fall, or granting them freedom
+and his friendship when they yield--"Come to my hill of feasts," he says
+to his wounded opponent Cathmor, "the mighty fail at times. No fire am I
+to lowlaid foes. I rejoice not over the fall of the brave."
+
+A notable fact about Fingal is, that though he lived in times of war, in
+disposition he was a man of peace. "Fingal delights not in battle though
+his arm is strong." "When will Fingal cease to fight?" he complains, "I
+was born in the midst of battles, and my steps must move in blood to the
+tomb." Under the influence of this desire for peace he formally gave up
+his arms to Ossian--
+
+    My son, around me roll my byegone years,
+    They come and whisper in the monarch's ears.
+    "Why does not grey-haired Fingal rest?" they say
+    "Why does he not within his fortress stay?
+    Dost thou in battle's gory wounds delight?
+    Lovest thou the tears of vanquished men of might?"
+    Ye hoary years! I will in quiet lie,
+    Nor profit nor delight in blood have I.
+    Like blustering storms from wintry skies that roll,
+    Tears waste with grief and dreariness the soul.
+    But when I stretch myself to rest, I hear
+    The voice of war come thundering on my ear
+    Within the royal hall, with loud command,
+    To rouse and draw again th' unwilling brand.--_Tem. B. VIII._
+
+Limited as were the means of communication in those pre-telegraphic
+times the fame of such a man must have spread. Accordingly, we read of
+his name being known and respected far and near. Foreign princes speak
+of him with admiration, and refugees from distant lands seek his
+protection.
+
+But it is on the power of his name in after times that we wish more
+particularly to dwell. There have been no people who honoured their
+heroes so much as the Celts. With them _valour_ and _value_ were
+synonymous terms. Theirs was not a nobility of money, or literature, or
+aesthetics, or even of territory. Nobleness should be the qualification
+of a nobleman, and strange as it may seem, it was among the uncivilised
+Celts of Ireland and Scotland that such a character was properly
+appreciated. But they held nobleness and heroism to be identical. They
+seem to have thoroughly believed that cowardice was but the result of
+vice. A fearless man, they felt, must be a true man, and he was honoured
+accordingly. _Flath-innis_, the _Isle of the Noble_, was their only name
+for heaven. _Allail_ or _divine_ they applied to their heroic men. To
+imitate such was the old Celtic religion as it was the primitive
+religion of most other peoples.
+
+Among all the heroes whom the ancient Gael worshipped there was no name
+so influential as Fingal's. Through the ages he has been the idol and
+ideal of the Celt. His example was their rule of justice. His maxims
+were cited much as we would quote Scripture. To the youth he was held up
+as the model after which their lives should be patterned, and where
+Christianity had not yet eradicated the old creed, a _post mortem_
+dwelling with him in _Flath-innis_ was deemed no mean incentive to
+goodness. He was, in fact, the god of the Gaelic people, worshipped with
+no outward altar, but enshrined in the hearts of his admirers. How far
+the more admirable traits of Highland character may be attributed to the
+assimilating influence of the idea of Fingal we cannot decide. That our
+character as a people has been largely influenced for good by the power
+of his example we have no doubt. The bards, an order of the old Druidic
+hierarchy, became the priests of the Fingalian hero-worship. Songs,
+elegies, and poetic legends formed their service of praise. To induce
+their countrymen to reverence and imitate so great and glorious a Gael
+as Fingal was the object of many of their bardic homilies. Taking into
+account the nature and circumstances of the ancient Caledonians, we must
+conclude that from position and influence none were more suitable to
+become their ethical and aesthetical advisers than these minstrel
+ministers of the Fingalian hero-olatry.
+
+Of course such a faith could not long withstand the more generous and
+cosmopolitan spirit of Christianity, yet we venture to assert that it
+was vastly preferable in its effects to some abortions of our common
+creed. That there was a conflict between the two religions we know. As
+late as the sixteenth century a Christian ecclesiastic complains that
+the leaders of Gaelic thought of the period were heathen enough to
+delight in "stories about the Tuath de Dhanond and about the sons of
+Milesius, and about the heroes and _Fionn_ (Fingal), the son of Cumhail
+with his Fingalians ... rather than to write and to compose and to
+support the faithful words of God and the perfect way of truth."
+
+Down to the present day the name of _Fionn_ is reverenced by the less
+sophisticated Highlanders and Islanders. That his name will in future be
+more extensively, if less intensely, respected we may confidently
+predict. As men's views become more broad and just, and their feelings
+become more cultivated and refined, we may hope that a superior
+character such as Fingal will by-and-bye be appreciated. Even now he is
+widely admired and we begin to read in the signs of the times the
+fulfilment of his own words:--
+
+        When then art crumbled into dust, O! stone;
+    Lost in the moss of years around thee grown;
+    My fame, which chiefs and heroes love to praise,
+    Shall shine a beam of light to future days,
+    Because I went in steel and faced th' alarms
+    Of war, to help and save the weak in arms.--_Tem. B. VIII._
+
+                                                     MINNIE LITTLEJOHN.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: The quotations in prose are from Macpherson's translation.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3,
+January 1876, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1876 ***
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #29969 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29969)