Craignish Tales and Others (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ... Kennedy, in his collection of " Hymns and Spiritual Songs," says, in speaking of the elder McLarty, that "he could recite more of the poems of Ossian than any other person the editor had met with between the Mull of Kintyre and High Bridge in Lochaber." It was from a later generation of the same McLartys that all the following traditions were taken, except the Glengarrisdale tale, which was received from a Jura man, John MacFarlane, constable at Ballachulish. The first tradition, the subject of which is the visit of Dugald Campbell's son to Innischonnell, and its consequences, belongs to the 13th century. MacMartin, whose name figures so prominently in the narratives, was, I am now told by two intelligent Lochaweside men, the chief of the Clan McCorquodale. This account is most likely correct, as it is pretty certain that the McCorquodales lived at Fincharn long before they removed to the north end of Lochawe (Lochow), where they latterly resided. MacMartin must therefore have been the patronymic, and not the surname, of the person so designated in the tale. The Gillean Maola Dubha were the lowest class of retainers who hung about a chief's castle. They were called Gillean Dubha (utter, or out-and-out servants), from the servile work which they were called upon to perform, and Maola, not because they were bald, as the term might be translated, but from their habit of going always about bareheaded. In the time of peace they were the mere drudges of the castle, but when hostilities broke out between their master and his neighbours, they were among the first to follow him to the field, and among the bravest in the combat. Notwithstanding, they were usually nothing more than a parcel of idle and quarrelsome fellows; and the reluctance of Campbell in...