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AN OIGH FHOLUIMTE.

Le DOMHNULL FRISEAL (Rosmarkie), Ball de 'n Chomunn Oiseinneach.

AIR FONN

-

"Nuuir thig an Samhradh geugach oirnn."

A cheolraidh bhinn nan coilltichean,
Do m' mhaighdinns' biodh 'ur n-oran-sa ;
'N te fhoinnidh, bhaigheil, bhoillsgeanta,
'N te fhoinnidh, chaoimhneil, chomhraiteach,
'N te mheallach, chanach, fhurmailteach,
'N te shugach shunndach, mhor-mhaiseach,
'N te mhalda, narach, ionnsaichte,

Gun lurdanach, gun bhosdalach.

Air inneal-ciuil nam baintighearnan,
Gur pongail, aghmhor, eolach i;
'S i ealanta 'g a' laimhseachadh
'S a binn-guth graidh 'g a chordadh ris—
An t-seis a bheireadh faothachadh
Do theasaich ghaoil nan oigearan ;
Am fonn a dheanadh maothachadh,
Air buadhan dhaoine teo-chridheach.

'S ard fhoghluimt' anns an cainntibh i,
'S gu'm b'annsa leam a h-oraidean,
Na'n ceileir ceolmhor bardail ud

A thig o 'n challduinn chrochd mheuraich ;
Gu'n labhair i gu deiseil

A chainnt Eadailteach is Romhanach,
'S gu fuaimnich i gu h-eagarra

A' Ghailig bheadarr' oranach.

Mar sgeimh na maidne samhraidh i,
'Nuair bhios gach gleann fo fhluraichean,
'S a bhios baird bheaga 'canntaireachd,
Am barr nan crann le surdalachd,
'S na h-osagan gu fann-sheideach

A' siudadh nam meang cuirneineach,
Is toroman binn nan altan

Ann an greannmhoireachd a' tuirling oirnn.

DUANAG DO'N CHOMUNN OISEINEACH.

LE BARD.

AIR FONN- "Tha tighinn fodham eiridh."

Deoch slaint' a' Chomuinn Oiseinich, 'S e sin an Comunn salasach, Comunn glan nan oganach,

A sheasadh coir na Feinne.

Tha tighinn fodham, fodham, fodham,
Tha tighinn fodham, fodham, fodham,
Tha tighinn fodham, fodham, fodham,
Tha tighinn fodham eiridh,

'S e sin an Comunn dealasach,

Tha snaoim a' ghaoil 'gan teannachadh ;
Bidh suain aig Gaill a' bhaile so,
Mu'n dealaich iad ri cheile.
Tha tighinn fodham, etc.

Mo bheannachd aig na fleasgaichean,
Na Gaidheil ghasda theas chridheach,
Ga'm bheil an comhradh deas-chainnteach,
Gun eisiomail do 'n Bheurla,

Tha tighinn fodam, etc.

'S i 'Ghailig cainnt nam fineachan,
'S i 'Ghailig cainnt ar cridheachan,
'S i 'dhuisgeas blaths is cinneadas;
Cha 'n ionnan i 's a' Bheurla.
Tha tighinn fodham, etc.

'S i so ar canain mhathaireil,
O's caoimhneil agus baigheil i ;
Gur math gu deanamh manrain i ;
Gu brath cha leig sinn eug i.
Tha tighinn fodham, etc.

Lionaibh mar a b'abhaist duibh,
Na glaineachan le gairdeachas,
Gu aiseirigh na Gailig

Is gu buille bais na Beurla.
Tha tighinn fodham, etc.

The following note was appended to this song by the collector of the songs given in this paper, in October 30, 1854:

"The author of 'Duanag do 'n Chomunn Oiseineach' is not certain. It was sung for the first time at the first dinner of the Society in the Argyll Hotel, in Glasgow, on the 14th January, 1833 (for which occasion, I was told, it was composed), by Mr Macpherson, F.O.S. It is written down in the first volume of the Minutes of the Society, after a long account given of the dinner, and is known very little beyond that. It is sometimes, but not often, sung at the annual dinners. "J. N. M'D.

"October 30, 1854.”

(Signed)

6th MARCH, 1889.

At this meeting the Rev. Charles Macdonald, Mingarry, Lochshiel, Salen, Suinart, was elected a member of the Society. Thereafter the Secretary read a paper, contributed by Mrs Mary Mackellar, on "The Sheiling, its Traditions and Songs, Part II." Mrs Mackellar's paper was as follows:

THE SHEILING: ITS TRADITIONS AND SONGS.

PART II.*

The maiden of the sheiling has been an object of special interest in all pastoral countries, and was frequently the theme of the poet, in all ages and in all countries

"Tis not beneath the burgonet,

Nor yet beneath the crown,
'Tis not on couch of velvet,
Nor yet on bed of down;

"Tis beneath the spreading birk,
In the dell without a name,
Wi' a bonnie, bonnie lassie,
When the kye come hame."

"Mac

So sang the Lowland bard, but no song on the maid of the sheiling can surpass that of our own Alexander Macdonald Mhaighstir Alasdair." Was ever a maiden's hair praised more than in the following verse?—

*

For the first part of this paper see volume 14 of Society's Transactions. page 135.

"Chuireadh maill' air mo léirsinn,
Ann an driuchd mhaduinn Chéitein,
Na gathannan gréine,

"Thig bho 'teud-chul cas 'fàineach."
Translation.

My eyes were dazzled

In the early morning of dewy May,

By the sunbeams that flashed from her curling locks,
That were bright as the golden strings of the harp.

In another verse he says

"'S taitneach siubhal a cuailein,

Ga chrathadh mu 'cluasan,
A' toirt muigh air seist-luachrach,
An tigh-buaile 'n gleann-fásaich.

Translation.

Beautiful is the motion of her locks

As they flash and shake about her ears,

As on her bed of rushes she churns the butter
In her sheiling in the lonely glen.

This reference to the churning the butter on the bed indicates that it was the vessel known as the "imideal," that I explained about in my former paper, that is referred to here, for two girls sat on the bed shaking this vessel until they produced butter.

It is interesting to know that our first recorded romance of the sheiling is to be found in the Book of Genesis, when Jacob met his fair young kinswoman, Rachel, as she tended her father's flocks. The first meeting, with its tears and kisses, is full of romantic interest. Afterwards, the years of service given for her, and, notwithstanding her waywardness, the poetic love with which the patriarch clung to her memory to the end of his long life, must command our admiration. "As for me," said he, "when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come into Ephrath ; and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath, the same is Bethlehem ;" and the patriarch was then dying in extreme old

age.

Another ancient romance of the sheiling is that of Cormac, King of Ireland, which is worthy of being commemorated. Cormac, son of Art, was the grandson of Conn of the Hundred Fights-Connceud-cathach-from whom his descendants, the Macdonalds,

"Siol-Chuinn."

take the title of riding through a he beheld a lovely young maiden milking cows at some distance. He reined in his steed under the boughs of a tree, and with admiration watched the grace of the maiden's actions as she, with a cheerful manner, went about her humble duties. She went home with her milkpails to a little cot that stood near, and then returned singing gladly in a low sweet voice whilst attending to the wants of the milky mothers. She had not noticed him, but he approached her cautiously lest he should alarm her. She attempted to flee away when she saw him, but with his adroitness he set her at ease, and soothed her into confidence. He pretended ignorance of cows and dairy labour; he asked her about the separating of milk from strippings, and was surprised that she preferred fresh rushes to rotten, and clean water to brackish. The girl modestly gave him all the information he wished, and in the course of conversation she mentioned the name of her fosterfather, and then he knew that Eite, the daughter of Dunluing, stood before him, and that her foster-father was Buiciodh Brughach who had been a rich grazier in Leinster, and was ruined by the munificence of his hospitality. The Leinster gentry who used to be his guests began to consider his goods their own, and when they left his house they took whatever number they fancied of his cows. They soon ruined the princely farmer, and so he left home quietly, and travelled until he came to a forest in Meath, resolving to spend his days retired and unknown with his wife and Eite, or as she is sometimes called Eithne. The meeting of Cormac with the fair girl led to her becoming his wife, and her foster-father got ample land and herds near the palace of Tara. The daughter of Cormac and Eite became the wife of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, Mac Treuna-mhoir, and thus the maid of the Sheiling was the grandmother of Ossian, the royal bard.

Cormac was one day

forest near his Own castle, when

One of the romantic incidents of the sheiling was the fairy lover, and some of the songs concerning those are still to be heard among the old people. This "leannan-sith," or fairy lover, was able at times to win the love of the maid of the sheiling in no ordinary manner; and fairy women, in the guise of milkmaids, have been known to win the affection of the herdsman who on the mountain side attended his flocks. There is a fairy lullaby of which I only know a fragment. It was composed by the "leannan-sith" when the maid of the sheiling, who was the mother of his child, had become cruel and laid his little baby-boy cry himself to death on the hill-side near the father's uncanny

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