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Balchreick-G., baile, township, and cnuic, hillocks; the township of the hillocks; or baile and craig, rocks.

Blair More-G., blàr, field, plain, moor, and mor, big; the big plain, or big moor.

Droman-G., dim. of droma, ridge; Manx, dreem; Wel., trum;, Gr., drom-os, ridge.

Druimnaguie-G., druim, or droma, ridge; and gaoith, gen. of gaoth, wind; windy ridge.

Du-ard-Black height; Duart, in Mull.

Eilear-a-Mhill-Eileir, lonely place among the hills.

Findle-More-G., fionn, fair, and dail, dale, field; the big fair field or dale; Manx, dayll; Ir., dail; Wel., dol; Corn., dal; Arm., dol; Ice. or Norse, dal.

Gualen-G., gualainn, the shoulders, in reference to the aspect of the mountains near the place.

Feinag More-G., feannag, a ridge of land; the big ridge of land.

Inch-Egra-G., innis, flat-land, seighear; O.G., falconer, and rath, a circle, a fort, a plain or cleared spot; the flat-land of the falconer's fort or round house.

Kinlochbervie Ceann, head, loch, lake, bervie, corrupted from na bà buidhe, head of the lake of the yellow kine.

Old Shore-G., corruption of Ashir, or Fas-thir, which see. Polin-G., corruption of Pollan, dim. of poll, a pond, a pool, or marsh, giving the name to the locality. Manx, poyll, pool, puddle. Wel., pwll, pool. Corn., pol. Arm., pol, pool.

Portlevorchy-G., port, ferry, haven, levorchy, to Murdoch, or Murdoch's, Murdoch's port. On this coast is a place called Acarachd Mhic Mhurchaidh Oige, signifying the anchorage of young Murdoch's sons, where the Lewis Murdoch Macleods were wont to cast anchor and land. G., acair, anchor, acairachd, anchorage; Manx, aker; Wel., angor; Corn., ankar; Arm., enhor; Fr.,. aucre; Ital., ancora ; Gr., agkur-a, anchor.

Rhiconich-G., rhi, or ruigh, slope, or declivity, coinnich, meet, the meeting of the slopes or declivities at the end of Loch Inchard,. or coinich, moss, the mossy slopes; Rhi enters largely into Highland topography, especially in Sutherland; it appears frequently in Welsh, meaning slope; as rhiw; Manx, roie, run.

Rhi-voult--G., rhi, slope, voult, corrupted, from mhuilt, gen. pl. of muilt, wether the slope of the wether sheep, correctly Rhi-amhuilt; Wel., mollt, pl. myllt; Lat., mult, a fine, a penalty. Fines and penalties in the earlier stages of society were frequently inflicted in kind. A certain number of sheep was the

fine, hence the word mulct. Satisfaction for injuries used to be arranged by a fine of so many sheep. It was common among the Romans, see Aulus Gellius, book 11th, chap. 1; see Grant's "Thoughts on the Gael."

Scourie N., Skorrie, bird, and ey as used in local names, ea, ey, Chels-ea, Cherts-ey, place of birds, places where birds resorted to. Near Scourie Bay are Scourie and Scourie More, within two miles of Handa Island, whose cliffs are inhabited by birds innumerable. Skerricha-G., sgeir, a rock, and achadh, a field-the field of the rock. N., sker, an isolated rock in the sea.

Sandwood-W., see the lake names, anciently "Sand wat." Tarbat-G., Tarbert, a neck of land (O'Reilly), tar-bat, a place where boats are drawn across an isthmus, from tar, root of tarruing, draw, and bad, boat.

Eddrachilis parish has few antiquities. There are Pictish or Norse towers at Kylesku and Scourie, Druidical stones at Badnabay.

11th DECEMBER, 1889.

The paper for this evening was contributed by the Rev. Adam Gunn, Durness, entitled "Unpublished Literary Remains of the Reay Country." Mr Gunn's paper was as follows:

UNPUBLISHED LITERARY REMAINS OF THE REAY

COUNTRY.

With the single exception of Rob Donn, the writer is not aware that the labours of any Reay country bard ever acquired general currency. It is not, however, to be supposed that this arose from lack of material. The Reay country was always rich in song. The conditions for producing a pastoral literature were nowhere more favourable than here; and, owing to the close and friendly relations between chiefs and clansmen of the Mackay country, it would have been difficult to find in the land a more cultured peasantry than this region could furnish some two hundred years ago.

The principles of the Reformation were adopted at an early date, and were nowhere carried out with greater thoroughness. The clansmen, under the leadership of Hugh Mackay, their chief, embraced to a man the reformed faith; and ever since his day the

Barons of Reay made it their aim to secure for their countrymen the services of the ablest and most enlightened ministers. In this way it was no unusual thing to find men who had not only passed through the Scottish Universities, but who had also drank deeply at the Continental seats of learning, labouring in the wilds of Reay. As an immediate result of this religious and intellectual revival, a great deal of our native literature assumed the form of religious poetry. Specimens of this exist in Macrae's MS., in the possession of Mr Skene, but the bulk of it has unquestionably disappeared. It is well known that Dugald Buchanan was first induced to try religious song on hearing the poems of a certain John Mackay recited by a company of Sutherlandshire Militia stationed in Rannoch.

Again, by the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, a powerful impetus was given to the poetic faculty of the Reay country bards. Sir Donald, first Lord Reay, spared neither men nor money in the cause of freedom. As successive bands of these soldiers of fortune left their native glens, it is only natural to suppose that their virtues and prowess should become the theme of song. A wide field was opened up to the imagination of our native bards, and stories of fabulous wealth acquired in "the Hollands" soon began to circulate in prose and poetry. It is needless to say that only snatches of this fugitive literature have come down to our day.

A third condition, favourable to the development of song, is to be found in the life of "the Sheiling," which played so prominent a part in the social and domestic economy of the Highlands. The Sheiling in the summer months, and the Ceilidh in the winter, were the literary societies of that day, and what was produced at the Sheiling was consumed at the Ceilidh, in the mental no less than in the material sphere. The Sheiling was the nursery-ground of the love-song. There are many remains of this period and phase of Highland life still surviving, and your Society is doing excellent service in the collection and publication of such materials. Traditions of this ideal life are still current among us; and the writer has heard on more occasions than one songs and legends which savour strongly of the Sheiling-bothy. There is, for example, the legend of "Amhlaidh na Casaidh," which had its origin in this fruitful imaginative period. Aulaidh was an unfortunate woman, who became demented, and, like Nebuchadnezzar, betook herself to the hills and rmed with the deer. On one occasion she led the herd to what formerly was her own cornfield; but her eldest son, getting tired of the raids made upon his

farm, hounded them furiously away. On this Aulaidh made the impromptu

"Fhir a thog an t-iolach ard,

'S chuir coin a' bhaile 'mo larg,
Dh'òl thu bainne mo dha chich

'S laidh thu naoi miosachan mo bhalg."

Aulaidh was by no means purged of malice. She frequently tried to do mischief in the dead hour of night to her household; but a wakeful guardian, in the shape of an "coileach dubh," always anticipated her, and scared her away by his crowing:

"A Choilich dhuibhe, a bhroillich dheirge
Is math thu fhein, is binn do ghuth

'N uair thainig mi, mo mheadhon oidhche
S'e m' eunan fhein a chum mi muigh."

Possibly to this period may be traced the following story, to be met with in one form or another throughout Sutherlandshire:A party of half-a-dozen hunters were benighted on one occasion in a wild and lonely glen. They lighted at length on a sheilingbothy, and having secured their horses for a night in the "bual," they proceeded to light a fire, and cook a supper from the product of the chase. This over, they one and all expressed their regret that their lady-loves were not present to enjoy the fun, when, suddenly, their trooped in one by one their lady friends, and sat each one upon her lover's knee. The night passed merrily in song. One of the young men, having occasion to stoop down for something which had dropped from him, discovered to his dismay that his partner was provided with the uncanny "hoof" instead of

feet. He kept the seeret to himself, secured leave to have a look at the horses for a little, and forthwith galloped away. It was not a moment too soon. The baobh was soon on his track, but being well mounted on an "Each donn, deas-mhuingeach," and followed by a "Cu dubh, bus-bhuidheach," he managed to make good his escape. He returned in the morning in search of his companions, but he found the bothy with its inmates burned to the ground.

It was, however, in the department of love-songs that sheiling life was most productive; and more than one records the progress of love-making during the season. From these it would appear that the virtues most highly valued in the Reay country maids of the sheiling were hospitality, early rising, and expertness in managing dairy produce.

When the economic changes of the latter half of the last century, and the early years of the present, took place, the decline of pastoral poetry began. So long as the Reay country was in possession of the ancient and hereditary chiefs, there always existed a certain amount of patronage of the Bards; but when it passed into the hands of the Sutherland family, who were reckoned Sassenachs, this patronage ceased, and the clearances of the interior effectually stemmed the lyric stream which had flowed for centuries. "The old order changeth," and giveth place to the new; but it would appear that with the change of ownership the Muses departed from the Reay country, and the bards "hanged their harps upon the willows." When the estate changed hands, and the Foresters of the Reay Country were summoned to Tongue to swear fealty to their new master, it is clear from the following song that the change was by no means to their taste. The author-Huistean Oag-was an old servant of Eric, Lord Reay, and resided in the Reay Forest :

:

Anns an fhaghair so chàidh,

Ghabh mi turus no dhà mu'n cuairt

Is thachair dhomh oidhch' bhi' mo thamh
Measg cuideachd is tabhurn sluaigh.

Air dhomh bhi air leth-taobh leam fhein
'S mi 'gamhairc gach ni mu'n cuairt;
Dheare mi air craobh a mhasguil*
'S 'i fas gu geagach suas.

N'am b'ann le iomairt nan lann

Theidheadh tus thoir dhachaigh da Thunga a ris
Dh' fhagtadh Cataich gle ghann

'S cha bhitheadh Sasunnach fad 's an tir.

'Nuair a dh'eireadh na seoid

Sliochd Iain Aberich mhor mhic-aoidh
Sliochd Dhomh'l-ic Corchie-ic-Leoid,
Chuireadh coigrich fa choir 's fo chis.

Dheagh Strath-namhair nam buadh,
Na fir thapaidh d'am bu dual a bhi treun,
Is Strath-Halladail, a bha glinn
'N am tarruing nan lann 's nan streup.

* A flattering song composed to the Duke.

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