allades to some circumstance in the ancient history of this country,a-Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire. 1806. p. 19. It must be owned that the Coir, or den, does not, in its present state, meet our ideas of a subterraneous grotto, or cave, being only a small and narrow cavity, among huge fragments of rocks rudely piled together. But such a scene is liable to convulsions of nature, which a Lowlander cannot estimate, and which may have choked up what was originally a cavern. At least the name and tradition authorize the author of a fictitious tale to assert its having been such at the remote period in which his scene is laid. Note 15. Stanza xxvii. ——the wild pass of Beal-nam-Bo. Bealach-nam-Bo, or the pass of cattle, is a most magnicent glade, overhung with aged birch-trees, a little higher up the mountain than the Coir-nan-Uriskin, treated of in the last note. The whole composes the most sublime piece of scenery that imagination can . conceive. Note 16. Stanza xxvii. A single page, to bear his sword, A Highland chief, being as absolute in his patriarchal thority as any prince, had a corresponding number of officers attached to his person. He had his bodyguards, called Luicht-tach, picked from his clan for strength, activity, and entire devotion to his person. These, according to their deserts, were sure to share abundantly in the rude profusion of his hospitality. It is recorded, for example, by tradition, that Allan Maclean, chief of that clan, happened upon a time to bear one of these favourite retainers observe to his comrade, that their chief grew old-« Whence do fer that?» replied the other. « When was it,» rejoined the first, « that a soldier of Allan's was obliged, alam now, not only to eat the flesh from this bone, but even to tear off the inner skin, or filament?» The bint was quite sufficient, and Maclean next morning, lieve his followers from such dire necessity, underlook an inroad on the main-land, the ravage of which together effaced the memory of his former expeditions for the like purpose. you Our officer of engineers, so often quoted, has given ts a distinct list of the domestic officers who, independent of Luicht-tach, or gardes du corps, belonged to the establishment of a Highland chief. These are, 1. The Henchman. See these notes, p. 187. 2. The Lard. See P. 182. 3. Blaider, or Spokesman. 4. Gile-more, or Sword-bearer, alluded to in the text. 5. Gilbecasue, who carried the chief, if on foot, over the ferds. 6. Gillie-comstraine, who leads the chief's horse, * Gillie-trushanarinsh, the baggage-man. 8. The piper. 9. The piper's gillie, or attendant, who carries the bagpipe. Although this appeared, naturally enough, very ridiculous to an English officer, who considered the master of such a retinue as no more than an English gentleman of 500l. a-year, yet in the circumstances of the chief, whose strength and importance consisted in the number and attachment of his followers, it was of the last consequence, in point of policy, to have in his Letters from Scotland, vol. II, p. 15. gift subordinate offices, which called immediately round his person those who were most devoted to him, and, being of value in their estimation, were also the means of rewarding them. CANTO IV, Note 1. Stanza iv. The Taghairm call'd; by which, afar, The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newlyslain bullock, and deposited beside a water-fall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question proposed, and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits, who haunt these desolate recesses. In some of the Hebrides they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities, and considered the first fancy which came into their own minds, after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone, and as such, to be, if pos sible, punctually complied with. Martin has recorded the following curious modes of Highland augury, in which the Taghairm, and its effects upon the person who was subjected to it, may serve to illustrate the text. « It was an ordinary thing among the over-curious to consult an invisible oracle; concerning the fate of families and battles, etc. This was performed three different ways: the first was by a company of men, one of whom, being detached by lot, was afterwards carried to a river, which was the boundary between two villages; four of the company laid hold on him, and, having shut his eyes, they took him by the legs and arms, and then tossing him to and again, struck his hips with force against the bank. One of them cried out, What is it you have got here? another answers, A log of birch-wood. The other cries again, Let his invisible friends appear from all quarters, and let them relieve him by giving an answer to our present demands; and in a few minutes after, a number of little creatures came from the sea, who answered the question, and disappeared suddenly. The man was then set at liberty, and they all returned home, to take their measures according to the prediction of their false prophets; but the poor deluded fools were abused, for the answer was still ambiguous. This was always practised in the night, and may literally be called the work of darkness. « I had an account from the most intelligent and judicious men in the Isle of Skie, that about sixty-two years ago, the oracle was thus consulted only once, and that was in the parish of Kilmartin, on the east side, by a wicked and mischievous race of people, who are now extinguished, both root and branch. << The second way of consulting the oracle was by a party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house, and there they singled out one of their number, and wrapt him in a big cow's hide, which they folded about him; his whole body was covered with it except his head, and so left in this posture all night, until his invisible friends relieved him, by giving a proper answer to the question in hand; which he received, as he faneied, from several persons that he found about him all that time. His consorts returned to him at the break of day, and then he communicated his news to them; which often proved fatal to those concerned in such unwarrantable inquiries. of all he could drive away, and among the spoil was a To hoof it o'er as many weary miles, As e'er the bravest antler of the woods. Note 3. Stanza v. Ethwald --that huge cliff, whose ample verge Tradition calls the Hero's Targe. There is a rock so named in the forest of Glenfins, by which a tumultuary cataract takes its course. This wild place is said in former times to have afforded re by a woman, who lowered them down from the brink of the precipice above. His water he procured for himself by letting down a flagon tied to a string, into the | black pool beneath the fall. << There was a third way of consulting, which was a confirmation of the second above-mentioned. The same company who put the man into the hide took a live cat, and put him on a spit: one of the number was employed to turn the spit, and one of his consorts in-fuge to an outlaw, who was supplied with provisions quired of him, What are you doing? he answered, I roast this cat, until his friends answer the question; which must be the same that was proposed by the man shut up in the hide. And afterwards, a very big cat comes, attended by a number of lesser cats, desiring to relieve the cat turned upon the spit, and then answers the question. If this answer proved the same that was given to the man in the hide, then it was taken as a confirmation of the other, which, in this case, was believed infallible. « Mr Alexander Cooper, present minister of NorthVist, told me that one John Erach, in the Isle of Lewis, assured him, it was his fate to have been led by his curiosity with some who consulted this oracle, and that he was a night within the hide, as above-mentioned; during which time he felt and heard such terrible things, that he could not express them: the impression it made on him was such as could never go off, and he said for a thousand worlds he would never again be concerned in the like performance, for this had disordered him to a high degree. He confessed it ingenuously, and with an air of great remorse, and seemed to be very penitent under a just sense of so great a crime; he declared this about five years since, and is still living in the Lewis, for any thing I know.»-Description of the Western Isles, p. 110. See also PENNANT'S Scottish Tour, vol. II, p. 361. Note 2. Stanza iv. The choicest of the prey we had. When swept our merry-men Gallangad. Note 4. Stanza . Or raven on the blasted oak, « which is "There is a the upon Every thing belonging to the chase was matter of lemnity among our ancestors; but nothing was mere so than the mode of cutting up, or, as it was technical ly called, breaking, the slaughtered stag. The foretr had his allotted portion; the hounds had a certain ai lowance; and, to make the division as general as pos |sible, the very birds had their share also. little gristle,» says Tuberville, spoone of the brisket, which we call the raven's book, and I have seen in some places a raven so wont and a customed to it, that she would never fail to croak and cry for it all the time you were in breaking up deer, and would not depart till she had it. In the very ancient metrical romance of Sir Tristrem, that peerless knight, who is said to have been the very de viser of all rules of chase, did not omit this certmony:: The raven he yaf his yiftes The raven might also Berners: of the Sir Tris rem, ad edition, 34challenge his rights by the for thus says Dame Ju -Slitteth anon The bely to the side from the corbva bone; I know not if it be worth observing, that this passage is taken almost literally from the mouth of an old Highland Kern, or Ketteran, as they were called. lle used to narrate the merry doings of the good old time when he was follower of Rob Roy Macgregor. This leader, on one occasion, thought proper to make a de-ical account of the same ceremony. scent upon the lower part of the Loch Lomond district, and summoned all the heritors and farmers to meet at the Kirk of Drymen, to pay him black-mail, i. e. tribute for forbearance and protection. As this invitation was supported by a band of thirty or forty stout fellows, only one gentleman, an ancestor, if I mistake not, of the present Mr Grahame of Gartmore, ventured to decline compliance. Rob Roy instantly swept his land The reader may have met with the story of the King of the Cats, in Lord Lyttleton's Letters. It is well known in the Highlands as a nursery-tale. Jonson, in The Sad Shepherd,» gives a more po Marian. - -- He that undoes him Robin Hood. The raven's bone. Marian. --- Now o'er bead sat a raven This anecdote was, in former editions, inaccurately astm Gregor Macgregor of Glengyle, called Ghane Dan, or a a relation of Rob Roy, but, as I have been assured, not ei and to his predatory excesses. Note 5. Stanza vi. Which spills the foremost foeman's life, Though this be in the text described as a response of the Taghairm, or Oracle of the Hide, it was of itself an augury frequently attended to. The fate of the battle was often anticipated in the imagination of the combatants, by observing which party first shed blood. It is said that the Highlanders under Montrose were so deeply imbued with this notion, that on the morning of the battle of Tippermoor, they murdered a defenceless herdsman, whom they found in the fields, merely to secure an advantage of so much consequence to their party. Note 6. Stanza xii. Alice Brand. I This little fairy tale is founded upon a very curious Dhaish ballad, which occurs in the KIEMPE VISER, a colection of heroic songs, first published in 1591, and reprinted in 1695, inscribed by Anders Sofrensen, the elector and editor, to Sophia Queen of Denmark. have been favoured with a literal translation of the enginal, by my learned friend Mr Robert Jamieson, whose deep knowledge of Scandinavian antiquities will, I hope, one day be displayed in illustration of the bastory of Scottish Ballad and Song, for which no man possesses more ample materials. The story will remind the readers of the Border Minstrelsy of the tale of Young Tamlane. But this is only a solitary and not very marked instance of coincidence, whereas several of the other ballads in the same collection find exact counterparts in the KIEMPE VISER. Which may have been the originals will be a question for future antiquarians. Mr Jamieson, to secure the power of literal translation, has adopted the old Scottish idiom, which approaches 80 near to that of the Danish, as almost to give word for word, as well as line for line, and indeed in many verses the orthography alone is altered. As Wester Baf, mentioned in the first stanza of the ballad, means the West Sea, in opposition to the Baltic, or East Sea, Mr Jamieson inclines to be of opinion, that the scene of the disenchantment is laid in one of the Orkney or Hebride Islands. To each verse in the original is added burden, having a kind of meaning of its own, but not applicable, at least not uniformly applicable, to the sense of the stanza to which it is subjoined: this is wry common both in Danish and Scottish song. THE ELFIN GRAY. TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH KÆMPE VISER, p. 143, AND FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1591. Der ligger an vold i Vester Haf, Der agter en bondè at biggè: Og agter dar om vinteren at ligge. (DE VILDE DIUR OG DIURENE UDI SCOFVEN.) There liggs a wold in Wester Haf, There a husbande means to bigg And thither be carries baith hawk and hound, There meaning the winter to ligg (The wild deer and daes i' the shaw out.) He taks wi' him baith bound and cock, The langer be means to stay, The wild deer in the shaws that are May sairly rue the day. (The wild deer, etc.) He's hew'd the beech, and he 's fell'd the aik, And grim in mood was the grousome elf, He hew'd him kipples, he hew'd him bawks, Syne up and spak the weiest elf, Crean'd es an immert sma: It's here is come a christian man ; I'll fley him or he ga.. It's up syne started the firsten elf, It's we 'll awa to the husbande's house, Here hews he down baith skugg and shaw, And wirks us skaith and scorn: His huswife he shall gie to me; They's rue the day they were Lorn! They nighed near the husbande's house; The hound he yowls i' the yard; The herd toots in his horn; The earn scraichs, and the cock craws, As the husbande had gi'en him his corn.' The elfen were five score and seven, Sae laidly and sae grim; And they the husbande's guests maun be, To eat and drink wi' him. The husbande out o' Villenshaw At his winnock the elves can see; In every nook a cross he coost, And flew to the wild-wood shaw. And some flew east, and some flew west, And some to the norwart flew; And some they flew to the deep dale down, It was then the weiest elf, The buswife she was a canny wife, Hear thou, Gudeman o' Villenshaw, Wha bade thee bigg within our bounds, Up spak the luckless husbande then, As God the grace him gae: Her thou may nagate hae.. Till the elf he answer'd as he couth: And tak whate'er o' gude or gear Then I'll thy Eline tak, and thee Aneath my dwalling-stead.. The husbande and his househald a' Up, will of rede, the husbande stood Then blyth grew he, and sprang about; A waefu' woman then she was ane, My fay I plight to the fairest wight He minted ance-he minted twice, Wae wax'd her heart that syth: Syne the laidliest fiend he grew that e'er To mortal ee did kyth. When he the thirden time can mint, And the laidly elf was clean awa, And a fair knight in his stead. This fell under a linden green, That again his shape he found; O' wae and care was the word nae mair, A' were sae glad that stound. O dearest Eline, hear thou this, And thou my wife sal be, And a' the goud in merry England Whan I was a little wee bairn, My stepmither sent me awa frae her; I turn'd till an elfin gray. To thy husband I a gift will gie, Thou nobil knyght, we thank now God Syne I to thee na maik can be, My dochter may be thine; And thy gude will right to fulfill, Lat this be our propine.s I thanke thee, Eline, thou wise woman; My praise thy worth shall hae; And thy love gin I fail to win, The husbande biggit now on his oe, Now Eline the husbande's huswife has Cour'd a' her grief and harms; She's mither to a noble queen That sleeps in a kingis arms. GLOSSARY. St. 1. Wold, a wood; woody fastness. Husbande, from the Dan. hos, with, and bonde, a villain, or bondsman, who was a cultivator of the ground, and could not quit the estate to which he was attached, without the permission of his lord. This is the sense of the word, in the old Scottish records. In the Scottish «< Burghe Laws,» translated from the Reg. Majest. (Auchinleck MS. in the Adv. Lib.) it is used indiscriminately with the Dan. and Swed. bondè. Bigg, build. Ligg, lie. Dues, does. 2. Shaw, wood. Sairly, sorely. 3. Aik, oak. Grousome, terrible. Bald, bold. 4. Kipples (couples), 6. Glowr'd, stared. 7. Skugg, shade. 8. Nighed, approached. Toots-in the Dan. tude, 13. Norwart, northward. 14. Braids, strides quick- 17. An, if. 18. Nagate, nowise. starved is with us) It is used by our old co- Hara, grief; as in the ori- Fa (cel. Dan. and Swed.), El, an elf. This term, in the Welch, signifies what has in itself the power of motion; a moving principle; an intelligence; a spirit; an angel In the Hebrew, it bears the same import. 16. Minted, attempted; meant; showed a mind, or intention to. The original is: and mindte, hende forst -og anden gang;Hun giordis i hiortet sa vee: End blef hand den lediste deifvel Mand kunde med oyen see. Der hand vil de minde den tredie gang,» etc. Syth, tide; time. Kyth, appear. 28. Stound, hour; time; moment. 29. Merry (old. Teut. mere), famous; renowned; answering, in its etymological meaning, exactly to the Latin mactus. Hence merry-men, as the address of a chief to his followers; meansing not men of mirth, but of renown. The term is found in its original sense in the Gael. mara, and the Welch mawr, great; and in the oldest Teut. Romances, mar, mer, and merê, have sometimes the same signification. 31. Mends, amends; recompense. 33. Maik, match; peer; Propine, pledge; gift. Nor ale nor mead to the bairnies she gave, That wife can stand up at our Lord's knee, And thou sall come back when the cock does craw. For thou nae langer sall bide awa, Wi her banes sae stark, a bowt she gae; She's riven baith wa' and marble gray.3 Whan near to the dwalling she can gang, The dogs they wow'd till the lift it rang. Whan she came till the castell yett, Her eldest dochter stood thereat. Why stand ye here, dear dochter mine? How are sma brithers and sisters thine?» Forsooth ye 're a woman baith fair and fine; Och! how should I be fine or fair? My mither was white, wi' lire sae red; Och! how should I be white and red, She buskit the tane, and she brush'd it there; The thirden she doodl'd upon her knee, And the fourthen |