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the first morning that Sir Ewen's dairymaid went to milk the cows, in one of the Callart parks, she saw a little woman, with a handkerchief about her head, rocking herself to and fro, with a plaintive wail. She was sitting on the side of a burn, and looking furtively at the dairymaid, and as soon as she noticed herself observed she gave a loud piercing scream, and fled for ever. It was the "Bean-shith" that followed the old Callart family, and she was never seen there again. Our next story is of a more weird sort than that of Mary of Callart. It is the history of the famous Lochaber witch, "Gormshuil Mhor na Maighe," "The Great Gormshuil of Moy." Gormshuil was a common name among the Scotch and Irish Celts. It was the name of the wicked wife of Brian Boruimhe, who brought Jarl Sigurd and Brodir, the Viking, to fight against her husband at Clontarf, where he was slain. It was a common name among the Camerons until it fell into disrepute through this famous witch, and no child in Lochaber ever got the name again. The Camerons of Moy, known as 66 Teaghlach na Maighe," were said to be a branch of the Camerons of Callart. A young widow of the house of Callart had fled for protection to Lochiel at Tor Castle, with her two boys, Charles and Archibald. This Charles was the progenitor of the family of Moy, and the name of Charles has been common among them down through the ages. These Camerons had Wester Moy, whilst a family of the name of Mackinnon had Easter Moy. The ancestor of these Mackinnons had come from Skye, with a lady who married into the Lochiel family; and when he married he got a place called Ardnois, in the Giubhsach, or great fir forest at Loch-Airceag. Afterwards his family got Easter Moy; but to this day they are known in Lochaber as "Sliochd Iain Maidh na Giubhsaich." These Mackinnons frequently intermarried with the Camerons of Wester Moy. Among others, young Gormshuil Cameron became the wife of one of those Mackinnons. She was a strong, brave young woman, full of sagest wisdom, and very high-spirited, and she had no objection to be considered uncanny, as it gave her power over her fellow men. People shook their heads and said, "Tha tuille 's a paidir aig Gormshuil," hinting that she knew more than her Paternoster; but she heeded them not. The fisherman going forth to the river, or the hunter going to the hill, came for her blessing, and gave her of their spoils. One incident, in which her forethought and wisdom was of good service to her chief, made her famous in the anuals of her clan. Lochiel was invited to meet the Earl of Athole to fix their boundaries, and he suggested that they should meet without any of their men, but each having his piper.

Lochiel and his piper were passing Gormshuil's house at Moy, and she sat by her door crooning a song, and with the familiarity of the times she askel where he was going. Lochiel resented her speech by asking what it could matter to her where he was going. Her reply was "'S minic nach bu mhisde iasgair no sealgair mo bheannachd agus co dh'an duraichdinn e coltach ri m' cheannfeadhna "-" Ofttimes a fisherman or a hunter were none the worse for my blessing, and to whom would I wish it so heartily as to my chief?" Lochiel then told her of the message he got from the Earl of Athole, and she advised him to return and take a contingent of his men and to hide them in the heather when nearing his trysting-place with the Earl of Athole, and to appear before him only with his piper as originally arranged, and that he was to have an understanding with his men that they were to rush to him if they saw him turning the scarlet lining of his cloak outside. Lochiel saw the wisdom of her counsel, and he did as she suggested.

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He met the Earl of Athole, who was unreasonable about the boundaries, believing that Lochiel's person was at his mercy. So when they could not come to terms, the Earl blew a silver whistle he had, and immediately a number of armed Athole men sprung from heath and copse. "Who are those?" asked Lochiel. "These are the Athole sheep coming to eat the Lochaber grass," replied the Earl. "Seid suas," said Lochiel to his piper, whilst he turned out the scarlet lining of his cloak. The Lochaber men jumped up from their hiding places, and the Earl asked who those were. They are the Lochaber dogs going to chase the Athole sheep from the Lochaber grass," replied Lochiel, and forthwith the piper blew up the tune that has been the gathering of the Camerons until this day, "Thigibh an so, a chlannabh nan con, 's gheibh sibh feòil." Gormshuil's counsel saved her chief, and he called at her cot on his return home to thank her and to promise her any favour she would seek from him at any time. The piper stood on the road, and played the new tune, and Gormshuil told her chief how glad she was that he had been delivered from the Duke of Athole's deceitful plans. "Yet," she added, "in spite of all your promises of kindness to me you will one day hang my son." Never," said Lochiel, 'you have only to come to me, and remind me of this day, and even if your son deserved hanging, he will be saved for your sake." I need not record here the part that Gormshuil was said to take in the sinking of the Florida in Tobermory Bay, as it has been given by Dr Norman Macleod in "The reminiscences of a Highland Parish," but the tradition in Lochaber gives the following account of her death :—

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In the course of years one of her sons and the son of a neighbour were. out together on the hill, when the neighbour's son and another quarrelled, and without intention of murder he gave his man a blow that slew him. The young man who had done the deed expected to be put to death, and his mother, whose only child he was, was in sore distress. Gormshuil, recalling the promise given her by Lochiel, got her own son to take the blame, although he was quite innocent, and he did so, and was imprisoned in the dungeon, whose iron door stood in the face of Loch Airceig. Then Gormshuil set out to go to Achnacarry to crave the life of her son from the chief.

She got the length of a burn known in the district then as Allt Choille-ros, but known since then as Allt Gormshuil or Allt a' Bhradain. When the hapless Gormshuil got to that burn she saw a salmon in a small pool, and thought it could easily be caught. She asked some persons on the road to help her, but they objected, and she went alone. She went on her knees on the lower side of the pool, and at that moment the Beum-sléibhe or spate was in the stream, and it carried Gormshuil away into Loch Lochy, where she was drowned. Her son, who was innocent, was executed, for Lochiel did not know he was her son until it was too late.

The chief spoken of as being the one to whom Gormshuil gave the sage advice in connection with the interview with the Earl of Athole, is generally spoken of as Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel; but the date of the sinking of the Florida declares Gormshuil to have lived at an earlier late, and the following song would indicate that it was in the time of Ailean Mac Iain Duibh, the grandfather of Sir Ewen, that Gormshuil lived in Moy. The following is a waulking song, a Glengarry witch and Gormshuil having met on a trial of individual power, to be demonstrated on the piece of cloth they tossed between them on the "Cliath-luadhaidh,” or "waulking wattle":

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The Glengarry witch looked out, as she was asked to do, and her home was on fire. In the blaze of her wrath, she burst on the waulking wattle, and Gormshuil was triumphant. There are several of her descendants among the Mackinnons in the Lochaber district, but they do not like to be reminded of their most famous

ancestress.

30th APRIL, 1890.

The paper for this evening was contributed by Mr J. R. N. Macphail, advocate, Edinburgh, entitled "An interesting copy of a Report of the Trial of James Stewart of Acharn.” Mr Macphail's paper was as follows:

NOTES ON THE TRIAL OF JAMES STEWART OF ACHARN.

Everybody who has read "Kidnapped" must remember the killing of the Red Fox, Colin Campbell of Glenure, and how that objectionable youth, Mr David Balfour, and his friend, Alan Breck Stewart, very nearly came to grief in consequence. And it may

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