IV.—CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN J. F. CAMPBELL OF ISLAY AND J. G. CAMPBELL.
Among the treasures regarding folk-lore that I have been able to collect are a few letters of the late J. F. Campbell of Islay to the Rev. J. G. Campbell, late Minister of Tiree. They deal with various questions and traditions.
Inter alia is a discussion concerning the word sàil versus sìol Dhiarmaid. I give the letters as written.
A. CAMPBELL.
SÀIL OR SÌOL DHIARMAID.
The late Campbell of Islay to the late J. G. Campbell.
Travellers’ Club,
Feb. 27, 1871.
My Dear Sir,
I’ll get you the books you name and send them soon. With regard to sàil there was once an actor who amused an audience by putting his head under his cloak and squealing like a pig. A countryman rose and said that he would squeal better next day. So a match was made and tried. The audience applauded the actor and hissed the countryman. But he produced a pig from under his cloak. I know what the man meant who signed Sàil Dhiarmaid. The man who spoke no other language pointed to the place in his foot which he meant by Sàil, so I learned the lesson, and anybody who will try may learn a good deal about Gaelic in the same fashion.
If a man starts with the conviction that knowledge is to the unknown as a drop in the ocean—he will get on.
I have MacNicol, and know his remark about Ossian’s leg.
I have now got the only copy that ever was written, so far as I know, and I shall be glad to get more. But we must all take what we can get. As far as fixing the king or the country and the date, that is perfectly hopeless. I have about 16 versions of one story in Gaelic, and no two have the same name. I suppose that there must be sixty versions of it known in other languages, and no two are alike. The oldest I know is scattered in ejaculations and separate lines through the Rigveda Sanhitâ, which is a collection of hymns in Sanscrit, and the oldest things known. St. George and the Dragon is a form of the story. Perseus and Andromeda is another. In Gaelic it is generally Mac an Iasgair, or Iain Mac somebody, or Fionn Mac a’ Bhradain, a something to do with a mermaid or a dragon, the herding of cows and the slaying of giants. The stories to which I referred were told me by John Ardfenaig as facts (the Duke of Argyll’s factor in the Ross of Mull). A man built a boat. Another, to spite him, said that the death of a man was in that boat—no one would go to sea in it, and at last the boat was sold by the builder to an unbeliever in ghosts and dreams. The other was how the turnips were protected in Tiree. If you know these you have got far, but if not you have a good deal to learn in Tiree.
I wish you success anyhow,
Yours truly,
J. F. CAMPBELL.
Niddry Lodge, Kensington,
March 28, 1871.
My Dear Sir,
I have been too busy about festivities and work to be able to get the book which I promised to seek for you. I got your letter of the 20th, yesterday, and I am much obliged by your promise to put some one to write for me. If he writes from dictation will you kindly beg him to follow the words spoken without regard to his own opinion, or to what they ought to be. I speak English, but when I come to read Chaucer I find words that I am not used to. So it is when men who speak Gaelic begin to write old stories. Our argument is an illustration. You speak Gaelic and you believe that Sàil means heel and nothing else. You told me that Sàil Dhiarmaid ought to be Sìol.
Now I speak Gaelic, but I profess to be a scholar, not a teacher. I happen to know that the man who signed Sàil Dhiarmaid, which was printed Sàil didn’t mean Sìol. I have the following quotation,—
“Eisdibh beag ma ’s àill leibh laoidh
Chaidh am bior nimh’ bu mhòr cràdh
An Sàil an laoich nach tlàth ’s an trod—
’S e ri sior chall na fala
Le lot a’ bhior air a bhonn.”
In this old lay as sung in the outer isles these would mean the spot which an old Mull man pointed to as sàil.[34]
If you are sceptical I hold to my creed of the people. But creed or no creed I want to get the tradition as it exists and I would not give a snuff for “cooked” tradition.
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 1871.
Conan House, Dingwall.
My Dear Sir,
I promised yesterday at Portree to send you my version of the fairy song, and asked you to return yours. You must remember that I never tried to write it from Gaelic, and that I never tried to write it from rapid dictation till last month. Correct my spelling, but mind that I took the sounds from ear, so preserve all that you can without reference to dictionary words. Don’t be hard upon a clansman who is doing his best.
Believe me,
Yours very truly,
J. F. CAMPBELL.
From John Cameron, a man about 60, who lives in the south end of Barra, about three miles from Castlebay. He can sing and recite, 1.—The Maiden (written by J. F. C.); 2.—The Death of Diarmaid; 3.—The Death of Osgar; 4.—The Battle of Manus (written by J. F. C.); 5.—The story of the Death of Garry; 6.—The Black Dog; 7.—The story of ditto. 8.—The Smithy and story; 9.—The Muireartach; 10.—Dàn an Deirg; 11.—The Fairy Song (as written here by J. F. C.); 12.—How Coireal was slain; 13.—Fionn’s questions; 14.—A small story written; and sundry other songs, lays, and stories, which he will get written if I wish it. This is one of about a dozen of men whom I have met of late who can sing and recite Ossianic ballads, of which some are not in any book or old manuscript that I know. I have another version of this song, written about ten years ago—by MacLean,[35] I think. See Vol. IV. Popular Tales, Lists somewhere. It is now in London.
The Fairy Song.
The tune is very wild and like a pibroch. I could not learn it in the time.
This is the story as told in Gaelic.
There was a time, at first, when before children were christened they used to be taken by the fairies. A child was born and it was in a woman’s lap. A fairy came to the Bean-ghlùn and she said to the midwife, “’S trom do leanabh.” “’S trom gach torrach,” said the other. “’S aotrom do leanabh,” said the fairy. “’S aotrom gach soghalach,” said the midwife, “’S glas do leanabh,” said the fairy. “’S glas am fiar ’s fàsaidh e,” said the other; and so she came day by day with words and with singing of verses to try if she could “word” him away with her—“am briatharachadh i leatha è.” But the mother always had her answer ready. There was a lad recovering from a fever in the house and he heard all these words, and learned them, and he put the song together afterwards: after the child was christened the fairy came back no more.
This is the song. I have tried to divide the words so as to represent the rhythm of the tune, but I am not sure that I have succeeded.—J. F. C.
I have given a rough copy to Miss MacLeod of MacLeod at Dunvegan, and I should like to have this or a copy back if it is not troublesome. My first manuscript is not easy to read, and I have worked this from it.
Fairy:—“’S e mo leanabh mìleanach
Seachd Maìleanach
Seachd Dhuanach,
Gual na lag; ’s lag na luineach
Nach d’ fhàs “nacach.”
[Reciter don’t understand gnathach, common.]
Mother:—Se mo leanabh ruiteach (colour ruddy)
Reamhar molteach
Miuthear mo luachair
Ohog ri mnathan
M’ eòin ’us m’ uighean
On thug thu muine leat
’Us maire leat
’Us mo chrodh lùigh
’Us mo lochraidh leat.
Mother:—Bha thu fo ’m chrios an uire
’S tha thu ’m bliadhna
Gu cruinn buanach
Air mo guailain
Feadh a bhaile.
Fairy:—Thug go gu gŏrach (fat, Reciter)
Mnath ’n òg a bhaile
Lan shaochail[36] uimach
Thug go gu gŏrach
Le ’n ciabhan dhonna
Le ’n ciabhan troma
[He said at first somewhere, “Le ’n ciochan corrach”? place.]
Thug go gu gŏrach
’S le ’n suilean donna
Mother:—Se sin Leoid
Na lorg ’s na luireach
Se Lochlan bu duchas dhuit
O fire fire nì mi uimad
Cireadh do chinn
Ni mi uimad.
Fairy:—Fire fire nì mi uimad
Cha tu an uan beag
Ni mi uimad
Crodh ’us caorich
Ni mi uimad.
Mother:—Fire fire ni mi uimad
Breachan chaola
Ni mi uimad
Fire fire ni mi uimad
A bhog mhiladh (? fileadh. Oh soft soldier, soft mine own)
O bhòg ’s leam thu
O bhog mhilidh bhog
Mo bhrù a rug
O bhog mhilidh bhog
Mo chioch a thug
O bhog mhilidh bhog
Mo gluin a thog
O bhog mhilidh
Bho ’s leam thu.
Fairy:—B’ fheàrr leam gu faic mi do bhuaille
Gu àrd àrd an iomal sleibhe
Còta geal cateanach[37] uaine
Mu do ghuailain ghil ’us léine.
Nurse:—B’ fhearr leam gu faichean do sheisearach
Fir na deance (?) a cuit shil
Gu rò do cheol air feadh do thalla (land or hall)
Leann bhi ga gabhail le fìon
Bhog mhilidh bhog
’S leam thu.
And so she says a verse each day, and if that would not do, she came the next and made another, and the little lad made out the song which he sat and heard. When the child was baptized she went away and never came back again.
N.B.—I have set the verses to each character as best I could, not knowing much about it except the last two, these the reciter placed.
NOTES:
The Fairy Song in the MS. is most difficult to read. It was written phonetically, and is now in some places indistinct. The following transliteration and translation by Mr. Duncan Mac Isaac, of Oban, show a probable reading, and this may be enough, in view of the spell-words of the fairy, whose mystic diction appears to have been of a conservative quality, and to have affected the responses of the infant’s mother.—[A. C.]
Fairy—’S e mo leanabh mì-loinneach
Seac maoileanach
Seac ghuanach,
Guailne lag, ’s lag ’n a lùireach
Nach d’ ùisinnicheadh.
Mother:—’S e mo leanabh ruiteach
Reamhar moltach
M’ iubhar mo luachair
A thog ri mnathan
M’ eòin is m’ uighean
O ’n thug thu m’ ùine leat
Is m’ aire leat
Is mo chrodh-laoigh
Is mo laochraidh leat.
Mother:—Bha thu fo ’m chrios an uiridh
’S tha thu ’m bliadhna
Gu cruinn buanach
Air mo ghualainn
Feadh a’ bhaile.
Fairy:—Thuth gò gugurach
Mnathan òg a’ bhaile
Làn shòghail uidheamach
Thuth gò gugurach
Le ’n ciabhan donna
Le ’n ciabhan troma
Thug go gugurach
Le ’n cìochan corrach
’S le ’n sùilean donna.
Mother:—’S e sin Leòid
’N a lorg ’s ’n a lùireach
’S Lochlann bu dùthchas dhuit
O fire fire nì mi umad
Cìreadh do chinn
Nì mi umad.
Fairy:—Fire fire nì mi umad
Cha tu an t-uan beag
Nì mi umad.
Crodh is caoraich
Nì mi umad.
Mother:—Fire fire nì mi umad
Breacain chaola
Nì mi umad
Fire fire nì mi umad
A bhog mhìlidh
O bhog ’s leam thu
O bhog mhìlidh bhog
Mo bhrù a rug
O bhog mhìlidh bhog
Mo chìoch a thug
O bhog mhìlidh bhog
Mo ghlùin a thog
O bhog mhìlidh
Bho ’s leam thu.
Fairy:—B’ fheàrr leam gu faic mi do bhuaile
Gu àrd àrd ’an iomall sléibhe
Còta geal caiteineach uaine
Mu do ghualainn ghil is léine.
Mother:—B’ fheàrr leam gu faicinn do sheisreach
Fir na deannaige a’ cur sìl
Gu robh do cheòl air feadh do thalla
Leann ’bhi ’g a ghabhail le fìon
Bhog mhìlidh bhog
’S leam thu.
Fairy:—He is my ungraceful child,
Withered, bald, and light-headed,
Weak-shouldered, and weak in his equipments,
That have not been put to use.
Mother:—He is my ruddy child, plump and praiseworthy;
My yew-tree, my rush, raised to women;
My bird and my eggs, since thou hast taken my time with thee,
My watchful care, my calved-cows, and my heroes with thee;
Last year thou wast under my girdle,
Thou art this year neatly gathered
Continually upon my shoulder
Through the town.
Fairy:—Hooh go googurach,
Young women of the town, fond of delicacies and dresses,
Hooh go googurach,
With their brown ringlets, with their heavy tresses,
With their abrupt breasts, with their brown eyes.
Mother:—That is a Mac Leod by heredity
In his coat of mail;
Thy nativity is Scandinavian;
O pother, pother, the combing of thy head,
I’ll do that about thee.
Fairy:—Pother, pother, I’ll do about thee;
Thou art not the little lamb
I’ll make about thee,
Cattle and sheep I’ll make about thee.
Mother:—Pother, pother, I’ll do about thee,
Narrow plaids I’ll make about thee,
O pother I’ll make about thee, thou soft warrior,
O tender one, thou art mine, thou soft soldier,
The fruit of my womb, thou soft, tender warrior,
My breast that took, thou soft champion,
Reared upon my knees, thou tender champion,
Since thou art mine.
Fairy:—I’d prefer to see thy cattle-fold
High, high on the shoulder of the mountain,
A white coat, ruffled green,
About thy white shoulders, and a shirt.
Mother:—I’d prefer to see thy team of horses,
And the men of the handfuls sowing seed,
And that thy music would be through thy hall
Accompanied by ale and wine;
Thou tender champion,
Thou art mine.
The late Campbell of Islay in the following letter, extracts of which will be given, alludes to Mr. Campbell’s intention of publishing at no distant date.
Niddry Lodge, Jan., 16, 1871.
I thank you for your letter of the 10th which reached me on Saturday, on my return to Tiree.
I shall be very glad to assist a namesake and a Highland minister who is engaged in literary work, in which I take a special interest myself. I now repeat my message, and ask you to place my name on the list of subscribers, if you have one. I shall be very glad to read your book. I am not publishing more Gaelic tales, but I am collecting, and I may some day publish a selection or an abstract or something from a great mass which I have got together. If you have anything to spare from your gatherings perhaps the best plan would be to employ some good scribe, etc. etc. etc. If you have any intention of publishing I beg that you will not think of sending me your gatherings. But anything sent will be carefully preserved.
Superstitions are very interesting, but I should fear that the people will not confide their superstitions to the minister. Amongst other matters which are noteworthy are superstitious practices about fowls.
These prevail in Scotland, and are identical with sacrifices by the blacks amongst whom Speke and Grant travelled—so Grant told me. Anything to do with serpents has special interest because of the extent of ancient serpent worship, for which see Ferguson’s great book on Tree and Serpent Worship in India and elsewhere. The connection between tree and well worship in India and in Scotland generally, and generally in the old world, is well worth investigation; also anything that is like the Vedic forms of religion, at which you can get by reading Wilson’s Translation of the Rigveda Sanhitâ, and the works of Max Muller. Anything belonging specially to the sea is interesting. The Aryans are supposed to have been natives of Central Asia, to whom the sea must have been a great mystery.
Now it is a fact that all the Aryan nations have curious beliefs and ceremonies and practices about going to sea, e.g.—you must not whistle at sea; you must not name a mouse Luds in Argyll but Biast tighe; you must not say the shore names for fine or low when at sea, but use sea terms; all that is curious and very hard to get at. Even to me they will not confess their creed in the supernatural. I have a great lot of stuff that might be useful to you, and I shall be glad to serve you, because there is a certain narrow-minded spirit abroad to which reference is made in the paper which I send herewith. It is highly probable that I may be out in the west in spring or summer.
Yours very truly,
J. F. CAMPBELL.
The following letter refers to the longest and most complex tale orally preserved in the Highlands, ‘The Leeching of Kian’s Leg.’ The version which Islay mentions is still unprinted. It is preserved with a portion of his MSS. in the Advocate’s Library at Edinburgh, and a summary of its contents has been published by me in Folk-Lore, Vol. I., p. 369. Mr. Campbell’s fragmentary version was printed and translated by him, ‘Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 1888.’ Another fragmentary version, collected by the Rev. D. MacInnes, will be found in Vol. II. of this series. The oldest known MS. version, alluded to in this letter, has been edited and translated by Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady in Silva Gadelica, from a 15th century MS. A re-telling of the story, based upon all the versions, will be found in Mr. Jacob’s More Celtic Fairy Tales.—A. N.
May, 4, 71. Niddry Lodge,
Kensington.
My Dear Sir,
I sent you a Times review of Clerk’s Ossian the other day to amuse you; also a paper with an account of fighting in Paris, where I was at Easter.
I got your letter and parcel of May 1, last night, and I have just read the story. It is extremely well written, and the language is vernacular and perfectly genuine: as I have now got 20 volumes, and half another, I am able to judge. Yours is a version of the story of which I sent you the abstract. If ever I publish the story I see that I must fuse versions, and select from the majority of various readings, under the name of “The Leching of Khene is legg.” The story is mentioned in the Catalogue of the Earl of Kildare’s library amongst the Irish Books, A.D. 1526 (Harleian MSS., 3756, Brit. Museum). I gave this information to Kildare, who has been hunting high and low to find out what was meant, they could not tell him in Ireland. I met him at Lorne’s marriage and lent him my copy, 142 pages from oral recitation. Now you send me 19 more pages, and 3 of another version, 22. Between us we have already recovered something of a story 345 years old at least.
Therefore Tradition is respectable; a comparison of versions gives a fair measure of the power of popular memory, so that written Gaelic folk-lore is a kind of measure for other and older written traditions. But as all that is old in history was tradition at first, the study is worth trouble as I judge. The more we can get written the better pleased I shall be. I am exceedingly obliged to you, and hope to thank you in person some of these days.
I am,
Yours truly,
J. F. CAMPBELL.
[32] The helm was worked by being caught by the shoulders of the steersman as it worked backwards and forwards (’g a cheapadh le ’shlinneanan a null ’s a nall).
[33] A’ chama-dhubh, the bone of the animal between the knee and shoulder-point (na bha de’n chnàimh eadar an glùn agus an t-alt-lùthainn).
[34] This discussion is doubtless concerning the spot where tradition says the bristle of the boar wounded Diarmaid when he measured the length of the dead beast.—A. C.
[35] Hector MacLean, Ballygrant, Islay: now dead.—A. C.
[36] Suobhcail or saobh chiall.
[37] Hairy, rough, shaggy.
Archibald Sinclair Printer Celtic Press, 10 Bothwell Street, Glasgow.
A SELECTION FROM
MR. DAVID NUTT’S LIST OF WORKS
ON
Celtic Antiquities and Philology.
Beside the Fire: Irish Gaelic Folk Stories. Collected, Edited, Translated, and Annotated by Douglas Hyde, M.A.; with Additional Notes by Alfred Nutt. 8vo. lviii, 203 pages. Cloth. 7s. 6d. The Irish printed in Irish Character.
⁂ One of the best recent collections of Irish folk tales.
BY WHITLEY STOKES, LL.D.
On the Calendar of Oengus. Comprising Text, Translation, Glossarial Index, Notes. 4to. 1880. xxxi, 552 pp. Nett 18s.
Saltair na Rann (Psalter of the Staves or Quatrains). A Collection of early Middle-Irish Poems. With Glossary. 4to. 1883. vi, 153 pp. Nett 7s. 6d.
The Old Irish Glosses at Wurzburg and Carlsruhe. With Translation and Index. 1887. 345 pp. Nett 5s.
⁂ The oldest dated remains of Gaelic or any Celtic language.
Cormac’s Glossary. Translated and Edited by the late John O’Donovan, with Notes and Indexes by W. S. Calcutta. 1868. 4to. The few remaining copies, nett £1 10s.
⁂ One of the most valuable remains of old Irish literature for the philologist and mythologist.
The Bodley Dinnshenchas. Edited, Translated, and Annotated. 8vo. 1892. Nett 2s. 6d.
The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas. Edited, Translated, and Annotated. 8vo. 1893. Nett 2s. 6d.
⁂ The Dinnshenchas is an eleventh-century collection of topographical legends, and one of the most valuable and authentic memorials of Irish mythology and legend. These two publications give nearly three-fourths of the collection as preserved in Irish MSS. The bulk of the Dinnshenchas has never been published before, either in Irish or in English.
BY PROFESSOR KUNO MEYER.
Cath Finntraga. Edited, with English Translation. Small 4to. 1885. xxii, 115 pp. 6s.
Merugud Ulix Maicc Leirtis. The Irish Odyssey. Edited, with Notes, Translation, and a Glossary. 8vo. 1886. xii, 36 pp. Cloth. Printed on handmade paper, with wide margins. 3s.
The Vision of Mac Conglinne. Irish Text, English Translation (Revision of Hennessy’s), Notes and Literary Introduction. Crown 8vo. 1892. liv, 212 pp. Cloth. 10s. 6d.
⁂ One of the curious and interesting remains of mediæval Irish story-telling. A most vigorous and spirited Rabelaisian tale, of equal value to the student of literature or Irish legend.
BY ALFRED NUTT.
Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, with Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of its Celtic Origin. Demy 8vo. xv, 281 pp. Cloth. 10s. 6d. net.
‘Une des contributions les plus précieuses et les plus méritoires qu’on ait encore apportées à l’éclaircissement de ces questions difficiles et compliquées.’—Mons. Gaston Paris in Romania.
‘These charming studies of the Grail legend.’—The Athenæum.
‘An achievement of profound erudition and masterly argument, and may be hailed as redeeming English scholarship from a long-standing reproach.’—The Scots Observer.
Celtic Myth and Saga. Report upon the Literature connected with this subject. 1887–1 888. (Archæological Review, October, 1888.) 2s. 6d.
The Buddha’s Alms-Dish and the Legend of the Holy Grail. (Archæological Review, June, 1889). 2s. 6d.
Celtic Myth and Saga. Report upon the Literature connected with these subjects, 1888–1 890. (Folk Lore, June, 1890). 3s. 6d.
Report upon the Campbell of Islay MSS. in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. (Folk-Lore, September, 1890). 3s. 6d.
Review of Hennessey’s Edition of Mesca Ulad. (Archæological Review, May, 1889.) 2s. 6d.
Critical Notes on the Folk and Hero Tales of the Celts. (Celtic Magazine, August to October, 1887). 5s.
Celtic Myth and Saga. Report upon the Literature connected with these subjects. 1891–9 2. (Folk-Lore, 1891). 3s. 6d.
Transcriber’s Note
Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected; as far as possible, however, original spelling and formatting have been retained. No corrections have been made to any Gaelic text as printed, with the sole exception of the third occurence of “Fire fire nì mi umad” on page 145, which had been misprinted.
In the printed book, an unnumbered page containing an editor’s note was inserted between pages 34 and 35. In this file, the note has been placed inside a box, given the subheading “Editor’s Note”, and moved directly after the paragraph to which it seems to refer, on page 35.
Footnotes were presented inconsistently in the printed book, sometimes appearing at the bottom of the page and sometimes at the ends of sections. In this book, all notes have been standardised and moved to the end of the relevant section, sometimes alongside a “Notes” section which was already present.
In this file, the formatting of the “Boy’s Games” section, which was internally inconsistent, has been standardised for the sake of clarity.