The threatening roar of our pibroch has been.
“The Braes of the Mist” is one of the sweetest and most affecting songs in any language. The singer—a woman—concealed her husband and two sons of the fiercely persecuted Macgregors in a bed as the enemies were approaching the house. She sat at the fire and began singing her song. She sang of herself as waiting in solitude for her persecuted friends. The people outside listened as the woman sang, and accepting as true what she said, they passed on without troubling her. Her heart’s dearest wishes depended on the effect produced by her extempore verses. It has been well said that “seldom, indeed, has song or ballad been composed or chanted in circumstances of such intense excitement.” The first verse runs as follows:—
I sit here alone, by the plain of the highway,
For my poor hunted kin, watching mist, watching by way;
I’ve yet got no sign that they’re near to my dwelling;
At Loch Fyne they were last seen—if true be that telling, &c.
Mo Valie Veg Og is a very popular song, somewhat like “Helen or Kirkconnel Lea,” and Tennyson’s “Oriana.” The occasion of the composition was as follows:—One of the chiefs of the Clan Chisholm having carried off a daughter of Lord Lovat, placed her on an islet in Loch Bruiach, where she was soon discovered by the Frasers, who had mustered for the rescue. (Other accounts of the origin of the song have been given). A severe conflict ensued, during which the young lady was accidentally slain by a chance blow from her own lover, in defending her from her furious brothers. The lover was condemned to be executed next day. The night preceding his execution he composed Mo Valie Veg Og, Young little May. The following is a rendering of the spirit of the song:—
I groan for thee in prison,
Mo Valie Veg Og
O, dost thy spirit listen,