Dà làmh ’s a phīob, ’s làmh ’s a chlaidheamh.’
(‘Alas, and my great want, that I have not three hands,
Two for (playing) the pipes, and one to wield my sword.’)
If he had only a third hand he thought he could manage to kill the wolves that were every instant becoming bolder, as if they knew he must fall into their jaws at last. The last notes caught by the people above were known to mean—
‘’Si ghall’ uaine ’shàraich mi,
’Si ghalla’ uaine ’shàraich mi!’
(‘It is the green bitch wolf that most harasses me!’)
And then the music ceased, and they knew that the poor piper had been torn to pieces by the wolves. Such is something like the story I used to hear in connection with the big cave in Mull and the well-known lament, more than fifty years ago.”
The cave referred to is on the estate of Lochbuy. So far as it has been explored, its length is over 500 feet, with a breadth of some 25 feet, and a height of 40. It is proper to say that the people of Skye claim the whole story as belonging to their island. The piper was a Macrimmon; the cave is pointed out near Dunvegan, and the story of the wolves and the piper’s sad fate is just as likely to be true of the one island as of the other. Our own opinion is, that so far as there is any truth in the story, it must be located in Skye rather than in Mull, although our friends in the latter island will perhaps be angry with us for saying so.