On her saying this, he fell dead on the field and never more drew breath. The Maiden of the Cairn was never afterwards seen, nor heard of; and that was how the sister’s wishes ended.
NOTES:
[23] Boats made of twigs and covered with hides, the hairy side of the skin being uppermost, could go long distances over rough seas.
[24] This name is sometimes rendered in English, Margaret. Erraid Isle (Eilean earraid) is in the Sound of Iona, south of Mull.
[25] The rock of Ailsa in the firth of Clyde is called in Gaelic Creag Ealasaid, and Ealasaid a’ chuain (Ailsa of the sea). A round grey rock lying near the shore in Mannal, south side of Tiree, is called Sgeir Ealasaid, the Ailsa rock. The name Ealasaid is in English also Elizabeth and Elspeth.
[26] Odhar, dun or grey, is applied to cattle; as, bò mhaol odhar, a dun hornless cow; gabhar mhaol odhar, a grey goat: it is sometimes used as an expression of contempt, as creutair odhar, a dun creature. The diminutive of odhar, odhrag, is a pet name for a cow.
[27] The words of the first four lines of “the wishes,” are, as regards their form in the Gaelic text, almost unintelligible; they merely represent the sounds uttered by the reciter, without being correct either in form or composition. The sounds belonging to the first line might, for instance, have been represented thus:—’Na ana-chìnnt ’s ’n a an-shocair dhuit d’ ùidh: perhaps the utterance was intentionally ambiguous.—(Ed.)
[28] Gruagach, the supernatural being, in this instance was said to be a woman; but gruagach usually meant a chief. (See Vol. IV., Argyllshire series, p. 193.)
[29] There was a custom at one time, that the last handful of corn that was cut, and which finished the harvest, was taken home by the reaper, who was usually the youngest person in the family who could reap. The bunch was tastefully decorated and kept, at least till the following year, as the harvest maiden.
[30] It was also a custom in other times for old women to go about asking charity, and if infirm, they were carried about from house to house and villages, and whoever was last in a township to finish the reaping of his corn had to maintain one that year, and the same thing might happen to him the next year. When the run-rig system was common, the last furrow of corn was sometimes left standing as no one could be got to own it, through fear of having to keep the old woman for a year.