Lochiel’s piper meanwhile had been deeply interested in the scene, and the idea of the Lochaber dogs tearing the Atholl sheep inspired him to a new melody. Accordingly, he struck up and played for the first time Cruinneachadh nan Camaronach, “The Camerons’ Gathering.”
“Ye sons of dogs, of dogs the breed,
Come quick, come here, on flesh to feed.”
The tune is considered one of the best pieces of pipe music extant; and, in corroboration of the story, it is said that in 1826 a herd-boy fished out of the loch, then almost empty, a basket-hilted sword, but the men of Lochaber coming to hear of it, asked that it should again be deposited in its place, as it was a token and pledge of a very solemn transaction. So with due formality the sword was again thrown into the loch, the bard of the party repeating a Gaelic rhyme, which has been translated:—
“The sword we’ve cast into the lake;
Bear witness all the knolls around,
Ours to the furthest stretch of time
Are hill and stream and pasture ground.”
This story, on almost similar lines, is told of two other Highland chiefs, but in that case there is no pipe tune connected with it, and it is as the origin of “The Camerons’ Gathering” that it is most generally accepted.