[11] "Dhonas's a dholas ort"—"Bas dunach ort": i.e. "Evil and sorrow to you.... A death of woe be yours! God against thee," etc.: this dreadful and dreaded anathema runs in the Gaelic—"Dia ad aghaidh 's ad aodann, bathadh air muir is losgadh air tir, crogan sgithhich eadar do chridhe 's t' airnean": from which it will be seen, by those who know Gaelic, that I have not translated literally either "crogan" or "airnean."
[12] Mios crochaidh nan con. This month is the period from the middle of July till the middle of August.
[13] "Where is the hearse?" Eilidriom (pronounced like ā-ee-drēm, is used in Skye and the isles, rarely if ever on the mainland. Snaoimh (bier) is the common word, though when a hearse is actually meant, it is alluded to as the carbad-mhàrbh, "the death-chariot."
[14] In many parts of the Highlands it is still the wont of children at Beltane (May Day) to light fires in woods or on rocky spurs, and there cook eggs, or play other pranks, sometimes very fantastic ones. These meaningless observances are a survival of the days of Druidic worship. Beltane means the sacred fire. Baal, beal, or bel is not the actual Gaelic word for the Sun, or the Sun-god: though the Druids may have had Baal from the Phœnician mariners who came to Ireland. The ancient Celtic word is bea'uil, "the life of everything," "the source of everything." Beal (pron. bel) and teine, "fire," give "Beltane"—the Festival of the Sun.
[15] Pron. Kĕ-ăn! Kĕ-ăn! Keen-ăl-ŭs! Doov-ăch-ŭs! To Celtic ears, not unlike the wailing cry of the plover. The words, moreover, mean For long, ever! Melancholy! Gloom! The word feadag (pron. Fāād'ak), in the ensuing sentences, has two meanings—a plover, and a flute. The binn fheadag is "the shrill voice of the plover." Murdo turns the word both ways: feadag, the bird, and feadag, a flute; the flute made of wind and shadow that sometimes is heard on the hills when a (tamhasq) tāvăsk moves through the gloom of night.
[16] The "mircath," or war-frenzy, is mire-chath, the "passion of battle," as the "mirdeeay" is mire-dheidh, the "passion of longing." The word Darthula—infra—is a later Gaelic variant of Dearduil (almost identically pronounced), the Scoto-Gaelic equivalent of the Erse Deirdrê, the most beautiful woman of old.
[17] Deasiul: "the way of the south [i.e. of the sun] (to you!)" From deas, the south, and seol, way of, direction. The common Gaelic exclamation for luck, in the Highlands at any rate. Many old crofters still, on coming out of a morning, cry "Deasiul!"
Transcriber's Notes:
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained except in obvious cases of typographical error:
"Before they left the farmstead, the ([Marcraes] —>) Macraes had..."