Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 7, 1899

23s
The CELTIC MONTHLY.
the first of these, Gillanfhaig (MacGillonies) or
Maclanfhaigh — " Fhaigh " in its aspirated form
being represented by " Hay '' or " Kay " of the
Chroniclers — who led the Canierons at the Inch
of Perth.
Bancho (Shakspeare's Banquo), who was
Thane of Lochaber in the time of King Duncan,
and was slain by M'Beth because he was foretold
that Bancho's posterity would he kings of Soot-
land — a prophecy which was fulfilled — had a
sister Marion who married Angus, the first of
the Cameron chiefs of whom there is any men-
tion. From Bancho's grandson Walter, Great
Steward of Scotland, which office became heredi-
tary and turned into a surname, the Royal
Stewart family and the Stewart Earls of Lennox
were descended. Then, at a much later period,
viz., in 1546, we find " Ewen Eoghain Mac-
Ailein," the 13th Cameron chief, supporting the
then Stewart Earl of Lennox in his rebellion,
for which he was tried and executed. Here we
have another instance of close connection be-
tween the Laohaber and Dumbartonshire chiefs
and clans.
All these traditions and historic incidents,
coui)led with the fact that the first Cameron
chief was of Celtic origin, point to a very early
connection with the western clans — if, indeed,
the progenitors of the first Camerons were not
western Celts, who, in their early wanderings,
settled in Lochaber, and for a time formed part
of the Moravian host. Whether this circum-
stance, or the settlement of the MacEwens
at one period in Lochaber accounts for the
name Ewen amongst the Camerons it is
of course impossible to say at the present
day ; but while the name has been com-
mon in the Cameron families and in Loch-
aber, it is very rare amongst the neighbouring
clans of the district, who were previously
connected with the Camerons under Moravian
rule. It is not a common name amongst the
Mackintoshes, or the minor septs of Clan Chattan,
or the Moravian clans. It is of western origin,
and common amongst the western clans, and the
fact would seem to support Keltie's statement
that the MacEwens had originally territory in
Lochaber. In later times, the families of that
name in Lochaber appear to have derived it, in
some cases, from the Cameron Ewens, according
to Celtic custom, for the " Sliochd Eoghain "
were the children and descendants of the first
Ewen, chief of Erracht. In others it doubtless
had its origin in the later connection with the
IMacDougall Campbells of Lome ; and the
"Sliochd Eoghain" was probably composed
of the descendants of both. The MacEwen
Camerons who took part in the Struan raid
under Sir Ewen Cameron in 1666, were no
doubt of this sept. The Skye Colony of
MacEwens may have been derived either from
the Otter or Lochaber families, or both. In
later years, they appear to have been numerous
in Skye, for from General Wade's Statement of
the Highland Clans in 1715 there were one
hundred and fifty then in the island.
The' MacEwens have been a scattered race
since the early part of the thirteenth century,
although the chief of Otter, "Eoghannah-Oitrich",
managed to hold his own till the middle of the
fifteenth century. They are not in the rolls
attached to the Acts of 1587 or 1594 — a proof
that they were badly " broken " by that time.
Tradition assigns their final ruin in Argyllshire
to the Campbells in the time of Earl Colin's
" redding up " ; and it is on record that from
and after that time a kinsman of his own was
established at Otter — no doubt according to the
fashion of the times.
'I'he name is to be found not only in Argyll-
shite, Dumbartonshire, and the neighbouring
counties, but as far north as Perth and Loch-
aber, and in the west in Skye.
HOW WE BRING THE WEE ONES
HOME.
|pra|HE SEA ! Ah, it is our own. We love
3?^ it and we fear it, for it brings to us both
^■f^ life and death. It laughs clieersoniely
with a beautiful laughter among the shallows
when the sunlight falls on the dancing waves,
and the white-winged birds go skimming with
delight above the shimmering plane of blue.
The salt smell of it gets into our nostrils when
as yet we are but bairns, and then it is that you
will hear us laughing softly with a wonderful
cooing sound before the words are formed on
our lips. The blue grey glamour of the sea is
reflected in the infant eyes that ever afterwards
shine with the light and shadows of the waves.
The sea steals its blueness from heaven, and the
island dwellers steal the blueness of their eyes
from the sea — because of their much gazing on
the magic waters.
And when we be men and women, we are still
drunken with a love of the sea wave. It tears
our dearest ones away from our hearts for ever,
and yet, above our terror of it, is our love. I
have seen an islesman in an inland place stop of
a sudden and sniflf the winds of heaven with a
bright light shining on the face of him. He had
happened on a road that was but three miles
from the sea. The smell of it was in his nostrils,
and a mist of tears was creeping over his eyes.
Go where we will, ours are the hearts that never
can forget. The sea is our nurse that sang to
us when we were bairns, and rocked us to rest
with a gentle heaving. Aye, and there be some