An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Gaidheal > Volume 43, October 1947--December 1948

144 AN GAIDHEAL.
Mrs. Smith also has a daughter, Mary, who is married
to a fisherman, Murdock Angus MacDonald, and they
live on a nearby farm. With this family group we soon
became very friendly; through their patience we soon
learned a fair amount of Gaelic, and by travelling about
the country with them we were introduced into many
other Gaelic-speaking families.
On July 1 we drove up to attend the opening of the
Highland National Park at Ingonish. There we saw how
dear Scottish customs still are to the Nova Scotians. The
opening ceremony was heralded by a full military pipe
band, and at the games held later in the afternoon
contestants took part in all the traditional Highland
contests—bagpipe-playing, fiddling, dancing the Highland
Fling, putting the weight, and tossing the caber.
On the evening of July 7 the Gaelic College was
opened. The College building consists at present of a
long and rather handsome log cabin with a museum of
settlers’ effects at one end and a classroom and small
Gaelic library at the other. Its beautiful and isolated
site on a hill overlooking St. Ann’s Bay was chosen to
perpetuate the memory of a remarkable and tyrannous
Highland minister, the Rev. Norman MacLeod,*2) who
a century ago settled there for a short time during his
eccentric career. The College was first opened in the
summer of 1939, having been built by the funds of tha
Cape Breton Gaelic Foundation, whose purpose is, in
brief, to foster the language and traditions of the Gaels.
Many of the members and officers, including the
President, the Rev. Mr. MacKenzie, are of Scots descent,
but know either no Gaelic whatsoever or else very little;
their motive is entirely patriotic.
The teaching is unpaid and voluntary; classes are
conducted during the summer only, but extension work
has been carried out during winter evenings in various
communities for the last two winters. In 1941 the teachers
were the Rev. J. D. Nelson MacDonald, a young United
Church minister from Baddeck Forks, whose main interest
is the Co-operative movement, but he is also a very fluent
and eloquent Gaelic speaker, and a born teacher;
Mr. Malcolm Louis MacDonald, a farmer from North
Shore, St. Ann’s; and the Rev. A. Frazer, also from
North Shore.
Classes were held eveiy morning of the week, except
Saturday and Sunday, from 9 o’clock till noon. Apart
from my wife and myself, about a dozen students
attended, mainly local young people who knew at least
a little Gaelic from their home background.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening there
was an open meeting attended by students, Cape Breton
natives, and visitors. The programme was variously
compounded of class recitations, community singing,
Gaelic spelling-bees, and Gaelic and English speeches.
These meetings drew as many as fifty people, and the
speeches repeatedly proved that Gaelic oratory is not
dead in Nova Scotia, and that there are still audiences
capable of enthusiastic response to Gaelic eloquence and
Gaelic wit.
Classes ran from July 8 to July 25. On July 30 the
Gaelic Foundation held its third annual Gaelic Mod, a
gathering of Highlanders from all Cape Breton,
Antigonish, and other parts of the mainland. About
twelve hundred people attended. The entertainment was
of a less athletic nature than at the opening of the Park
at Ingonish. There was, of course, Highland dancing,
but a large part of the programme was taken up with
Gaelic singing, bagpipe-playing, and both Gaelic and
English speeches.
An additional feature of the Mod, interesting as a
Highland survival, was the Clan Registration. Any
member of a Highland Clan, either by birth or marriage,
could for ten cents register his attendance and cast his
vote for a chieftain of his Clan. The Cup given annually
to the Clan with the largest attendance went this year
to Clan MacLeod, with Clan MacDonald a close second.
(2) He led an emigration from Cape Breton to New
Zealand in ships the emigrants made themselves.
An t-Sultuin, 1948.
During July, I had been inquiring for anyone who
might still recollect any of the traditional folk-tales. The
Rev. J. D. Nelson MacDonald surprised me by dictating
a few short tales he knew on my dictaphone, but it
seemed obvious that folk-tales, even if not completely
extinct, were extremely scarce and would be very hard
to find. During this time I had accepted a position for
the coming year at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri,
and then to my horror found that I was expected to be
there by September 3. Reahsing that my time in Cape
Breton had been drastically cut short, I decided to follow
up the few leads I had as quickly as possible in the
brief time remaining to me.
Before setting out we attended a traditional Gaelic
service at Knox Presbyterian Church in Baddeck on
August 3. The visiting minister, the Rev. A. D.
MacKinnon of Little Narrows, gave, so far as we could
tell, a moving and eloquent sermon, but even the older
people there admitted that they could not always follow
his difficult Gaelic.*3)
Our next step was to call at Sydney, C.B., on my
friend, the Rev. Donald MacLean Sinclair, who had from
the beginning given many valuable suggestions for my
work. He is a great-grandson of John MacLean, the
bard of Tiree, who> emigrated to Nova Scotia and is
famous for the description he gives in his poem,
“A’ Choille Ghruamach,” of the hardships of the settler’s
life in Cape Breton. Mr. Sinclair’s father was the Rev.
A. MacLean Sinclair, Gaelic scholar, editor, and writer;
his valuable Gaelic collection, which includes the
manuscript of John MacLean’s poetry, is now kept at
Hopewell, N.S. Mr. Sinclair himself is a sound Gaelic
scholar, has preached in the language, and is well
informed on all Gaelic matters in Nova Scot'a.
Professor F. N. Robinson of Harvard was in Sydney
at this time looking for stray Gaelic matter published
in Canada, so I introduced him to Mr. Sinclair, who was
able to unearth some interesting material for him.
Mr. Sinclair also took Professor Robinson, my wife, and
me to visit Father J. J. Tompkins, the great leader of
the Co-operative movement, at Reserve.
On the morning of August 6 we drove to Marion
Bridge to visit Allan Morrison, a farmer and Gaelic
singer, who, we had been told, knew a great many Gaelic
tales. What kind of tales they might be we had no
way of discovering, since our informants did not under¬
stand any distinction so subtle as that between a folk-tale
and any other story. With typical Highland hospitality
he insisted we stay for dinner, and he spent the whole
afternoon putting tales on the dictaphone. His repertoire
turned out to consist of stories of local humour,
interesting none the less for the picture they give of
country life and wit.
That evening we called on William MacYicar, an
elderly game-warden at Albert Bridge. He recorded for
us two somewhat distorted folk-tales that he recollected.
His main interest was music. He owned a surprisingly
large collection of Gaelic song-books in his tumble-down
cottage, could sing Gaelic songs extensively, and told
us he had translated the hymn, “The City Four-square,”
into Gaelic.
The following day we met a Mrs. Jimmie MacNeil at
Reserve. We had been told that she knew all sorts of
stories, but once more we were disappointed. She knew
no tales, but had inherited the knowledge of a tremendous
number of Gaelic songs, religious and secular, traditional
Scottish ones and recent Nova Scotian compositions.
Some of these she sang on the dictaphone, including her
own translation of “It’s a Long Way to Tipperaray.”
On August 8 we returned to South Haven for the
closing exercises of the Gaelic College, taking Professor
Robinson there with us as guest of honour.
The next day we visited Iona, a centre of the Highland
Catholics in Cape Breton, a large proportion of whom
stem from the Catholic Island of Barra in Scotland. They
*3> His people came originally from Isle of Muck.
Mr. J. L. Campbell recorded some songs from his father
in 1937.