An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Gaidheal > Volumes 44--45, January 1949--December 1950

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Tolmie. The Preface to the col¬
lection should be quoted here, for
I believe it is to Mary Ross it
refers.
“The following collection is
offered to the Folk Song Society
with considerable diffidence. It
consists merely of the notes and
fire-side memories of two friends,
natives of the Hebrides, who are
fully aware of many gaps amongst
the verses; gaps which, to their
regret, they are now unable to
repair in the way that would
be most efficient, by returning
to those haunts of early youth
from which they have been
separated for many years.”
THAT afternoon Miss Tolmie
brought out Dr. Keith Norman
MacDonald’s Gesto Collection
(1895), in the Appendix to which
several of her songs appear. She
sang several of them to me, remark¬
ing, with a glance at the old
instrument in the corner, that
these songs did not go well with the
piano.
From the beginning she had been
encouraged by Alexander Car¬
michael and others to write down
all she heard and learned. ‘ ‘For¬
tunately,” she said, “I was able
to write down the tunes in sol-fa. ’ ’
Later, visiting North Uist, she had
noted further songs. She went on
to tell me how she had kept her
notes for many years, a rolled-up
bundle of manuscript. One day
in 1900 while spending a day with
the Carmichaels at Taynuilt she
met Dr. George Henderson, the
famous Celtic scholar and author,
at that time Lecturer in Celtic
subjects at Glasgow University.
On hearing her sing some of the
songs and learning of the existence
of this manuscript he arranged
that she should meet Miss Lucy
Broadwood: finally her songs
were published by the Folk Song
Society.
The full story is told in the
Journal.
I met her once or twice again, but
reproach myself now that I did not
return to her often to learn some of
the songs as she sang them. She
died on the last day of 1926, the
result of a fall.
II
IT was a fortunate circumstance
that brought the Tolmie col¬
lection into the hands of the
Folk Song Society. For her part
Miss Tolmie gave material faith¬
fully noted and carefully docu-
jnented, the Gaelic being edited
and certain notes on language and
folk-lore contributed by Dr.
Henderson. On the Society’s side
Miss Anne G. Gilchrist contributed
an illuminating study of the modal
and pentatonic character of the
tunes, classifying the tunes accord¬
ing to their modes, and drawing
parallels between many of the
tunes and those of other countries.
Miss Lucy Broadwood added notes
both on music and language, some¬
times comparing tunes with
variants in her own Gaelic collec¬
tion, and occasional notes on the
music were made by Mr. J. A.
Fuller-Maitland.
Full details are given about the
singers. For instance a few years
ago in North Uist I mentioned the
name of a woman who had sung to
Miss Tolmie in 1871 and was at
once greeted with an exclamation
of recognition. Indeed, a child
I knew was pointed out to me as a
descendant!
The collection presents a very
satisfying and complete picture
of the different types of Gaelic
song, Songs of Labour—WauIking,
Reaping, Rowing, and Milking
Songs—Lullabies and “dandling”
tunes, Vocal Dance Music (Puirt-
a-beul(2), Songs to Chiefs and
others (Grain Mhdra, or “great
songs”), ancient Heroic Lays, as
well as Love Songs and Laments.
PARTICULARLY valuable are
the seven Heroic Lays. J. F.
Campbell of Islay, in Leabhar
na Feinne (the Book of the Feinn
or Fingalians), 1872, gave various
(2)Puirt-a-beul, or “mouth tunes,” are
still very popular among Gaelic-speaking
people. Miss Tolmie gives only three in this
collection, but she contributed others to the
book entitled “ Puirt-a-beul,” edited by
Keith Norman MacDonald, 1901. In the
Appendix to “The Gesto Collection of
Highland Music,” on p. 15, will be found an
acknowledgment by the same Editor as
follows: ‘‘I am much indebted to Miss
Frances Tolmie of Skye for the following
waulking songs and most of the other airs,
most of which would have been lost had she
not preserved them as sung of old.” Mr.
Mackenzie has kindly supplied me with this
quotation in a letter.
BOLA BROIS
Bha seann duine ann aon uair a
bha gle thinn agus cha robh du il
gum bitheadh e fada bed. Bha a
bhean is e ’na cheist oirre do am
biadh a bheireadh i dha air son a
neartachadh.
Thubhairt ban-charaid dhi rithe
cupa brochain a thoirt dha. Rinn
a bhean am brochan agus thug i 'ga
ionnsaigh e. An uair a chunnaic an
duine tinn, am brochan, ars esan,
le greann air aodann:
"Thoir leat do bhrochan tana!
B’e sin am biadh do dhuine a tha
triall air an astar dheireannach.
Nuas dhomhsa bo la brois!”
(Bho An Cabairneach,1944, le cead).
versions of the texts of these ancient
lays, but how much richer a legacy
would they have been had only the
tunes or chants to which they were
sung been noted too. Miss Tolmie
mentions having found in Camp¬
bell’s book versions of two of these
lays that she had noted, adding
that her versions were ‘ * much
popularised to suit the require¬
ments of the company seated at the
waulking-board. ” Three of the
seven, without refrains, are pro¬
bably closer to the ancient bardic
style of singing or chanting.(3)
The following passage opens
Lucy Broadwood’s Introduction:
the words I have italicised are still
true of Scotland:—
‘‘Miss Frances Tolmie’s col¬
lection of one hundred and five
Songs of Occupation from the
Western Isles of Scotland opens
a mine of interest and delight
to musicians, poets, folk-lorists
and historians, and undoubtedly
forms one of the most important
contributions yet made towards the
preservation of the purely tradi¬
tional music and poetry of our
British Isles in general and of
Scotland in particular. ’ ’
The value of the collection is
enhanced by its form and presenta¬
tion, a model of what such should
be. An enormous amount of work
went into the production of the
volume, but what a fascinating
labour it must have been for all
concerned—and what a magnificent
monument it remains!
(Reprinted by permission from
Journal of the English Folk Dance
and Song Society, Vol. V. No. 3.)
(3)1 noted five such tunes as recently as this
summer (19481 from the traditional singing
of a woman of eighty-five in South Uist. The
numerous verses of these and other lays and
songs from the same singer have been
scrupulously noted by Mr. K. C. Craig, of
the Celtic Department of Edinburgh Uni¬
versity, and it is hoped that a selection at
least will be published shortly.
ETYMOLOGICAL NOTES
Fraoch (W. grug), heather.
Russian veres(k) and Polish wrzos
are cognate.
Smdglach: lan do dha laimheadh.
<s-mag-lach. Prothetic s, mag,
childish or ludicrous for the
“hand,” cp. casag for cas, and
-lack meaning -ful as in teaghlach
(houseful, household, family,
children).
Smiotag (South Uist), smeatag
(North Uist). “Cuff, light blow,”
like pais, pais bheag. <s-miotag,
s-meatag. Prothetic 5 and miotag,
meatag, “a glove.”
Uipireachd (South and North
Uist), ‘ ‘ ill-natured conduct,
waspishness.” <English viper.
K. C. Craig.