Blair Collection > Carmina gadelica > Volume 2

26 UIBE
SIAN A BHEATHA BHUAN [134]
'Sian' or 'seun' is occult .igency, supernatural power used to ward away injury,
and to protect invisibly. Belief in the charm was common, and examples of its
efficacy are frequent!}' told. A woman at Bearnasdale, in Skye, put such a charm
on Macleod of Bearnaray, Harris, when on his way to join Prince Charlie in IT^S.
At Culloden the bullets showered upon him like hail, but they had no effect. When
all was lost, Macleod threw off his coat to facilitate his flight. His faithful foster-
brother Murdoch Macaskail was close behind him and took up the coat. When
examined it was found to be riddled witli bullet-holes. But not one of these bullets
had hurt Macleod !
A woman at Bornish, South Uist, put a charm on Allan Macdonald of Clanranald
when he was leaving to join the Earl of Mar at Perth in 17l.'>. But Clanranald took
a lad away against the will of his mother, who lived at Staonabrig, South Uist. The
woman implored Clanranald to leave her only son, and she a widow, but he would
not. Then she vowed that ' Ailean Beag,' Little Allan, as Clanranald was called,
would never return. She baked two bannocks, a little bannock and a big bannock,
and asked her son whether he would have the little bannock with his mother's
blessing, or the big one with her cursing. The lad said that he would have the little
bannock with his mother's blessing. So she gave him the little bannock and her
blessing and also a crooked sixpence, saying, ' Here, my son, is a sixpence seven
times cursed. Use it in battle against Little Allan and earn the blessing of thy
mother, or refrain and earn her cursing.' At the battle of Sheriffmuir blows and
bullets were showering on Allan of Clanranald, but he heeded them not, and for every
blow he got he gave three. When the strife was hottest and the contest doubtful,
the son of the widow of Staonabrig remembered his mother's injunction, and that it
was better to fight with her blessing than fall with her cursing, and he put the
crooked sixpence in his gun. He aimed, and Clanranald fell. His people crowded
round Clanranald weeping and wailing like children. But Glengarry called out, ' An
diugh gu aichbheil am maireach gu bron,' — ' To-day for revenge, to-morrow for
weeping,' and the Macdonalds renewed the fight. Thirsting for revenge they fell
upon the English division of Argyll's army, cutting it to pieces and routing it for
several miles.