Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 2, 1894

THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
OUR MUSICAL PAGE.
215
THE^following Elejiy to the Respond Family is by
Rob'Donn, the Sutherland Bard : —
The Respond Family consisted of two brothers
who lived together in single blessedness. Tliey
were mean, sordid misers. They had a stock of
sheep and cattle on the hills. They amassed gold,
and like the man in the parable, hid it in the earth,
in a spot it is said where from their house window
they could see its hiding place. They had a liouse-
keeper. In the dead of winter, and late on a
Saturday night, a poor woman came to their door
for shelter, but they closed it in her face, an act.
which at that time, and for at least one hundred
yeai's subsequent was in those parts looked upon as
a heinous crime. Before that night week the three
were dead. The house-keeper first and the brothers
within a day and a night of one another. The trio
were borne to their last resting place by the same
company of men and laid together in mother earth.
It is possible, though we have no account of it, that
remorse for the act they had been guilty of, might
have accelerated their end ; at any rate the Bard,
the teacher, — may I not add the "Preacher of
Righteousness?" — made it the theme of his Poem.
Ale.xander Mackay, Edinburgh.
MARBHRANN CHLOINN RUSPAINN— THE RESPOND FAMILY ELEGY.
Gai^lir (ruci/.s /<;/ Rob Do.nn Mackay. Traastufion by Miss Scobie, Kcnldale, Sutherland.
Key D. Slowhj aith fcdin.j.
Am bliadhna thiom' bha dithis diubh,
Air tighinn o'n aon bhroirm,
Bha iad mar na comjaanaich,
O'n choinnich iad na'n cloinn ;
Clia d' bhris an t-aog an comunn ud,
Ged bu chomasach dha 'n roinn,
Ach ghearr e snJithainn na beath' ac'.
Gun dail ach latha 's oidhch'.
Daoine nach d' riiin briseadh iad
Le fiosrachadh do chilch ;
'S cha mhi a rinn iad aon dad,
Ris an can an saoghal gras ;
Ach ghineadh iad, is rugadh iad.
Is thogadh iad is dh' fh^s —
Chaidh strJichd de 'n t-saoghal thairis on'',
'S mu dheireadh fhuair iad has.
An ddigh na rinn mi rusgadh dhuibh
Tha duil agara gim lochd,
'S a liuthad focal firinneach
A dhirich mi 'n ur h-uchd,
Tha eagal onu nach e'isd sibh
Gu bhi feumail do na bhochd ;
Ui 's mo na rinn na fleasgaich ud,
A sheachduin gus a nochd.
Within the circle of a year
Were two of these men born ;
Closest of comrades ever were
Since days of life's gay morn ;
Ev'n death, who heeds not closest bonds
No separation made.
For in the space of one brief day
He both in silence laid.
No wrong had they to any done
Judging by human ken ;
But neither had they helped in aught
Their needy fellow men ;
And all that can be said of them
Is — they were born — survived
Some years upon this earth— and then.
The hour of death arrived.
But after all that I have said
The whole of which is true,
(For in this song most faithfully
I've told but what I knew),
I fear you will not heed my words.
Nor help the needy more
Than those poor fellows who last week
Were biu-ied at our door.
The above Music was taken do^vn by the late John Munro, a native of the Reay country
and is now published, we believe, for the first time.