Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 4, 1896

The CELTIC MONTHLY.
119
the shore, was chased, overtaken, and beheaded
on a sandbank, called to this day Oitir 'ic
DhoinhniiiU Ghlaia (sandbank of son of Donald
Glas). All the Macleods that survived made
for the Sound of Harris and got across to their
own country.
After the tight was over, to the regret of the
Macdonalds, it was found that i\fi(c-[an-ir-
Sheumais had been wounded in the heel by an
arrow. He was removed to his foster-mother's
house at Carinish, where he lay in the bed in
great agony, giving expression to his pain by
moans and groans. His foster-mother repeatedly
requested him not to complain, as it was
unbecoming in a Maedouald to flinch, even in
the severest pain. But the suflerer, being
unable to endure the anguish uncomplainingly,
she gathered in a number of women, and set
them to fulling or thickening cloth in the house
(in Gaelic Inathndh), hoping that the singing
which invariably accompanied that form of
occupation would drown the groans and sighs
of the sutfering man.
She herself extemporized a song for the
occasion, in the chorus of which the numerous
women joined, and in which she celebrated the
bravery of her foster-son of Kingsburgh, who
of course was the wounded man. She no doubt
hoped the praise of her song would somewhat
soothe the sufferings of her foster-son.
A Mliic Iain 'ic Sheumais
(Son of John, aon of James)
'S e do sgeula th'air'm' aire.
(Your condition is known to me.)
Chorus — " Hei ho na ro o haugho
Haugheille na haougho."
Bha full do chnirp churaidh a bruchadli tro 'n
an art
(The blood of thy pure body is oozing tlu'ough
the bandages)
Bha mi fhein ga siighadh g\is do thiichadh air
m'aineal.
(I myself was sucking it till my breath became
hoarse.)
More of the words of this weird song are not
known to my informant, the Rev. John MacLean,
Bracadale.
Several arrow-heads have been found at the
spot where Macdonald, Kingsburgh, is said to
have fallen.
My grandmother having been a Blacleod of
Drynoch, it was with some interest I visited the
ancient buiial ground on the banks of Loch
Harport, in which the Drynoch Alacleods {i-'/ann
Dhtmi/iKuill G/iliiit<) were wont for centuries to
bury their dead. A cluster of trees marks the
lonely spot, and a wall encloses it. Inside are
the ruins of an old chapel of small dimensions,
4 yards by 9 yards, internal measurements.
Two inscribed tombstones are noticeable. I will
give the inscription on one of them : —
" Here rests the corpse
OP
JOHN McLEOD OF DRYNOCH,
WHO DIED 1G88.
AND OF HIS SPOUSE
(!. CAMPBELL.
He was son of Dt nalu Glas McLeod, killed
AT Caeinish ; also John, son of Alexander,
AND HIS spouse, M. McLeOD, ALSO INTERRED
UNDER THIS STONE, WHOSE SON NoRM.AN DIED IN
GlENELO IS BURIED THERE, ALL OF THE FaEM
OF Drynoch."
This is a transcript from the stone. The
place is not used for burial purposes now.
It is lielieved that only the body of Donald
Glas lies in this burial ground : it is known
that his head was ' on show ' until recently in a
chapel near Carinish, the scene of his death,
where the Macdonalds were wont to worship.
SUve LoCKHART BoGLE.
THE STEWARTS OF APPIN
AT CULLODEN.
By Duncan Livingstone, Ohio, U.S.A.
{Continued from ihmjc 93.)
f.N speaking of the valor of the clans at
' Culloden, Lord Mahon says; — " No-
— where, not by their fathers at Bannock-
burn, not by themselves at Preston and Falkirk,
not in after years when discipline had raised
and refined the valor of theii- sons, not on the
shores of the Nile, not on that other tield of
victory, where their gallant chief with a
prophetic shroud (it is their own superstition)
high on his breast, addressed to them only
these few words : — ' Highlanders, remember
Egypt ! ' — not in those hours of triumph and
glory was displayed a more tirm and resolute
bravery than in this defeat at Culloden."'
Fourteen of the colors belonging to the
Prince's army were captured by the enemy,
and for which a reward of sixteen guineas each
was paid.
According to Chambers, in order to put a
great public indignity upon the honor of the
insurgents, these disconsolate emblems of
departed glory were, on the Gth day of June,
1746, carried by a procession of chimney-sweeps
from the castle to the Cross at Edinburgh, and
there burned by the hand of the common
hangman, with many suitaWe marks of indig-
nity and contempt.