Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 4

I 88 GAELIC POETRY OF KXOWN AND UNKNOWN BARDS,
A fashion has come with the Act
That ordered kilts in plentj^ ;
There's raising of the tartan plaid
With dextrous busy noise.
Smart maidens now will spin and dye,
With mirth and fun and pride ;
Each one adorning her own true love
As always is her joy.
This bard has also a song to whisky, and another
to " Macnabracha," the son of malt. Whisky is drink,
par excellence, which would raise the mind to polite-
ness ; and not " druaib na Frainge," the trash of
France, by which he means wine ; it will make the
maidens speak, however modest ; it will put gentleness
in the boy ; it will make the carl amorous. An t 011a
Maclain, Dr. Jolmson, according to the bard, took a
glass of it himself, notwithstanding his Greek and
Latin, and thereby impaired the power of his tongue.
" Dh' fhag mac na bracha e gun lide,
I^a amadan liotach dalL"
Mac malt has made him speechless,
A thick-speaking blinded fool.
Classical names are interspersed through all his
compositions, while Greek and Eoman deities are
favourites. Phoebus gilds the mountains, Flora covers
each hill and dale with flowers ; his sweethearts have
all the qualities of Diana ; Cupid throws his arrows
with a lavish hand ; the flames excited by the love-
god are to be quenched only by yielding to Venus and