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

190 GAELIC POETRY OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN BARDS,
John MaoCodrum was noted in his day for his
knowledge of the Fenian poems. Sir James Mac-
Donald of Sleat, in a letter to Dr. Blair of Edinburgh,
dated Isle of Skye, 10th October 1763, says of him,
" I have heard him repeat, for hours together, poems
which seemed to me to be the same with MacPherson's
translations. "
MacPherson met him on his way to Benbecula,
and asked him, " Am bheil dad agad air an Fheinn? "
This mode of putting the question is fully as ambi-
guous as many passages of the Gaelic Ossian of 1807,
for it may mean either, Do the Feinn owe thee any-
thing Ì or, Dost thou know anything about them ?
The bard considered it a fit subject for his humour,
and replied, " Cha'n 'eil, is ged do bhitheadh cha
ruiginn a leas iarraidh nis." "No; and though they
did (owe me anything) it woidd be vain to ask it now."
The poet's banter rather wounded MacPherson's dig-
nity, so he cut short the conversation and proceeded.
If the people of Uist were the same race then that they
are now, a collector of MacPherson's temper would
have very little chance of obtaining either poems or
stories, though they were as " plentiful as blackberries
in August ;" for whoever expects to be successful in
getting stories there, must cultivate patience and good
humour, take a joke and make one ; and, if he does
that, he may be assured that he can get plenty of fun,
as well as wit as brilliant and sparkling as he could
meet with in Green Erin, provided he understands
Gaelic. There is a lampoon composed by this bard to
the bagpipe of one Domhnull ban, Fair-haired Donald,