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

WEST HIGHLAND STORIES. 3 5 I
A vast number of places out of the Higlilands still
retain their Gaelic names, and it is interesting to
understand them ; for example, Tintock is the highest
mountain in Lanarkshire ; and the name has a mean-
ing in Gaelic, "The house of the mist" (Tigh n' to-ag);
and a local rhyme shews that to be the true meaning
of the name, which has no English meaning.
t
On Tintock tap there is a mist,
And in the mist there is a kist,
And in the kist there is a cup,
And in the cup there is a drap ;
Tak up the cuj? and drink the drap,
And set the cup on Tintock tap.
Tliere was a popular tale about this mountain which
I have failed to get ; but a cup, with some myste-
rious drink, is common in Celtic traditions. There
are cups taken from the fairies ; cups from which all
sorts of drinks came ; the cup of Fionn which
healed diseases ; the great caldron of the Feinne, which
is hidden somewhere ; the kettle of the " Kerrigan " of
Brittany ; the St. Graal of mediaeval romance, for
which there is no Scriptural authority ; and the
Ballan iochslilaint, or vessel of balsam. And when
we get back to Sanscrit mythology, a chief object of
worship was a drink, the juice of a plant, the " soma,"
to wliich all sorts of virtues are attributed in the
Vedas.
So lowland mythology is explained by Gaelic, and
so is lowland topography. " Craignethan" Castle has
no meaning ; but a similar Gaelic sound means the