Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 12

1/6 The Celtic Magazine.
SNATCHES OF SONG COLLECTED IN BADENOCH.
in.
Bardic contests seem to have been a natural outgrowth of the
early stages in the progressive civilization of certain races.
Homer and Hesiod, in Greece, and our own Ossian and St.
Patrick, in Scotland, are all alleged to have tried their mettle in
those jousts of genius. In the middle ages emulative minstrels
crowded the courts and castles of the Latin princes and barons.
Among the Celts trials of wit — poetical and otherwise — have until
quite recently been very popular.* The old Gaelic bards were
powerful in repartee. When two of them met, it was always
expected that they should fall upon each other with weapons of
the keenest satire — the most rasping sarcasm. The manners of
the time were by no means against the employment of abusive
personalities in such encounters. In my last paper I referred to
Cailleachan-tuiridh. I shall now give some account of a contest
which took place between two of them, having had an opportunity
of gathering up a few relics of the ancient fray.
Once upon a Time Cluny and The Mackintosh being "drinking
wine," the latter, full of boastfulness, extolled the merits of his
Cailleach-tuiridh, and offered a wager that Cluny could find none
on his property fit to cope with her. Cluny immediately took
up the bet ; and in due course the gifted champions entered the
lists. She of Moy, as in duty bound, threw down the gauntlet,
and did so in these terms : —
Gheibhte sid an Tigh na Maigh,
Ol is fidhleireachd is aighear,
Farum sioda ris na fraighean,
Cur ban-tighearnan laidhe.
* The Eisteddfodd still keeps alive the national bardic fire of the Welsh ; and it
is surely to be regretted that we have no similar institution for the Highlands.
Why should there not be a third day of the Northern Meetings devoted to the
patronage of the Celtic Muse?