Matheson Collection > Gaelic songs of Mary MacLeod

NOTES 137
The tigh referred to (1. 999) seems to be Tigh nan tend, three
miles north-west of Pitlochry; cf.:
B'ann diubh Art agus Cormac,
SÌ0I Chuinn a bha ainmeil,
Sliochd nan Collaidhean garga
Le'n do chuireadh Cath-gaUbheach (-Gairbheach)
Is Domhnall Ballach nan Garbhchrioch,
Rinn Tigh nan tend aig leth Alba 'na chrich.
(MacDonald's Story and Song from Loch N ess-side, p. 2).
The expression is an ancient one; cf. Acallamh na Senorach
(Stokes) (MSS. of fifteenth cent.), 1- 1837: " gu ngebadh tech
ar leth Eirenn ", " that he would get half of Ireland and a
house over"; also Glenmasan MS. (? c. 1500) (Mackinnon),
Celtic Review, I, 14: " gur cosain nert a laime fen treab ar
leth Alpan do ", "so that the might of his own hand won
for him half Scotland and a stead over ".
LUINNEAG DO IAIN MAC SHIR TORMOID
This song is still known in part in Harris. It is addressed
to John, eldest son of Sir Norman of Bemera, sometimes
called Iain Taoitear, as guardian of Norman, the nineteenth
chief of MacLeod, who was born after his father's death.
John was an advocate at the Scottish bar.
The occasion of the poem is the presentation to the poetess
of a snuff-mull (brath), or, as some in Harris say, a quern,
and the first two stanzas deal playfully with this subject.
1004. gun iarann air: "unshod"; the iron parts of a
mill are a square block of iron {dealgan) let into the iron
socket [dual) in the centre of the upper millstone; and the
cylindrical iron bolt (torghann) inserted in the iron lunn, on
which the propellor rests and rotates. A Lewis ballad runs:
Tha an dealgan 's an torghann
Air meirgeadh 'san dual,
Is tha a h-uUe rud cearbach cearr oirr'.
(All from Mr. H. M. Maciver).
1029. By his second marriage (to Catherine, daughter of
Sir James MacDonald of Sleat) Sir Norman had two other
sons, William and Alexander, and four daughters.
de is to be understood before chloinn.