Ossian Collection > Gaelic concepts of life and death

IS
quis--filth, dirt, unclean, impure," "immundus
canis " a dirty dog, as Horace has it, lutum.
spurcities. mud, mire, scum of the earth.
Again under his profession or life-purpose of
Trusdaireackd I found dirtiness, filthiness.
immundities, meanness, worthlessness, vilitas,
obscenity, obscenitas, impuritas." These are
not my words. If I used words like these
you might think that I was overdoing the
Trusdar, greatly as I dislike him. These
words came from the clean hand and the
clean heart of Ewen MacLachlan. the scholar
absolute, and I should not mind saying the
Highlander of most delicate mind and touch
who ever lived — at anyrate in our knowledge.
He was the author in Gaelic and in English
of "Air faillirin illirin " and of very many
other things in Gaelic in Greek in Latin and
in Scots — a gem of our people and of our
race, one of the healthiest Highland minds in
our healthy Highland story. Whenever you
find yourselves in that small great Lochaber
you will see his obelisk monument on the
Creagan there, and you will make your
reverent bow to the memory of this man. It
will do you good. I have done it more than
once, and felt better every time. He clearly
did not like the Trusdar.
Now who is this fellow the Trusdar on
which such a cataclysm of loathsomeness and
dirt has fallen? He is a very simple, single-
minded man after all. He is simply the
Gatherer — the selfish man, the Trus-adair
with the verb Trus '' gather." as the base.
He is the man with the muck-rake of the
"Pilgrim's Progress" — Bodach an Bdchdain
as he has been most happily translated. If
this was a meeting " for men only " I could
give you very strong proof of how our people
loathed the selfish man — the Gatherer. I am