Ossian Collection > Macdonald bards from mediaeval times

40
GILLEASBUIG NA CIOTAlG.
(ARCHIBALD MACDONALD.)
The Rev. Archibald MacDonald, Kiltarlity,
joint editor of the liistory of the great Clan
l)onald, in his excellent work on the Uist hards,
published in 1894, gives by fxv the best account I
have met with of liis distinguished namesake and
fellow-countryman, and I avail myself of his
labours in giving a brief description of the author
of the famous comic song " An Dotair Leòdach."
Archibald MacDonald, better known to his
countrymen as " Gille na ciotaig," was born at
Paible, in North Uist, about the middle of the
18th century. He received all the education he
possessed at the parochial school of his parish,
the only one available in his day. When Sir
James MacDonald of Sleat (at the time our poet
was a youth), with a number of Uist and Skye
gentlemen, was deer stalking in the hills there,
they came across a sheiling or àiridh where the
parents of the bard were lesiding for a few weeks
with their cattle and sheep— a very old custom in
the Highlands. The good wife, with that warm
hospitality so characteristic of the Highlanders,
offered them a drink of milk of hei heather-fed
cows—" bainne air àiridh "—which is well-known
to have a peculiar sweetness of its own. Sir
James, in his usual affable manner, conversed
with her in her native language, asking her
aljout the welfare of her family, &c. She told
him that two of her sons were at school at the
west side of the island, and that one of them liad
been born with adefective arm and short, with only
rudimentary fingers. Sir James asked his name,
and when told him that he was baptised
Gilleasbuig (Archibald), he remarked " it was a
pity they did not call him Coll, so that there
would be another Colla Ciotach in the MacDonald
clan."
Fortunately for our bard, the sound arm was
the right one, so that he was able to use it in
various ways, and being an expert writer, he was
employed by Alexander MacDonald, the bàiUidh
breac— the speckled factor— a son of " Alasdair
Mac Dhomhnuill," to whom Mac-Codrum had
composed an elegy — as clerk while he held the
factorship of the Clan Ronald estate of South
Uist. It was on the occasion of this hunting
excursion that Sir James got shot in the leg by
MacLeod of Tallisker's gun going oft" by accident,
and it was with difficulty that the crofters of
North Uist were prevented from laying violent
hands upon him, Sir James's robust franre never
recovered from the shock of the accident. It was
then that his kint-man, MacDonald of Vallay,*
composed the well-known piobaireachd, " Cumha
na coise," for him.
Our poet, like all true bards, had an ambition
to immortalise his name by publishing his poems,
and with that intention he started for Inverness,
the ca])ital of the Highlands, in order to carry his
object into ettect, but he only got as far as Fort
Augustus, where he took ill and died, and he was
buried there. The spot where he lies can't now
be traced, which is a great pity, as he was con-
sidered the cleverest of all the Gaelic comic
bards.
It is said that while at Fort Augustus he met
with Alexander Stewart, who had been parochial
schoolmaster of North Uist — the author of " A
Mhàiri bhcidheach, 's a Mhàiri ghaolach," and
that his manuscripts, having fallen into
Stewart's hands after MacDonald's death,
formed the foundation of the volume of
Gaelic poems called " Stewart's Collection."
Many of his satires and lampoons have
been" lost, but sufficient have been preserved
to stamp him as a first-class Gaelic poet.
One of his most amusing songs is his lampoon on
the Doctor Lepdach, Dr. MacLeod, of which the
following stanzas, to suit the translation, will
give an idea of the song to non-Gaelic speaking
people : —
Thugaibh thugaibh òb òb,
An Dotair Leùdach 's biodag air,
Faicill oirbh an taobh sin thill,
Mu'n toir e'n ceann a thiota dhibh.
Biodag's an deach an gath-seirg,
An crios seilg an luidealaich ;
Bha seachd òirlich oirre 'mheirg,
'S gur mairg an rachadh bruideadh dh' i
Thugaibh, &c.
Bha thu 'na do bhasbair còrr,
'S claidheamh mòr an tarruing ort.
An saighdear is mios' aig Righ Deòrsa
Chòmhraigeadh e Alasdair.
Thugaibh, &c.
Claidheamh agus sgàbard dearg,
'S cearbach sud air amadan,
'Ghearradh amhaiehean nan sgarbh,
A dh' f hàgadh marbh gun anail iad.
Thugaibh, &c.
Gu'm biodh sud ort air do thaobh,
Claidheamh caol 's a' ghliocartaich ;
Cha'n'eil falcag 'thig o'n tràigh,
Nach cuir thu bai r nan itean d' i.
Thugaibh, &c.