Ossian Collection > Peat-fire flame

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
cuckoo in the loneliness of the Great Glen of Hirta (St.
Kilda). At first he dared not tell the natives, being
acquainted with their superstition. When he told them in
the end, he was not a little disappointed that they failed to
exhibit the perturbation he had anticipated. Neither
MacLeod nor his factor died that year. It was not until
1929 that Norman, XXIIIrd Chief of the MacLeods of
Dunvegan, died.
Clan MacAndy of the Widgeons.
Not to be confused with Bernera in Loch Roag, nor yet
with Bernera (y), the most southerly of the Outer Hebrides,
is the island of the same name situated in the legend-
haunted Sound of Harris, and once inhabited by a sept
known as the Clan MacAndy — Clann 'ic Anndaidh. In
common with their North Uist neighbours, the
MacCodrums, who were transformed into seals, some
members of the Clan Andy were metamorphosed into
ducks.
Now, the MacAndys had tilled the barren soil of Berneray
until the meagreness of their garner compelled them to seek-
more congenial pastures. Came a time when the
community was divided (so the legend goes) into two groups
— a land group, under the direction of the sun, and a
maritime group, guided in its activities by moon and stars.
And it was when the sea colony of the MacAndy sept
rebuked the land colony for the manner in which it
conducted its affairs that, by the magic touch of a Druid
wand, the former was placed ' under spell,' as a result of
which the members composing it were forced to forfeit their
human form for that of the wedge-tailed lack or widgeon.
To this very day the old inhabitants of Boreray and
Pabbay and the numberless islands imperilling the course of
the navigator in the Sound of Harris will be telling you
weird yarns concerning the MacAndys of Berneray; and,
whenever they see a bird of long, pointed wing and wedge-
shaped tail, gliding buoyantly on the tide, or flying
apparently without exertion through the air, they will be
wishing that the lot of those who till in barren, stony
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