Matheson Collection > Popular tales of the west Highlands > Volume 1

XXVI INTRODUCTION.
in style and machinery as the famous Poems ; and it
was attributed to Ossian. The repetition began with
a short prose account of what was to follow. Smith is
sixty, and says that he cannot read. He does not
understand English. He says that such poems used to
be so chanted commonly when he was young. The
same account of the manner of reciting similar poems
was given me by a clergyman in Argyllshire, who said
that, Avithin his recollection, the " death of Cuchullin "
used to be so recited by an old man at the head of
Loch Awe.
Donald Macintyre, in Benbecula, recited a similar
fragment, which has since been written and sent to me.
The subject is a dialogue between a lady and a mes-
senger returning from battle, with a number of heads
on a withy ; the lady asks their story, and the mes-
senger tells whose heads they were, and how the heroes
fell. It sounded better than it reads, but the tran-
scriber had never written Gaelic before.
John Campbell, generally known as "Yellow John,"
living in Strath Gearrloch, about twelve miles west of
Flowerdale, repeated a similar fragment, which lasted
for a quarter of an hour. He said he had known it for
half a century. He is a very old man, and it is diffi-
cult to follow him, and the poetry was mingled with
prose, and with " said he," " said she." It was the
last remnant of something which the old man could
only remember imperfectly, and which he gave in
broken sentences ; but here again the combat Avas with
a Norway witch, and the scene, Ireland. Fionn, Diar-
maid and other such names appeared. Diarmaid had
" his golden helm on his head ; " his " two spears on
his shoulder ; " his " narroAV-pointed shield on his left
arm ; " his " small shield on his right ; " his sAvord AA'as