Facts and traditions collected for a family record

48
FACTS AND TRADITIONS.
23.
Seven years Dubhoda the eager,
And four Culen,
Seven and twenty over every clan
To Kenneth son of Malcolm.
24.
Seven years Cusantiu in direct line,
And four the son of Duff ;
Thirty years of chequered portions
Was king of the mountains, Malcolm.
25.
Six years Duncan the pure,
Seven years and ten the son of Finlay ;
After Mecbeath with renown
Seven months in the kingdom, Lugaidh.
26.
Malcolm is now the king,
Son of Duncan of the yellow countenance,
His duration no one knoweth
But the knowing (One) who (alone) is knowing.
27.
Two kings and fifty (listen)
To the son of Duncan of the ruddy countenance,
Of the race of Ere, high, clear in gold,
Possessed Alban, (ye learned.)"
Many historical facts prove that the ancestors of the Macdonalds were
much connected with the early rise of Christianity in the north of Ire-
land and the "Western Isles of Scotland. Nisbet, in his " Heraldry,"
vol. i., p. 268, writes : —
" The M'Donalds have a dexter hand couped, fess-ways proper, holding a cross
croslet fitchie sable ; upon the account, it 's said, that one of their progenitors
assisted St Patrick to propagate the Christian faith in Ireland, and to reduce the