Who else was collecting Gaelic charms?

Alexander Carmichael was by no means the only Gaelic speaker collecting and publishing charms at the end of the nineteenth century. In the next few blogs we’d like to take a brief look at Carmichael’s contemporaries – all of them men – who took an interest in Gaelic charms and incantations, in order to give readers an idea of what they gathered and how they presented their finds to the public. Carmichael may well have collected the lion’s share of these fascinating items, but there is much more to Gaelic charm collection than Alexander Carmichael alone.

We saw in the previous blog how, in January 1842, the Rev. Norman MacLeod, ‘Caraid nan Gàidheal’, printed a seun or battle charm in the periodical he was then editing, Cuairtear nan Gleann. The article, entitled ‘Saobh-chràbhadh nan Gàidheal anns na lìnntibh a chaidh seachad’ (‘Superstition of the Gaels in ages past’), allowed the minister to have his cake and eat it: both to print an item which he knew would be of great interest to his readers, while at the same time giving him an opportunity to inveigh against the ‘saobh-chràbhadh’ and ‘nithe faoine’ (foolish or vain things) of an earlier generation of supposedly less enlightened Gaels.

‘Caraid nan Gàidheal’ didn’t have long to wait for some feedback. Two issues later he printed a five-page letter from ‘G— C—’, again on ‘Saobh-chràbhadh nan Gàidheal’. I see, stated G. C., that you write that ‘gach ni mu shèun, mu ghisreagan, mu gheasan, agus mu dhruidheachd’ (‘everything about seun, enchantments, spells, and druidism’) has now been forgotten.

Bu ro thaitneach leam so a chluinntinn, nam b’urrainn domh a chreidsinn gu’n robh e fìor; ach tha dearbh-chinnte agam gu’m bheil mòran de na nithean faoin agus peachdach so fathast air an cleachduinn air feadh na Gàidhealtachd, agus gu’m bheil sluagh lionmhor a toirt làn ghéill dhoibh.

I should be very pleased to hear this, if I could believe it were true; but I am absolutely certain that many of these vain and sinful things are still in use throughout the Highlands, and that numerous people believe in them totally.

In his letter, G. C. plays the same game as MacLeod, going into fascinating detail about charms and folk cures for cattle and horses then current – indeed apparently exceptionally common – in the Isle of Skye, as well as giving an example of silver water used to quench bleeding. The final page is devoted to a tirade, not just against practitioners of witchcraft, but against those who pay them:

Tha iadsan, mar an ceudna ag àicheadh freasdail agus maitheas an Tighearna. Tha iad a dol airson còmhnuidh agus dìon chum a nàimhdean. Tha iad a cur an làmh ris gach barail mhearachdaich, bhreugaich, mhì-dhiadhaidh, a tha aig luchd nan gisreagan: agus an aon seadh, ’s iad is coireach ann am peacaidhean na muinntir eile; oir mar biodh iadsan a toirt duais seachad airson upagan a’s eòlais, cha b’fhada gus an sguirte dhaibh. Cha’n eil buidseach ’san dùthaich a bhiodh air an dragh dol troimh cleasan mar faigheadh i pàigheadh air a shon.

They also deny God’s dispensation and mercy. They go to His enemies for help and protection. They add their hand to every mistaken, lying, irreligious opinion held by the charmers: in one way, they are responsible for the sins of the others; for if they didn’t reward charms and incantations, it wouldn’t be long before they’d cease. There isn’t a witch in the country who’d be bothered going through her tricks unless she received payment for it.

G. C. ends the letter by urging MacLeod to continue his campaign in demonstrating the foolishness and sinfulness of these customs.

Who then was G. C.? In a brief but important article in the Review of Scotttish Culture about seuntan entitled ‘Lead hearts and runes of protection’, Professor Hugh Cheape makes the astute suggestion that the writer was Gilleasbaig Cléireach or the Rev. Archibald Clerk (1813–87), none other than the Rev. Norman MacLeod’s son-in-law [Review of Scottish Culture, 18 (2006), 155n.5]. Like MacLeod’s correspondent, Clerk had recently been in the Isle of Skye: he had served as minister of Duirinish between March 1840 and November 1841, and had written a description of the parish for the New Statistical Account. When we compare G. C.’s Gaelic letter in Cuairtear nan Gleann with Clerk’s English report in the NSA about the prevalence of charms in his parish, it’s clear from both tone and subject matter that they were written by the same man.

Yet the people generally are unacquainted both with the letter and the spirit of true religion, and there is much superstition, the sure concomitant of ignorance, still lingering among them. Our limits forbid us to enter at any length on this subject, but we may remark, that while it is now rare, though not unknown, to use charms or incantations for curing the diseases of the human frame, these means are daily resorted to for curing the diseases of cattle. ‘Silver water,’ as it is called, ‘fairy arrows,’ and ‘charmed stones,’ are still held to be possessed of much efficacy, and they who have power to call forth their virtues are held in high estimation. [NSA, 14, 348]

Four months later another ‘Saobh-chràbhadh nan Gàidheal’ article appeared in Cuairtear nan Gleann.

This time two charms were printed, a Eòlas nan Sùil [sic], for sore eyes, and a Eòlas an t-Snìomh to be recited by the practitioner while massaging a sprained ankle. The first one, to be recited over a vessel of water (with which to wash the affected eye) containing a silver coin, was obtained:

o sheann duine còir a chleachd e fad iomadh bliadhna, ’sa tha nis a’ tuigsinn nach ’eil ann ach amaideachd pheacach.

from a decent old man who used it for many years, but who now understands it’s nothing but sinful foolishness.

Eòlas nan Sùil.

Obie nan geur shùl,
An obie ’s feàrr fo’n ghréin;
Obie Dhé, an uile-mhòr.
Féile Mhàiri, féile Dhé,
Féile gach sagairt ’s gach cléir;
Féile Mìchael nam feart,
’Chàirich anns a’ ghréin a neart.

The Charm of the Eyes

Charm of the sharp eyes,
The best charm under the sun;
The charm of God, the great.
Feast of Mary, feast of God,
Feast of every priest and every cleric;
Feast of virtuous Michael,
Who laid in the sun his strength.

The second charm is an example of the very common bone-to-bone charm, known throughout Europe and far beyond. The writer, probably once more the Rev. Norman MacLeod, apparently gets the gender of St Brìde wrong!

Eòlas an t-Snìomh

Chaidh Brìde mach
Air maduinn mhoich
Le càraid each.
Bhris fear ac’ a chas.
Chuir e glùn ri glùn,
A’s cnàimh ri cnàimh,
A’s feith ri feith.
Mar leighis esan sin,
Cha leighis mise so.

The Charm of the Sprain

Bride went out
In the early morning
With a pair of horses.
One of them broke his leg.
He put knee to knee,
And bone to bone,
And sinew to sinew.
Unless he healed that,
I shall not heal this.

Thirty years later, on 20 June 1872, these two charms were reprinted in one of the many remarkable columns which the Rev. Alexander Stewart compiled under the pen-name ‘Nether-Lochaber’ for the Inverness Courier. As Alexander Macbain rather acerbically notes in one of his folklore notebooks, Stewart presented ‘these Cuairtear charms cooly as his own, even their errors’ [CW511D, fo.79^v]. We can, however, forgive ‘Nether’ his creative pilfering: as a hook to intrigue his readers, it certainly worked. After coming across Stewart’s ‘charms’ column, Alexander Carmichael was inspired to despatch to his friend some similar items which he himself had recently written down in Uist, and then to collect some more: these were the kernel of what was to become, three decades later, Carmina Gadelica i–ii.

References:
Hugh Cheape, ‘Lead hearts and runes of protection’, ROSC: Review of Scottish Culture, 18 (2006), 149–55.
Clerk, Rev. Archibald, ‘Duirinish’, New Statistical Account of Scotland (1834–45), vol. 14, 322–60.
G. C. [‘Gilleasbaig Cléireach’, i.e. Rev. Archibald Clerk], ‘Saobh-chràbhadh nan Gàidheal’, Cuairtear nan Gleann, 25 (1 March 1842), 9–14.
[Rev. Norman MacLeod], ‘Saobh-chràbhadh nan Gàidheal anns na lìnntibh a chaidh seachad’, Cuairtear nan Gleann, 23 (8 January 1842), 309–12, edited and reprinted in Rev. Norman MacLeod, Caraid nan Gàidheal (Glasgow: William MacKenzie, 1867), 338–43.
_____. ‘Saobh-chràbhadh nan Gàidheal’, Cuairtear nan Gleann, 29 (1 July 1842), 137.

For another article about charms and folk cures (despite the reference to himself in the third person, it was probably also written by the Rev. Archibald Clerk), see:
‘Cas air Allaban’, ‘Buidseachd sa’ Ghàidhealtachd’, Cuairtear nan Gleann, 37 (1 March 1843), 13–16.

Image:
Duirinish Parish Church, built 1832, where the Rev. Archibald Clerk preached 1840–1.

Gaelic Battle Charms - 1

Here is Alexander Carmichael describing the genre of protective charm or seun in Carmina Gadelica ii, 26:

‘Sian’ or ‘seun is occult agency, supernatural power used to ward away injury, and to protect invisibly. Belief in the charm was common, and examples of its efficacy are frequently told.

Carmichael gives various examples of seuntan, for protecting cattle and ensuring long life, but the most spectacular instances are those which protect in battle.

A woman at Bearnasdale, in Skye, put such a charm on Macleod of Bearnaray, Harris, when on his way to join Prince Charlie in 1745. At Culloden the bullets showered upon him like hail, but they had no effect. When all was lost, Macleod threw off his coat to facilitate his flight. His faithful foster-brother Murdoch Macaskail was close behind him and took up the coat. When examined it was found to be riddled with bullet-holes. But not one of these bullets had hurt Macleod!

The battle seun was not just well-known in Gaelic tradition because of its remarkable effects. It was one of the very few charms which had found its way into print, and as a result it must have been a curio discussed in Highland céilidh houses. This printed version was collected about 1800 from an old man – probably an army veteran – in Glen Forsa in Mull and printed by the Rev. Norman MacLeod (1783–1862). Here is what the minister, under his pen-name Caraid nan Gàidheal, wrote about the seun in the periodical he edited, Cuairtear nan Gleann, in January, 1842:

   Bha aon seòrsa do shaobh-chràbhadh cumanta bho shean sa’ Ghàidhealtachd, ris an abradh iad sèun – seòrsa do rann air a cur suas ann an criomanan anairt, agus air uairibh saighead-shìth, air am fuaigheal gu teann san aona bhréid. Bha so air a ghiùlan fo’n léine, dlùth do’n chridhe; agus bha earbsa mhòr aig daoine gòrach gu’n robh cumhachd mòr aige an dìon o gach olc agus gàbhadh.
   Fhuair sinn sèun do’n t-seòrsa so, bha air a chleachdadh ann am Muile bho chionn fhada. Cha’n eil dùil againn gu bheil cailleach, no bodach, no balachan beag, co amaideach a nis san dùthaich sin, ’s gu’n tugadh iad creideas air bith d’a leithid. Mar chuimhneachan air na làithibh a thréig, tha sinn a nis ’ga thoirt seachad; agus le so crìochnaichidh sinn na bha againn ri ràdh air an àm mu na nithe faoine so.

   There was one type of superstition which was once common in the Gàidhealtachd called a ‘seun’ – a sort of verse put [or set] up in fragments of linen, and sometimes [?with] a fairy-arrow, sewn tightly into a single piece of cloth. This was carried under the shirt, close to the heart: and silly folk strongly trusted that it had a great power to protect them from every evil and danger.
   We acquired a seun of this kind which was used in Mull a long time ago. We don’t expect that any old woman, old man, or little boy in that country is now so foolish as to believe anything of the sort. In remembrance of bygone days, we give it here; and with this we’ll finish what we had to say at this juncture about these vain things.

Despite the minister’s pious hopes, it seems that in some parts of the Highlands belief in the seun remained strong long after the days of Caraid nan Gàidheal. We’ll finish this blog by reprinting the charm itself with a translation. Note how it looks as if Alexander Carmichael has adapted the text for his Sian a Bheatha Bhuan in CG ii, 28–31.

It’s interesting that Carmichael ascribes this text on CG ii, 378 to Duncan Cameron (c. 1818–1900), the policeman from Morvern whom Carmichael so respected for his knowledge of old lore. It might just be possible (a big if!) that Cameron had heard the text from the Rev. Norman MacLeod himself, who had been brought up in Morvern, or from his youngest brother John (1801–82), who had succeeded his father as minister of the parish. It might even be the case that the minister was given the charm by one of Cameron’s family. Here is the text as published in Cuairtear nan Gleann:

Seun

a fhuaradh o chionn da-fhichead bliadhna o sheann duine

ann an gleann-forsa, ann an eilean mhuile.

 Air a shon, ’s air a shealbhadh,

An sèun a chuir Brìde mu nighean Dhordheal –
An sèun a chuir Muire mu ’mac
Eadar a buinn ’s a bràghad,
Eadar a cìoch ’s a glùn,
Eadar a sùil ’s a falt.
Claidheamh Mhìcheil air a thaobh;
Sgiath Mhìcheil air a shlinnein.
Cha’n eil eadar nèamh a’s làr
Na bheir buaidh air Rìgh nan gràs.
Cha sgoilt ruinn thu,
’S cha bhàth muir thu.
Bratach Chriosd umad;
Sgail Chriosd tharad.
O mhullach do chinn gu bonn do choise,
Tha sèun an àigh orsa nis.
Falbhaidh tu an ainm an Righ,
’S thig thu ’n ainm do Cheanntaird.
’S le Dia, ’s na cumhachdan còmhla, thu.
Cuiridh mi an sèun Di-luain
An astar cumhann biorach droighin.
Falbh a mach ’s an sèun mu d’ chóm,
’S na biodh bonn do eagal ort!
Dìridh tu mullach nan siùchd [sic: stùchd],
’S cha leagar thu taobh do chùil.
’S tu mac Eala chiùin sa’ bhlàr;
Seasaidh tusa ’measg an àir;
Ruithidh tusa troimh chòig ceud,
’S bi ’idh fear d’eucorach an sàs.
Sèun Dhè umad!
Sluagh dol far riut!

A Seun

acquired forty years ago from an old man

in glen forsa, in the isle of mull

For him and for his prosperity,

The seun which St Bride put about the daughter of Dordheal –
The seun which Mary put about her Son,
Between [i.e. including] the soles of her feet and her throat,
Between her breast and her knee,
Between her eye and her hair.
St Michael’s sword by his side;
St Michael’s shield on his shoulder-blades.
There is nothing between heaven and earth
Which will overcome the King of grace.
No blades shall cleave you,
Sea shall not drown you.
The mantle of Christ about you,
The shadow of Christ over you.
From the top of your head to the sole of your foot,
The seun of luck is now on you.
You shall go in the name of the King,
And you shall come in the name of your Master.
With God and the powers together are you.
I will make the seun on Monday
On a narrow, sharp, thorny path.
Go out with the seun about your body,
And don’t be at all afraid;
You shall climb to the summit of the rocky mountains,
And you won’t be knocked down from behind.
You are the son of the calm Swan in the battle;
You shall stand amidst the slaughter;
Your shall run through five hundred,
And your enemy shall be caught in distress.
The seun of God about you!
A host going with you!

As well as giving another English translation of the charm, the Rev. John Gregorson Campbell MacLean in his Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1902), 69, supplies the following anecdote:

A charm of this kind was given to a smith in Torosay, Mull, by his father. Afterwards he entered the army and engaged in thirty battles. On his return home without a wound he said, he had often wished he was dead, rather than be bruised as he was by bullets. He was struck by them, but on account of the charm they could not pierce him.

References:

CG ii, 26–31.

Rev. John Gregorson Campbell (ed. Ronald Black), The Gaelic Otherworld (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), 212–13, 466–7 nn.724–36.

[Rev. Norman MacLeod], ‘Saobh-chràbhadh nan Gàidheal anns na lìnntibh a chaidh seachad’, Cuairtear nan Gleann, 23 (8 January 1842), 309–12, edited and reprinted in Rev. Norman MacLeod, Caraid nan Gàidheal (Glasgow: William MacKenzie, 1867), 338–43.

Image:

The Black Watch at Ticonderoga, 1758

A Strathconon Phlebotomist in the Loudies

The series of scrapbooks from CW537 to CW576, filled with newspaper cuttings from newspapers published across the Highlands and beyond, has been rather neglected by the Carmichael Watson Project over the years. A recent query from Dr Jake King of Ainmean-àite na h-Alba/Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland sent us back to the strongroom shelves to have a second look at what is a wonderful resource. Local newspaper columns at the end of the nineteenth century, buzzing with letters and articles, served as a clearing-house for discussion about all kinds of items connected with Highland literature, lore, and history. The great Gaelic scholars of the time kept a close eye on Highland newspapers for any material of interest, and it looks as if we have in the CW collection examples of the cuttings books of Alexander Macbain, the Rev. Charles M. Robertson, Prof. William J. Watson, and Henry Whyte (‘Fionn’).

We look forward to the digitisation of all newspapers in the British Library collection currently being carried out. When – eventually – these are accessible online, it will allow those of us with an interest in Highland history and culture to investigate and assess a still sorely underused level of literature, an ephemeral and lively medium half-way between manuscripts and printed books. We worry, though, that some newspapers may be lost forever: one grievous loss, for example, appears to be the West Coast edition of the Highland News, the main outlet for Gaelic material in that paper. Only the Inverness edition, fascinating though it is, has been archived for posterity.

Here’s one example out of thousands preserved in the cuttings books: a (very lightly edited) Highland Reaper’s Song, transcribed from CW558, p. 34, a cutting from the Northern Chronicle, 4 March 1885:

THE HIGHLAND REAPER’S SONG

SIR, – Reading to-day the last volume issued of the Life of Thomas Carlyle, I was reminded, by a passage quoted (p. 325) from a letter to his wife, of some fragments of a song – of no great merit, certainly – which I used to hear sung more than sixty years ago by Highland shearers on their return from the ‘Loudies’ (Lothians). Their composition was ascribed to the ‘Bard Conanach.’ I am sure there must be a good many more verses than those which I send you, but I can recall no more – and no great matter! – Yours, &c. OCTOGENARIAN.

Tomnafeille, 24th. Feb. 1885

Tha mi ’n diugh ann an Dunèdin,
’S bha mi ’n dé ann an Dunbàr,
’S bi mi ’maireach an Dunchailion,
’S bi mi ’nearar ann am Blàr.

   So haorăvi ho-ru-nŏ-ŏ,
   So haorăvi ho-ru-naan,
   So haorăvi ho-ro-eile,
   ’S mo rùn fein dhuit gu bhi slàn.

Chaith mi ùin’ aig Port-na-ban-Righ
(’S beag a bh’ agam ’shannt ri tàmh),
Gus an d’ thainig am fear crubach
A chuireadh na siuil ris a bhàt.

…..

’S tha na leabannan cho daor ac’
Gun an t-eudach a bhi slàn;
’S bi na boguis ga mo chaobadh,
Mas ’gabh mi ’s an eudach blàs.
   So haorăvi, &c.

Ach cuiridh mise m’ aghaidh dhachaidh,
’S ann gu tìr nan cas-bheann àrd,
Far am biodh na mnathan fialaidh,
Nach do chleachd ’bhi ’g iarraidh pàigheadh.
   So haorăvi, &c.

Port na Bànrigh is of course Queensferry, while the hungry boguis are none other than (bed)bugs. The reference to Carlyle’s biography is to rather biased observations about Irish and Highland reapers in James Anthony Froude’s Thomas Carlyle: A History of his Life in London (London, 1884), volume i, p. 325. We don’t (yet) know who the Northern Chronicle’s ‘Octogenarian’ correspondent was. Tomnafeille, however, might be Tomnafeil, now anglicised as Markethill, in Fort Augustus – though there is another possible candidate in Markethill near Dunbeath.

Am Bàrd Conanach was the sawyer Donald MacDonald (1780–1832), whose life is described in John Mackenzie (ed.), Sàr Obair nam Bard Gaelach (Glasgow, 1841), pp. 347–51, and in Keith Norman MacDonald (ed.), MacDonald Bards from Mediæval Times (Edinburgh: Norman MacLeod, 1900), pp. 48–9.

In his paper ‘The Gaelic Incantations and Charms of the Hebrides’, published in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xviii (1891–2), pp. 157–8 [reprinted in booklet form as Gaelic Incantations: Charms and Blessings of the Hebrides (Inverness: Northern Counties Newspaper and Publishing Company, 1895), pp. 61–2], William Mackenzie prints a blood staunching charm he had learnt from:

Duncan Campbell, an old Strathconan man, now resident in Beauly. He learnt it from a sister of Donald MacDonald, the Bard Conanach. The Bard, it appears, was celebrated for his Charms and Incantations, and taught the present one to his sister.

In an accompanying footnote, Mackenzie prints the following anecdote:

In local tradition he is represented as having been particularly successful both in letting and in staunching blood. On one occasion, while at the harvest in the Lothians, he lodged with a weaver, who was also a noted phlebotomist. A full-blooded damsel of the district called on the weaver in order that he might let her blood. He tried with all his skill, but the blood would not come. Whereupon the Bard took the damsel in hand, and, taking her by the small of the wrist, squeezed an artery, with the result that the blood squirted in the weaver’s face. The weaver desired the Bard to show him his method. The Bard responded in verse:–

Cha tugainn eolas mo lamh fhein
Dh’fhear bhualadh slinn no chuireadh i;

Lot thu gairdean na nighean dhonn
’S cha ’n fhac thu steall de ’n fhuil aice;

’S an uair a theannaich mi caol a dùirn
Mu ’dha shuil bha ’n fhuil aice.

Obviously, for somebody such as the bard who made his living from sharp blades – and, perhaps, from sharpening blades at the reaping – the skill of staunching blood would be very useful, and maybe rather lucrative as well.

Sources: CW558, p. 34 [Northern Chronicle, 4 March 1885].
Froude, James Anthony. Thomas Carlyle: A History of his Life in London (2 vols, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1884), i, p. 325.
MacDonald, Keith Norman (ed.). MacDonald Bards from Mediaeval Times (Edinburgh: Norman MacLeod, 1900), pp. 48–9.
Mackenzie, John (ed.). Sàr Obair nam Bard Gaelach (Glasgow, 1841), pp. 347–51.
Mackenzie, William. ‘The Gaelic Incantations and Charms of the Hebrides’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xviii (1891–2), pp. 157–8.

Image: F. H. Mole, Highland Reapers (engraving).

Wee Charmers - 1

Over the past week a number of emails have arrived in the Carmichael Watson inbox with the rather alarming heading ‘urine charms’. The reason for the sudden spate of interest (to coin a phrase) is a series of threads on the online discussion group Old-Irish-L investigating three Old Irish charms in the illuminated manuscript known as the Stowe Missal. We thought it might be of interest to trace charms for what probably were similar ailments, as gathered by Alexander Carmichael when he was living in Uist between 1864 and 1882. The following blogs, then, will offer you all you’ll ever need (or probably want) to know about the mysterious world of red water charms.

The primary purpose of these charms is to cure cattle of a disease usually referred to in the islands as bun-dearg. The term is obscure, but if it derives from ‘bùrn dearg’, it is directly related to its English equivalent, ‘red water’. Although nowadays ‘red water disease’ refers to a serious and often potentially lethal ailment caused by the parasite Clostridium hemolyticum in the kidneys, in Carmichael’s late nineteenth-century Hebridean world the term would have been applied to any potentially lethal disease in which one of the principal symptoms was red urine. In a society where wealth was calculated by the numbers of cows owned, the loss of a single beast could have catastrophic effects, especially on poorer households. Here is Alexander Carmichael’s folk explanation of the bun-dearg in his ‘vocabulary notes’ at the end of the second volume of Carmina Gadelica:

Bun-dearg, red swelling; ‘burn dearg,’  red water; ‘galar dearg,’ red disease; ‘earna dhearg,’ ‘ earnach dhearg,’ red murrain; ‘earna dhubh,’ ‘earnach dhubh,’ black murrain. The red and the black murrain are two stages of this disease, which is produced by several causes. On the mainland it is generally caused by the cattle eating the young leaves of shrubs and trees, especially the bog myrtle, the alder, and the birch, and by drinking water impregnated with them. In the Isles the disease is caused chiefly by eating the sundew (drosera rotundofolia). Wherever sundew prevails red pleura is common. A place in South Uist is known as ‘Bogach na fala,’ marsh of blood, from the prevalence of sundew and its deadly effects. (CG ii, 238)

We’ll return to this account later on.

The first of Carmichael’s red water charms was gathered from Ann MacIsaac née Maclellan (c. 1808–1883), Ceann Langabhat, an t-Ìochdar, South Uist. Ann was the daughter of John Maclellan, farmer in Bòrnais, and his wife Christian Macmillan; she was probably from the same stock as the celebrated storyteller Angus MacLellan (1879–1949) from Loch Aoineort. In 1847 Ann married Hector MacIsaac, one of the principal seanchaidhean or storytellers in South Uist. Hector’s stories were first recorded by Hector Maclean in 1859 as part of John Francis Campbell’s Popular Tales of the West Highlands project. Alexander Carmichael clearly hit it off with the couple; perhaps they even regarded the young bachelor as the son they never had.

As we shall see in a later blog, Ann MacIsaac may have been the first person from whom Alexander Carmichael recorded charms and incantations, the genre with which he would go on to make his reputation in the first two volumes of Carmina Gadelica, published in 1900. Among the six charms she apparently gave to him on 16 October 1867 was Eòlas a’ Bhun-deirg, the Red Water Charm. Here is his later transcription:

Muir mor eas ruadh,

Ruith eir d’ fhual

Stad eir d’ fhuil.

Great sea, red cascade,

May your urine flow,

May your blood stop.

Note: this is thrice repeated over the sick animal afflicted with ‘Red water’. [CW87 fo.18^v]

Liquid imagery of sea, river, and waterfall, together with commands to flow or stop, are probably universal in all European charms concerning blood and urine, whether they’re intended against red water or for staunching wounds.

There was, however, one major problem with Ann MacIsaac's charm for Alexander Carmichael when he was compiling and creating Carmina Gadelica. It was far too short to be printed as a stand-alone item. In a subsequent blog we shall take a look at what might have been his solution. 

A faculty she would give worlds to be without

On the 27 May 1869 Alexander Carmichael visited, possibly for the first time, a woman with a remarkable store of the tradition of her native Uist: Penelope MacLellan née MacDonald (c. 1795–1873), known as Bean Ormacleit or ‘the wife of Ormacleit’, ‘Ormacleit’ here referring to her husband the tenant farmer John Maclellan. Carmichael would later describe her in Carmina Gadelica as ‘a lady of great beauty, excellence, historical knowledge, and good sense.’ According to reminiscences he wrote down many years later, Penelope was endowed with a another, rather less welcome ability:

She had been head dairymaid at Ormacleit for ten or twelve years where she had acquired much knowledge of cattle: cattle diseases, cattle ailments, cattle cures, cattle charms and cattle spells of many kinds. It was interesting to hear the woman describing these ailments and their symptoms their cures and their charms – the shrewd observations and the natural causes the skilful cures and the occult beliefs blending and mingling shading into one another like the tints of the rainbow.
     Penelope Macdonald is endowed with the faculty of the taibhse manadh – second sight or premonition. She has inherited this faculty from her paternal people who possessed the power for more generations than she could count. She says that the gift is unsolicited and undesired and that she would willingly dispense with it were she able. The visions come to her at any moment day or night when least expected and least convenient. These visions are mostly about the dead and the dying the dead being carried to their graves by the living sometimes those nearest and dearest to herself being nearest concerned. She judges of these events from the nearness of the persons to the ‘giùlan – carrying’. She sees bas cinn aghart agus bas cinn uisge – death head pillow and death head water – that is death by dying in bed and death by dying in water. She sees daoine saoghal nam marbh agus daoine saoghal nam beo a measg a cheile – an t-athair marbh agus am mac beo – an nighean beo agus am mathair marbh ann an cuideachd a cheile agus a siubhail seachad air a cheile gun suil gun diu aca do chach a cheile nas mo na bhitheadh aig coigirich an t-saoghail a bhos, agus iomadh rud eile a bhuineas dha’n t-saoghal thall. People of the world of the dead and people of the world of the living – people of the thither world and people of the hither world among one another – the dead father and the living son the living daughter and the dead mother in the society and in the company of one another and walking past one another without looking without heeding one another no more than were they strangers in the world here – and many other things that belong to the world beyond.
     The woman says that she often sees visions but she seldom speaks of them seldom even alludes to them. These visions trouble her much but she keeps her troubles to herself – to speak of them would only cause untimely sorrow and sorrow black sorrow comes betimes to all.
     Whatever the faculty may be there is no reason to doubt the sincere belief of this woman in her own faculty – a faculty which she says she would give worlds to be without. [CW MS 493 fos.141–2]

This piece was written as an introduction to a calving charm from Bean Ormacleit – Bò a’ breith – apparently no longer extant.

Penelope lived beside the ruins of the old mansion house of Ailean Dearg, the Clan Ranald chief who had fallen at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715.

She had the happiness, a few years before she died, of handing to her chief and relative, Admiral Sir Reginald Macdonald of Clanranald, some jewellery that had been found in the ruins of the castle. The jewellery in all probability had been the property of Penelope Mackenzie, the lady of gallant Clanranald of the ’15, and for whom Penelope Macdonald had been named. [CG ii, 27]

One of her ancestors was the famous Uist hero Dòmhnall mac Iain ’ic Sheumais under whose leadership the MacDonalds destroyed a MacLeod raiding party at the Battle of Càirinis in 1601.

As an opening to the recording session on 27 May 1869, Bean Ormacleit narrated the exploits of her famous ancestor. She then gave Carmichael several songs and more local historical traditions, before rounding off their céilidh, as has happened in many other céilidhs before or since, with a supernatural ghost story. At a further meeting, on 12 April 1870, she gave him much valuable information – some of it apparently not entirely accurate – about the family of the jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald. Some time in April or May 1877, after recording more information about Flora, Carmichael mentions Penelope’s grandfather:

Uistean Ban Chillepheadair came fr[om] N[orth] Uist – His son Donald lived at Dallbrug & was the father of the late Bean Ormacleit (Mrs Maclellan) [CW MS 108 fo.18v]

Ùisdean Bàn Chille Pheadair was the Hugh MacDonald who in August 1800 gave a fascinating overview of the history of the islands to the Committee of the Highland Society of London set up to enquire into the authenticity or otherwise of James Macpherson’s Ossianic epics.

References:

CW MS 108 fo.18v.

CW MS 493 fos.141–3.

Carmina Gadelica ii, 27.

Henry Mackenzie (ed.), Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland appointed to enquire into the Nature and Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian (Edinburgh, 1805), 38–44.

Image:

Thanks to Donald MacIsaac for kindly giving permission to use his photograph of Ormacleit Castle and Farmhouse.

A Charm for a Cataract

In one of his very last fieldwork notebooks that are known to survive, Alexander Carmichael was still noting down charms, a genre that is rightly famous for and also one that had fascinated him since he began to collect them in earnest around thirty years previously. One such example, Eòlas a’ Ghulmain (‘Cataract Charm’) was taken down, on 8 September 1909, from the recitation of Isabell[a] Chisholm née MacKenzie (c. 1845–1932) from Melvaig in Ross and Cromarty:

The Gulmum grows like
a scale of herring.
An t-Eolas Gulmain
I take up water draw[n] the
fiar over the eye thee times
after dipping in the water
uisg as a chaochain stream
let I place this in a bottle
and dip the grass in it and
then draw the grass over the
eyeball three times


A white Glob[e] comes upon the
eye.

Carmichael also provides a text along with a translation of the charm said to have been used while the above process was being conducted:

Togam boiseag burn
An ainm nùmh Athar,
An ainm nùmh Mic,
An ainn nùmh Sprioraid,
An ainm nùmh Tiùra
Shuthain chùmha ghlic.


Cinnteach gun dean rium
An rud is dùth domh iarraidh,
An rud ta riair an ruin,
An rud ta dèanamh pianaidh,
An rud is fiù a dhèanamh
Dh’an Triana chùmha cheart.


I am lifting a palmful of water
In the holy name of Father,
In the holy name of Son,
In the holy name of Spirit,
In the holy name of the Three
Everlasting, kindly, wise.

Certain that They will do to me
The thing that it becomes me to ask,
The thing that accords with Their mind,
The thing that is causing pain,
The thing that is worthy to de done
Of the Trinity kindly and just:


References:
CW117, fol. 21v.
Carmina Gadelica iv, pp. 223–25.
Image: Cataract