Neither Reads nor Writes

Last month we looked at what we know of the life of Malcolm MacRae, the shepherd from Abhainn Suidhe in Harris, one of the men from whom Carmichael wrote down a version of the famous – and famously long – tale Sgeulachd Chois Ó Céin, the Healing of O’Kane’s Leg. The other seanchaidh from whom Carmichael recorded the story is rather better documented – and this blog about him is therefore rather longer than usual!

Peter or Patrick Smith, crofter, was born in South Uist around 1796; his full patronymic was Pàdra mac Aonghais ’ic Dhòmhnaill ’ic Phàdraig. Patrick’s parents were Angus Smith, crofter, and Christina née Currie, descended from the learned MacMhuirich bardic family. It’s likely that much of Patrick’s rich store of tales was derived from his mother’s side of the family. Patrick Smith married Marion Campbell (b. c. 1796). Between 1829 and 1845 they are recorded as having had nine children. Marion had presumably died by the 1851 census, when Patrick is recorded as living with six of their children: John, Christina or Christy, Angus, Mary, and Marion.

By the time the Islay schoolteacher Hector Maclean arrived in South Uist on his first collecting expedition on behalf of John Francis Campbell at the end of July 1859, Patrick Smith, living on a four-acre croft in Leth Meadhanach, was known as one of the finest storytellers in the island: his name heads the list of men and women with lore which Maclean sent Campbell the following February: ‘a Catholic: neither reads nor writes’. Maclean recorded from him at least three stories, Mac a’ Bhreabadair, Mac an t-Seòladair and Am Marsanta a Chuir an t-Sùil à Mac an Duine Eile. On 3 September 1859, John Francis Campbell himself visited Smith. He was rather astonished by the story he was told: Am Marsanta…, the same tale Patrick Smith had recited to Maclean a few weeks earlier. This illiterate crofter from the Outer Hebrides had just recited for him a story which was clearly related to one in the Arabian Nights! On 17 September 1860 Hector Maclean once more visited Patrick Smith, recording from him the Fenian story A’ Mhuileartach, the Fenian lay Laoidh Oscair, and probably also the tale Macabh Mòr mac Rìgh na Sorcha.

Later in life, Carmichael wrote about Patrick Smith that, along with Campbell and Maclean, he ‘took down many pieces of prose and of poetry from him’. It’s rather striking, however, that the gauger doesn’t appear to have visited Smith until he had been more than four years in Uist. Perhaps he thought that Maclean had recorded the seanchaidh’s best stories already; more likely, Patrick Smith’s house in Leth Meadhanach, towards the southern end of South Uist, was somewhat out of the way for the exciseman as he travelled up and down the Long Island.

As far as we can see from his notebooks, Carmichael first visited Smith on 24 April 1869, when he was collecting Fenian ballads for the Rev. Archibald Clerk’s new edition of Macpherson’s ‘Ossianic’ epics. That day Smith recited for his visitor Laoidh na h-Inghinne and Laoidh Oscair. He had heard the first lay:

42 years ago [1827] from Rua'raidh mor Mac-a-Phiocair from Airi-mhic-rury North Uist. Mac-a-Phiocair lived at Leth mheadhonach for a year then for two years at Baoghastal whence he went to Cape Breton. He had much old lore.

Either narrator or transcriber must have made a mistake here: the most likely candidate is the bard, piper, and fiddler Niall Ruadh Mór MacVicar (c. 1779–c. 1861), who arrived in Cape Breton in October 1829. The second lay, which Smith had already recited for Hector Maclean nine years previously, he ascribed – possibly in error again – to a fellow villager Niall Ruadh MacDonald, ‘an old man of 75 who died 20 years ago’.

At the end of the version of Sgeul Chois Ó Céin which he wrote down from Malcolm MacRae in North Harris, Carmichael later scribbled a piece of information as a memo:

A man at Boisdale is said to have this tale. He was building the policeman’s house at Loch Maddy.

It’s likely that this man was none other than Patrick Smith. On 25 March 1871, in what must have been a lengthy recording session in Smith’s own house, Carmichael wrote down a twenty-page version of Sgeul Chois Ó Céin, which the seanchaidh had heard from a Canna man some forty years previously. There then follows a seventeen-page romance, Sgeulachd Gas Gruaige, which Smith had heard ‘from an old woman’ fifty years beforehand. He ended the céilidh, it seems, by giving Carmichael several historical anecdotes, probably for a paper the gauger was then preparing for his friend the surveyor Captain Frederick Thomas about the brochs and castles of the Outer Hebrides. It was maybe after Carmichael returned home that night that he scribbled another note at the end of Malcolm MacRae’s version of Sgeul Chois Ó Céin, describing Smith as a ‘fine old sgialaiche’.

Later that year another folklorist visited Patrick Smith. In autumn 1871 John Francis Campbell embarked on a strenuous tour around storytellers in the Hebrides, probably his way of recuperating from a distressing few months reporting on the Paris Commune that spring. On 27 September Campbell met Smith ‘on a horse going for peats’ and wrote down several Ossianic items from him, including the story of Diarmuid and the accompanying lay. Smith bluntly informed Iain Òg Ile: ‘How altered you are since I saw you ten years ago… Then you were a thin lad now you are thick in the flesh & fat and the head is turning hoary.’ Campbell notes in his journal that ‘[h]e said he could recite very many stories. Those who were there said [he could recite] five or six every winter’s night, he could not tell how many he knew, he said he could not remember [the names of] them all or count them, but when he began, others came into his mind. I feel quite sure that the stories of that man’s mind would fill a large volume.’

Alexander Carmichael, however, would record no more from Patrick Smith. It looks as if ever-increasing family and domestic commitments meant that he was unable to spend as much time touring and writing down long stories as he had when he first arrived in Uist. On 18 November 1877 Patrick Smith died of ‘natural decay’. In Carmina Gadelica Carmichael would pay tribute to him as ‘[a] famous story-teller and ballad-reciter with whom died much old lore’, ‘rich in literary matter of great and varied interest and excellence. … During the winter nights his house used to be filled with young and old listening to stories and poems rehearsed in simple idiomatic Gaelic.’

Alexander Carmichael also recorded material from Smith’s daughter Mary Mackintosh (c. 1828–83), Gearraidh na Mòine, wife of the tailor Donald Mackintosh and ‘a woman of great natural courtesy and intelligence’; as well as from his son John (c. 1827–1918) who ‘inherited some of his father’s lore but none of his diction.’ Carmichael’s friend George Henderson also recorded from John Smith, taking down the mock-heroic lay Laoidh an Amadain Mhóir, and a version of the Deirdre story, Triùir Chlann Uiseanais.

References:
CW MSS 7, fos.7–11, 28; 105 fo.10; 119 fos.24–43; 244 fo.146; 362 fos.191–2; 385 fo.2.
National Library of Scotland Adv. MSS 50.1.7 fo.33; 50.1.10 fos.270–5, 415–22, 423–38; 50.1.12 fo.65; 50.1.13 fos.415–16; 50.1.14 fos.265v, 331–2, 357; 50.2.1 fo.224; 50.2.4 fos.64v, 66–71, 76v; fos.50.7.6(xix).
Glasgow University MSS Gen.1090(11)(2); Gen.1090(27), fos.50–4.

Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (Edinburgh, 6 vols, 1900–71), ii, 345n.5; iii, 230–1.
John Francis Campbell (ed.), Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 4 vols,1860–2), i, xxx, xxxiii, 156; iii, 328, 329, 400, 450; iv, 430 [at least nos.337–41], 438, 440, 450.
John G. McKay (ed.), More West Highland Tales (Edinburgh: Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society, 2 vols, 1940–60), i, 394–409; ii, 120–50.

For information about Niall Ruadh Mór MacVicar, see http://web.ncf.ca/as926/ffff.html and http://web.ncf.ca/as926/niall.html; also Bill Lawson, North Uist in History and Legend (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2004), 204–6. 

Image:
Cille Pheadair agus an Leth Meadhanach, le Dougie Beck

A Long Time Healing

During the past few weeks the Carmichael Watson Project has begun to compile capsule biographies of the people recorded by Alexander Carmichael. These biographies represent part of a wider indexing process using the Encoded Archival Context (EAC) standard, in order to record, preserve, systematise, and make available information about the creators of the archival materials in Carmichael’s collection. We are, apparently, the first university-based project in Britain to employ EAC. Over the next few months we intend to publish various blogs based upon the life-stories of the many different people Carmichael met during his career as folklore collector.

Sgeulachd Chois’ Ó Céin, or the Story of the Healing of O’Kane’s Leg, was a story celebrated throughout the Gàidhealtachd for its length and complexity. The eponymous anti-hero of this portmanteau tale had his leg broken in 24 places, and each break could only be healed by a story being told. Such a starting point offered the skilled storyteller an opportunity to relate and fuse together a whole series of well-known romances over several nights. We have several tellings of the tale of various lengths, but by far the most famous recording is the sustained 30,000-word, 142-page narration of Lachlan MacNeill, a shoemaker from Islay then living in Paisley, written down on 22 March 1871 by Hector MacLean with John Francis Campbell.

Alexander Carmichael would have been well aware of the tale’s existence: indeed, it became something of a holy grail for those involved in John Francis Campbell’s collecting project which was to come to fruition in the four volumes of Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 1860–2). The minister of Lismore, the Rev. Donald MacNicol, had written of Gaelic tales in his Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Hebrides (London: T. Cadell, 1779):

One of those, in particular, is long enough to furnish subject of amusement for several nights running. It is called Scialachd Choise Ce, or Cian O Cathan’s Tale; and though Scialachies, or tellers of tales by profession, are not now retained by our great families, as formerly, there are many still living, who can repeat it from end to end, very accurately. [p. 322]

It must have been while Carmichael was researching lore in Lochalsh and Kintail while employed as a gauger in Carbost, Skye, at the beginning of the 1860s, that he first heard of a man who was able to recite Sgeulachd Chois’ Ó Céin. The problem was, the seanchaidh was now working as a shepherd in the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.

Malcolm MacRae [Calum MacRath] was born around 1805, son of Murdo MacRae, crofter, and Barbara, née MacRae. By the 1860s he was employed as a shepherd at Abhainn Suidhe, North Harris under Alexander MacRae from Kintail. The latter, known as Fear Hùisinis from his house at Caolas Stiatar, was one of the biggest farmers in the Outer Hebrides at the time. Alexander MacRae had taken a number of fellow Tàilich or Kintail people over to Harris to work for him. Malcolm, a fellow MacRae, was probably among them.

In a letter to John Francis Campbell written on 18 October 1861 [NLS Adv. 50.2.1 fo.360], Carmichael tells how he had tried to meet Malcolm MacRae to record ‘Sgeul na Coise Cein’, probably the previous month, but all in vain: the weather was so bad he had to wait a whole week then leave Harris without seeing him. The implication is, of course, that MacRae was busy working with the sheep and lambs the entire time.

Carmichael did not give up. Barely six months after he had taken up his post with the excise in the Outer Hebrides, he returned to Harris. On the evening of Wednesday 5 July 1865 he recorded Malcolm MacRae telling ‘Sgeul Chois O Céin’. Carmichael clearly had to find MacRae at his work: he notes as an adjunct to the story:

Sgriobhte ri taobh tomain na grobain anns Bheinne-tuath anns na h-Earradh

‘Written beside a little hillock or knoll in Beinn a Tuath in Harris’: probably Mullach or Mulla fo Thuath in North Harris is the mountain he meant. It’s interesting that Carmichael took a new notebook with him to record MacRae’s story, probably to give himself as much space as possible to write down the great Sgeulachd Chois Ó Céin. In actual fact, MacRae’s version was only a truncated episode of barely 2,400 words: whether because this was all the seanchaidh knew, or because the circumstances weren’t favourable for a longer rendition, we cannot tell. Carmichael would record another, relatively short, version of the tale from the ‘fine old sgialaiche’ Patrick Smith of Leth-mheadhanach, South Uist, on 25 March 1871.

Malcolm MacRae died barely a year later, suddenly on 26 May 1866 at Ardhasaig, Isle of Harris. In a note penned over the story later, Carmichael writes that: ‘He was after taking some bread and milk when he leant back in his chair and expired’. The death certificate states ‘Disease of the Heart’. Malcolm MacRae was married to Jessie MacRae: maybe their marriage is that recorded in the parish of Strath, Skye, on 13 March 1838, between Malcolm MacRae, Dornie, and Janet MacRae, Kyleakin. They had at least one son, Alexander, who recorded his father’s death. Carmichael describes Malcolm MacRae as ‘an honest decent man’.

References:

CW MS 105 fos.1–10; also MS 119 fos.23–33.

National Library of Scotland, Adv. MSS 50.1.10 fos.81–2; 50.1.13, fo.442; 50.2.2 fos.55, 192; 50.2.3

Craig, K. C. (ed.). Leigheas Cas Ó Céin (Stirling: for the editor, 1950).

Rev. John Gregorson Campbell (ed.). ‘Sgeulachd Casa Cein – The Healing of Keyn’s Foot’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xiv (1887–8), 78–100.

Henderson, Rev. George (ed.). ‘Sgeulachd Cois’ O’ Cein’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xxv (1901–3), 179–265.

MacInnes, Rev. Duncan (ed.). ‘Coise Céin: Koisha Kayn, or Kian’s Leg’, Folk and Hero Tales (London: David Nutt, Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, Argyllshire Series ii, 1890), 206–77.

Mackay, John G. (ed.). More West Highland Tales (Edinburgh and London: Oliver & Boyd, 1940), 68–73.

Nutt, Alfred, ‘The Campbell of Islay MSS. at the Advocate’s Library, Edinburgh’, Folk-Lore, i(3) (Sep., 1890), 373–7.

Image:
Thanks to Dr Kate Davies, at needled.wordpress.com, for her picture of the Harris summits.