Two Anecdotes About Bonnie Prince Charlie

From whom Alexander Carmichael collected these two short anecdotes about Bonnie Prince Charlie was not noted down by him at the time. They both refer to when the Prince was a fugitive on the lam in South Uist. It would seem likely, then, that Carmichael’s source was a Uist tradition bearer. Here, more than many other parts of the Highlands and Islands at that time, was a safe haven for the Prince and his comrades: the island was thoroughly Jacobite, mainly Roman Catholic, and fairly isolated. The greatest risk was taking a boat to the island because it was then that he would have been most exposed and liable to be undone. Nonetheless, this was not the first time that the Prince had to reply upon the loyalty and expertise of Hebridean mariners and so he managed to escape unscathed journeying to and fro from the Outer Hebrides. The first of these anecdotes reflects the loyalty and affection shown to the Prince by the South Uist people. As the man in question – Eachann mac Mhurchaidh ’icilleMhoire, who may have been a Morrison, belonging to Drimisdale – managed to steer the search party in the opposite direction from where the Prince was hiding. The second anecdote, involving Flora MacDonald, is rather amusing but reflects the concern showed by his Highland heroine to make sure that he looked the part when he was, presumably, dressed as Betty Burke.

The Prince drank the milk of her
black sheep from a girl milking sheep
Brai[gh] Bhornish. The P[rince] was com[in]g
from Bornish. Mary Nighean
mhic neill

A man met party of red sold[iers]
in search of Prince. They asked him
abo[u]t the P[rince]. He said had just parted
with him. Take us to him & we will give
a reward. I will. He took them in con[trary]
dir[ection] for they were near P[rince] not ¼ mile
& took them up Driomor & all fell
away but one when near farthest
part mount[ain] this other asked bheil
sinn fad uai[th] nis. Sin fad an
d fhag mis a mhic na bitse & he
struck him in the ear & felled him
& left him there! & took himself off
Eachan mac Mhurchai[dh]
ic Ille Mhoire. Dreumsdale.


Flora struck P[rince] with towel because
he did not wash milk boyns
right when soild[er]s pass[in]g. This
was sorest blow he ever got he said.


References:
CW1, fos. 5–6.
Linklater, Eric, The Prince in the Heather (London, 1965).
Image: Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1722–1788) by Antonio David.

Cures for Black Warts

Curious folk cures were also one of the genres which greatly interested Alexander Carmichael. The following cure for black warts or foinneachan dubha was probably noted down from Archibald Currie (1821–1896), a shoemaker who was aged around 46 at the time, and who belonged to Iochdar, South Uist, on 28 October 1872:

Foineachun du[bha] old wom[an]
at Bornish had warts. She set
to get straws with 9 uilt on
each sop & 81 for each wart.
Then to dig a pit & put 81 of these
in each for each wart. They were
to be left in the pits till they crione[adh]
& the warts were gone.

Elsewhere in Carmina Gadelica, Carmichael adds the following, presumably stemming from the same source:

A woman of Upper Bornish, who had many warts on hands and feet, procured with time and trouble ‘naoi naoi glùinean’, nine nine knees, i.e. nine stalks with nine joints on each stem. These she buried in the ground, and as the knots of the straws decayed, the warts disappeared.

Mar a chrìon a sìos na stràilleanan,

Chrìon gu bràth na foinneachan.

As withered down the straws,

Withered till doom the warts.

Other perhaps more scientific cures are then suggested by way of rubbing dry dust upon a wart, or to apply moist rust to it. Another method was to apply a poultice of broad-leaved tangle, a type of seaweed, to the wart which may result in getting rid of it due to the beneficial effect of the constituent iodine. Perhaps the most unlikely cures that were said to work are between these two methods: either to go to a cemetery and to ‘dip the wart in water lying on a gravestone’ or to rub ‘the wart against the clothes of one who has committed fornication.’

References:
CW 106/102.
Carmina Gadelica ii, p. 334.
Carmina Gadelica iv, p. 221.
Image: Barley Straw.