Museum Ethnographers Group Conference 2012

The Museum Ethnographers Group was established in 1975 and their aim is to promote an understanding of museum ethnography. Membership is not restricted to museum curators; anyone with an interest in ethnography can join and be kept up-to-date via the newsletter, twitter and website.

Last week the MEG’s annual conference was held in the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh. This two day affair was an exciting opportunity for the team to meet up with museum folk from all over the UK and gain insight into the world of museums. The location itself was ideal (just a stone’s throw from the library!) with NMS looking inspiring after the refurbishment.

This year’s theme was 'Multiple Dialogues: interpreting ethnographic collections in the 21st century' which was of particular interest to us and Carmichael’s material collection. It was fascinating to hear the speakers and learn of the various methods for presenting and interpreting collections from all over the world. A speaker from Zeeuws Museum in the Netherlands, Caroline van Santen, spoke about a Blackfoot exhibit and how she worked closely with Clifford Crane, a Blackfoot Indian, in order to gain a greater understanding of the objects in the collection. Catherine Moore from the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent spoke about how she worked with the Angolan community in preparation for a forthcoming exhibit ‘TALA! - Visions of Angola’.

Another interpretation of the theme was the museums’ youth programs. A number of speakers discussed their thriving programs and upcoming exhibits as chosen by the young curators (14-24 years old). Two of these young curators co-presented a talk about their exhibit entitled ‘The Curious Case of the …’ a play on the Victorian cabinet of curiosities. These programs allow them to organise the exhibit from choosing the objects, researching the selected objects, labeling, presenting and designing the leaflets. These opportunities only made me wish I was ten years younger!

The conference was a great event and it offered us a new perspective on Carmichael’s collection housed at both the West Highland Museum and the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh.

A brooch from the Carmichael Collection, West Highland Museum

Links
MEG
West Highland Museum
NMS

A Trip to the Well

A common topic discussed in folklore from all over the world is the well as a sacred site. The tradition of pilgrimage to wells is still practised although not as widespread as it was in the past. In 1581 the practice was actively frowned upon in Scotland and the result was an Act of Parliament ‘against passing in pilgrimage to chapels, wells and crosses, and the superstitious observing of diverse other popish rights’. This Act set out to put the public on the straight and narrow as pilgrimages were thought to be misguided beliefs rather than evil practices. In later years the Church essentially absorbed some of the practices into their doctrine.

The process of the pilgrimage was quite a rigorous procedure for those who were desperate for results. The following is a list of key elements that were adhered to in Scotland:

• The trip to the well was done at a very specific time whether a time of day or a day of the year. The day of year coincided with the patron saint of the well, for example, pilgrimages in honour of Moluag take place on 25th June. The most popular times of day for the pilgrimages were sunrise and sunset.

• The ritual of the pilgrimage required a circumambulation deisil (clockwise) around the sacred site; this was commonly repeated three times in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and it was believed to enclose the sacred space.

• Silence was observed with the exception of prayers or incantations at the well.

• Tokens such as pins, coins, shells, and buttons were left at the well as a sacrifice. There are records of more substantial sacrifices being made for example Hector Mackenzie was recorded in the presbytery of Dingwall 1678 for sacrificing a bull on Inis Maree to Saint Maelrubha hoping to cure his wife.

• At clootie wells a piece of cloth from the patient’s clothes was taken and pinned to a nearby tree or bush. It was believed that the disease would be transferred from the patient to the cloth.

• For those who were unable to travel water would be taken from the well and conveyed to them. It was very important that neither water nor container touched the ground on this journey and the water was called uisge sèimh. Carmichael explains why it is so called in Carmina Gadelica iv: “The person who draws the water must observe silence from the time of setting out to the time of returning from the well, whence the name ‘uisge sèimh”. In the notebooks Carmichael notes that water was taken from Tobar Chriosd, Vatersay for this purpose.

For a more detailed account see Aude Le Borgne's Clootie wells and water-kelpies: an ethnological approach to the fresh water traditions of sacred wells and supernatural horses in Scotland (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh: 2002).

In the next blog entry we will examine more unusual practices associated with wells and saints.

References
Beith, Mary Healing Threads: Traditional Medicines of the Highlands and Islands (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1995)
Carmichael, Alexander Carmina Gadelica, vol. IV (Edinburgh, 1941) p. 132.
CW107/11 fo. 21
Le Borgne, Aude. Clootie wells and water-kelpies: an ethnological approach to the fresh water traditions of sacred wells and supernatural horses in Scotland (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh: 2002)
http://rps.ac.uk/

Fort William Part II

Our home away from home!

Last Saturday the team headed up to Fort William for our second photographic venture at the West Highland Museum. The Museum in now open to the public 10:00 – 16:00 except Sundays (open to 17:00 as of April) and is well worth a visit. Keep an eye out for the Carmichael Collection reference number, WHM 1992 13, if you do visit!

 Domhnall Uilleam sorting out the coins.

We were ensconced by 8:30 on Sunday morning because, luckily, everyone remembered that the clocks went forward! Firstly Carsten Flieger, our photographer, was keen to finish up the bronze brooches and then move swifly on to the coins. And there were plenty of them, especially Spanish coins which were sent to Carmichael by his son who lived in Spain.

Once the coins were photographed there was quite a selection left including an oil lamp with man’s head, sheep’s jawbone, Egyptian figure, purses and the whorls. We had previously photographed the whorls as they were tied together on twine by Carmichael and had a handwritten label attached pertaining to how and where he came across them. The team thought the whorls deserved closer inspection and Carsten photographed them according to size and stone.

 Carsten busy at work.

All the photography is completed for the time being and we have over 500 images ready to be processed. It will be a busy couple of months for the team but quite exciting. As the last couple of blog entries have discussed, there are references to the objects in the notebooks and it is great discovering the provenance of these objects.

Do not disturb!

The only downside to the trip was that the weather was so fantastic and we were stuck indoors!

Again the team would like to thank Sally Archibald for her patience and enthusiasm as well as the WHM manager Colleen Foggo.

A Powder Horn and a Red Pebble from Coll

A great thing about the Carmichael Watson Collection is that you can never quite be sure what will turn up next. Here’s a transcription of CW503 fos.143–5, a short piece written by Carmichael, probably in the 1880s or 1890s, about two objects connected with the Macleans of Coll, more specifically with Donald Maclean, ‘Young Coll’, the son and heir of Hugh, thirteenth laird of Coll, who was drowned in the Sound of Ulva on Sunday 25 September 1774. Maclean had won a name for himself far beyond the Highlands for having taken Dr Samuel Johnson and James Boswell under his wing during their tour to the Hebrides, between 23 September and 17 October 1773.

We are still trying to locate the Macleans’ red quartz pebble, but the powder horn has already been the subject of a blog just a few months ago. Carmichael’s essay turns our previous conclusions on their head! The powder horn is given what appears to be a fairly trustworthy provenance, suggesting that it wasn’t just described as being from that island because there happened to be a stray mention of a Coll powder horn in a waulking song.

The donor of the red quartz pebble was Mary MacInnes (c. 1816–1903), Taigh a’ Ghearraidh, North Uist, the daughter of Angus MacInnes, cottar, and Ann née MacDonald. She gave Carmichael Fenian material as well – the tale A’ Bhruighin Chaorainn (CW104/17 [fos.39–40v]), and probably a version of Laoidh Fhraoich (CW104/18 [fos.40v–42]) – on 3 April 1866. We aren’t told what her service was to the member of the Macleans of Coll, though it’s interesting that she appears as a ‘nurse or domestic servant’ in the household of Donald MacAulay, innkeeper at Taigh a’ Ghearraidh, in the 1871 census, and as a ‘fever nurse’ in the 1891 census.

We don’t know – yet, at least – who the anonymous woman from Smearcleit, South Uist, who donated the powder horn might have been. Interestingly enough, the one informant we have record of in Carmichael’s papers from that township was also a MacInnes (though surely of a quite different family), Angus MacInnes (c. 1798–1871), son of John MacInnes, crofter, and Ann née Steele.

We don’t know why Alexander Carmichael compiled so many short essays like this one. They may have been written as brief and hitherto unlocated articles for periodicals or newspapers. On the other hand, they may have been put together as ‘show and tell’ talks for local Highland societies in the Lowlands, or even for Carmichael’s own friends and acquaintances.

                                                     [later hand: Clach bheag nan tursanan]

                                                                                            Various [later hand: Frìth]

 The writer has a small pebble of red quartz
that was used in making the frith and other forms
of occult sciences. It is called Clach Bheag
nan tursanan – the little stone of the quests.
   The pebble belonged to the Macleans of Coll
by whom it was much prized and sacredly kept.
It came down to them through remote antiquity.
I got the stone from Mary Macinnes, cottar,
Taigh-a-ghearruidh, North Uist. She got it from
a member of the Coll family to whom she
had been of great service in her day.
   This pebble of red quartz had been used
in the frith in discovering the body of Donald
Maclean of Coll when he was drowned in
the sound of Ulva. Donald Maclean
was engaged to one of the two daughters of
Sir Hector Maclean of Innis Choinnich. He
was on his way to Innis Choinnich and along
with him several friends among them an
English gentleman. Among others in the boat
was [blank] Maclean of [blank]
who quarrelled with Donald Maclean
over Sir Hector’s daughters. The much
overladen boat was upset and sank beneath
their feet only one man escaping. He climbed
up the mast the top of which was above water,
Maclean of Lochbuie demanded the man
to come down and give place to his better.
Bha thusa bhos mo chionns an de agus
tha mis os do chionns an diugh, ars an duine.
Bha thu fada gu leoir os mo chionn anns
an t-saoghal seo. Bithidh sinn cothram [del: anns
an ath] [addition above: ’s an] shaoghal [addition: thall]
   The only man saved was [blank
                     ] He lived till a good old age
but he was wisely reticent over the drowning
but indicated that there had been foul play
in the boat.
   The death of Donald Maclean of Coll
made a great sensation all over the [del: whole]
British Isles to whom he was known and
endeared through Dr. Johnson and Boswell.
He greatly endeared himself to all who knew
him and very specially so to his own people of Coll.
   The writer has also the pow[d]er horn that
belonged to Donald Maclean. It was found
upon his body. It was taken possession
of by a man from South Uist living in Coll.
The man brought the horn to Uist and
I got it from his great grand daughter at
Smearcleit South Uist.
   The pow[d]erhorn is now plain the silver
mounting having been taken off. The initials
of Donald Maclean are on the side of the horn
                     A. Carmichael

References:
CW503 fos.143–5.

Image:
Donald Maclean's powder horn.

Prince Charlie's Creepy Stool

Just yesterday as I was searching the collection for seabean references I happened upon a description of the Creepy Stool that is housed in the West Highland Museum. This was very interesting as we photographed the stool on our last trip to the museum.

The writer possesses a small stool on which Prince Charlie sat the night Flora MacDonald took him across from Uist to Skye. The stool is simply a tree root on three legs and is like a [above: bread] toaster [deleted: slightly more curved]. It was known in the family from whom it was obtained [later addition: and to whose ancestors it belonged when used by the Prince] as Far chrann a Phrionnsa the [above: food] toaster of the Prince furm a Phrionnsa the form of the Prince and Stol a Phrionnsa the stool of the Prince.

CW228 is an article about The Prince Charlie Stool and gives an account of how Carmichael came into possession of it. He received it from Rachel MacDonald, Bororay, North Uist whose mother and mother’s mother passed on the stool. On a visit to the island Carmichael noted that the history of the stool was well known and that the history was ‘clear and distinct’. He was eager to meet the owner and see the stool and on meeting her he asked her for the stool! Initially she was not eager to part with it while she was alive but some years later she travelled to meet Carmichael at Lochmaddy in order to give him the stool. Alexander placed five shillings in her hand ‘to buy some small gift with it before she went back to her island home’ but Rachel refused to accept the money. She said it took away from the pleasure she had in gifting the ‘far-chrann’ to him.


A number of items in the Carmichael Collection at Fort William still have their tags with them, some written by Alexander and others by his daughter, Ella. Here is the label that is with the stool, can you make out what it says?

This is a really exciting time for the team to be combining the textual collection here at the University of Edinburgh with the object collection housed in the West Highland Museum. In the coming weeks we will be working on getting the photographs ready for the website!

References
CW386(b) Creepy Stool
CW228 The Prince Charlie Stool

A lost St Kilda Gospel?

All sorts of unusual information and anecdotage lurk in murky corners of the Carmichael Watson Collection. Here is a piece relating to the Island of Boraraigh or Boreray in the St Kilda archipelago. A recent survey by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) has found evidence that the island, previously thought only to be home to many thousands of seabirds and a flock of sheep, may in fact have been inhabited by humans for many centuries, right up until the seventeenth century.

The undated item, CW170 fo.16, is written in Carmichael’s hand. It refers to the Rev. Lauchlan MacLeod (1762–1832), minister of St Kilda between 1788 and 1830 when he left his charge and retired to the Island of Berneray, Harris: perhaps a corroboration of part of the story given below.

Macleod, Lachlan Rev.

M.S.

Mr Lachlann Macleod was for many years minister in S. Kilda. After coming from S. Kilda, when dining with Macleod of Bearnaray in the Sound of Harris, he was choked with a piece of beef. He told Macleod of Bearnaray that boys – perhaps girls also – were digging in taigh an stallair in Boraraidh near S. Kilda and in their upturning they came upon a curious ‘stone’. They brought home the stone from Bororay to St. Kilda. The ‘stone’ was a parchment manuscript of the Gospels now become hard and solidified like stone. The minister said that  the letters were like Hebrew – old Celtic. What became of the M.S. no one knows. Probably the M.S. belonged to the anchorite who lived in [the] lonely spot.

When the team were up in Fort William looking at Carmichael’s material collections, one of them got rather excited when he found in a box of odds and ends a small lump looking like a stone on the outside, but apparently made from closely packed sheets with writing on them. Could this be part of the Rev. Lauchlan’s long-lost parchment manuscript? Unfortunately, probably not: the rock seems to be a papier-mâché one made for the West Highland Museum and once used as a perch for a stuffed bird or animal in their exhibition!

References: CW170 fo.16
Hew Scott et al. (eds), Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ vii, 194.

Image: The Island of Boreray, from the seaharris.co.uk website

Prayers, blessings, charms, and incantations: What Carmichael did and didn't print before Carmina Gadelica - II

In this blog and the next one we’d like to take a look at how Alexander Carmichael was first inspired to publish charms he had collected, in the ‘Nether-Lochaber’ column of the Inverness Courier, compiled by his friend the Rev. Alexander Stewart (1829–1901).

Stewart was always looking for fresh material for his newspaper column, a compendium of local anecdotes and observations, mainly concerning natural history and folklore, whose lively conversational style and curious subject matter had won a wide readership throughout the country. For many readers, ‘Nether-Lochaber’ was the Inverness Courier. Among the myriad topics broached by Stewart were proverbs, riddles, songs, and charms: short, unusual items which could fill a column and were almost guaranteed to elicit a response from readers, encouraging them to send in examples of their own.

From September 1871 ‘Nether-Lochaber’ began to mine a productive lode, printing a series of Gaelic riddles and other linguistic curiosities together with English translations. Among them was a healing charm, ‘taken down for us a short time ago by a gentleman in a neighbouring district from the recitation of an old woman on his property. It bears internal evidence of being intended for use only in the case of sprains, bruises, and dislocations.’ This was printed, together with a translation, in the Inverness Courier for 9 November 1871:

Esan a mharcaich gu stòld’,

Air an asail dheas òg a bha grinn;

A leighis gach creuchd ’s gach plàigh,

’S a dh-aisig gu slaint’ na bha tinn;

Leighis E sùilean an doill,

Do’n bhacach rinn rathad réidh;

Le Peadair ’s le Pàl, ’s le Muire bean àigh,

Biodh dlu an drasd’, a leigh[e]as nan cnamh ’s nam féith’.

Suathadh a’s sile a’s luibh Challam-chille

   (’An ainm an Athair),

Suathadh a’s sile a’s luibh Challam-chille

   (’An ainm a Mhic),

Suathadh a’s sile a’s luibh Challam-chille

   (’An ainm an Spioraid Naoimh),

Suathadh a’s sile a’s pòg ’o bhilibh –

      Amen!

He that rode with dignity

On the fine young ass that was handsome;

Who healed every wound and plague,

And restored the sick to health;

He healed the blind man’s eyes,

And made a level path for the crippled man;

With Peter and Paul, with Mary, blessed woman,

May [He] be near now, to heal the bones and sinews.

Rubbing and spittle and Saint Columba’s wort

   (In the name of the Father),

Rubbing and spittle and Saint Columba’s wort

   (In the name of the Son),

Rubbing and spittle and Saint Columba’s wort

   (In the name of the Holy Ghost),

Rubbing and spittle and a kiss from the lips –

      Amen!

On 20 June 1872, after the interest in riddles had run its course, Stewart published another four charms, including the two taken from Caraid nan Gàidheal. These were Rann Galar nan Sùl (‘A Rhyme for Sore Eyes’); Eòlas air a’ Ghréim-Mhionaich (‘A Charm for the Colic’); Eòlas an t-Snìomh (‘A Charm for a Sprain’); and Eòlas an Tairbhein (‘A Charm for the Tairbhean’). One reader in particular was inspired by the column to send in some charms from his own collection: Alexander Carmichael.

References:

‘Nether-Lochaber’, Inverness Courier, 9 November 1871 & 20 June 1872.

Image:

Rev. Alexander Stewart, ‘Nether-Lochaber’, Celtic Monthly, ix (1901), 19.