Maighdean bheul-dearg, foill cha leir dh' i, Caoimhneil, beusach, trod neo-bheumach, A leadan dualach sìos m' a cluasaibh 'S gnìomhach, càirdeil, b' fhearr dhomh ràdhainn, Muime shàr-mhaith nan laogh àluinn, Im 'us càise théid sud leatha, 'S a phàidheadh dhomh màl Aonghuis Shaw. An t-àit' am faic sibh 'm bi gibht àraidh Thuirt e, thoir dhomhs' i gu bealltuinn, Uam-sa, buannachd nan damh Gallda, No ma 's fearr leat na sin faidhir. Thuirt Dòmhnull Mac Bheathain 's e 's an éisdeachd, 'S mise 'n t-amadan thar cheud, A bheireadh cead dh' i 'n déigh a gabhail, Ach thoir-se nise dhomh féin i, 'S théid nì 'us feudail a' d' lamhaibh, Gu 'n ruig a 's na tha tilgeadh réigh dhomh 'N uair chual am Ministeir an t-srì A bha mu 'n rìomhainn thall an amhainn, Chuir e pìor-bhuic 'us ad shìod' air, 'S chaidh e dìreach orm a dh' fheitheamh, 'S thuirt e, thoir dhomh-s' an ath thìom dhìth, 'S ma shearmonaicheas tu féin do 'n sgìreachd Ge pròiseil sibh le 'r n-òr, 's le 'r nì, Le 'r mòran stìpein, 's le 'r cuid mhnathaibh, Na ge do chìt 'iad leis an amhainn, 'S gur h-e 'n righ tha dol g' a faighinn. The Mashie, a tributary of the Spey, in the parish of Laggan, runs close by Strathmashie house. It is a small river, but in harvest time, when in flood, it causes considerable damage. The poet takes occasion to censure the Mashie on this account; but he has his pleasant associations in connection with the charming banks of this mountain stream, as expressed in the following stanzas:— MATHAISITH CENSURED. Rinn thu m' eòrna a mhilleadh, Cha robh lochan no caochan, Rinn thu òl an tigh Bheathain 'S garbh an tuilm sin a sgeith thu EULOGY ON MATHAISITH. 'N uair a rachainn a' m' shiubhal Na bh' air bràigh Choire-bhuidhe Mhathaisith, &c. Gu 'm bu phailt bha mo bhuaile Do chrodh druim-fhion 'us guaill-fhionn, Mar sud 's mo chuid chuachag Dol mu 'n cuairt dhoibh 's an t-samhradh. [IN this Column we shall, from month to month, notice the most important business coming before our Highland Representative Institutions-such as the local Parliament of the Highland Capital, Gaelic and other Celtic Societies, and passing incidents likely to prove interesting to our Celtic readers. We make no pretence to give news; simply comments on incidents, information regarding which will be obtained through the usual channels.] We make no apology for referring to the doings of the Town Council of the Capital of the Highlands, Anything calculated to interest the Highlander is included in our published programme; and surely the composition, conduct, dignity, and patriotism of the local Parliament of the HIGHLAND CAPITAL, and the general ability, eloquence, intelligence, and independence of spirit displayed by its members is of more than mere local interest. We take it that the Scottish Gael, wherever located, is interested in the Capital of his native Highlands, and will naturally concern himself with the history and conduct of those whose duty it is as its leading men to shine forth as an example to places of lesser importance. Last year a Gas and Water Bill was carried through Parliament, involving an expenditure of something like £80,000, and at least double taxation. We have no doubt whatever very good and satisfactory reasons will be given for this large expenditure, but hitherto not the slightest explanation has been vouchsafed to the public, and we are, in common with five-sixths of the community, at present quite ignorant of the reasons given for this enormous expenditure: that there must be unanswerable reasons we have no doubt whatever, for have not the Council been unanimous to a man throughout. Not a single protest was entered. Not a single speech was publicly made against it. But more wonderful still, not a single speech was made publicly in the Council in its favour. This did not arise from want of debating power on the part of the members. It must have arisen from the unanswerable nature of the arguments delivered in private committees, where, practically, no one heard them, or of them, except the members themselves. The only objection which can be raised to this theory is, that if the matter is so very clear and simple, and the expenditure so imperatively called for, it is most wonderful that some ingenuous simple-minded member had not thought of making himself popular at one bound, by giving a little information to the public as the matter proceeded, and so silence all the grumbling and general dissatisfaction felt outside. THE Gaelic Society of Inverness entered on its fifth session last month. The Society has of late shown considerable signs of popularity and progress; for close upon fifty members have been added to the roll during the first eight months of the Society's year, while only eighteen were added during the whole of the previous one. In 1873, seventy new members were elected. The following five Clans are the best represented-Mackenzies, 23 members; Frasers, 22; Mackays, 19; Macdonalds, 18; Mackintoshes, 14. This is not as it should be; for while the Mackays only occupy a little over a page of the Inverness Directory, the Mackintoshes two, and the Mackenzies about three and a-half; the Macdonalds occupy over four, and the Frasers seven pages. We would like to see the Clans taking their proper places, by the "levelling-up" process of course. WE regret to announce the sudden death, on the 19th of August, of Dr Kermann Ebel, Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of Berlin. He superintended the new edition of Zeuss's Grammatica Celtica, and was one of the four or five leading Celtic scholars of the age. Ir will be seen that Logan's "Scottish Gael"- -a book now getting very scarce, and which was never, in consequence of its high price, within the reach of a wide circle of readers—is to be issued by Mr Hugh Mackenzie, Bank Lane, in 12 monthly parts at 2s each, Edited, with Memoir and Notes, by the Rev. Mr Stewart, "Nether-Lochaber." In this way the work will be much easier to get. It only requires to be known to secure the demand such an authority on the Celt-his language, literature, music, and ancient costume-deserves. We take the following from the late Dr Norman Macleod's "Reminiscences of a Highland Parish" on Highlanders ashamed of their country. We believe the number to whom the paragraph is now applicable is more limited than when it first saw the light, but we could yet point to a few of this contemptible tribe, of whom better things might be expected. We wish the reader to emphasize every line and accept it as our own views regarding these treacle-beer would-be-genteel excrescences of our noble race. A wart or tumour sometimes disfigures the finest oak of the forest, and these so-called Highlanders are just the warts and tumours of the Celtic races-they have their uses, no doubt:-"One class sometimes found in society we would especially beseech to depart; we mean Highlanders ashamed of their country. Cockneys are bad enough, but they are sincere and honest in their idolatry of the Great Babylon. Young Oxonians or young barristers, even when they become slashing London critics, are more harmless than they themselves imagine, and after all inspire less awe than Ben-Nevis, or than the celebrated agriculturist who proposed to decompose that mountain with acids, and to scatter the debris as a fertiliser over the Lochaber moss. But a Highlander born, who has been nurtured on oatmeal porridge and oatmeal cakes; who in his youth wore home-spun cloth, and was innocent of shoes and stockings; who blushed in his attempts to speak the English language; who never saw a nobler building for years than the little kirk in the glen, and who owes all that makes him tolerable in society to the Celtic blood which flows in spite of him through his veins ;-for this man to be proud of his English accent, to sneer at the everlasting hills, the old kirk and its simple worship, and despise the race which has never disgraced him—faugh! Peat reek is frankincense in comparison with him; let him not be distracted by any of our reminiscences of the old country; leave us, we beseech of thee!" LITERATURE. 0 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GAELIC SOCIETY OF INVERNESS. Vols. III. and IV., 1873-74 and 1874-75 (Bound in one), THIS is the third publication issued by the Gaelic Society since its establishment in 1871. The previous volumes were very creditable, especially the first, but the one now before us is out of sight superior not only in size, but in the quality of its contents. First we have an Introduction of eight pages giving the history of the movement in favour of establishing a Celtic Chair in one of our Scottish Universities, and the steps taken by the Gaelic Society of London, who appear to have worked single-handed to promote this object since 1835, when they presented their first petition to the House of Commons, down to 1870, when the Council of the Edinburgh University took the matter in hand. In December 1869 the Gaelic Society of London sent out circulars addressed to ministers of all denominations in Scotland asking for information as to the number of churches in which Gaelic was preached. The circulars were returned, the result being" that out of 3395 places of worship of all denominations in Scotland, 461 had Gaelic services once-a-day in the following proportions -Established Church, 235; Free Church, 166; Catholic Chapels, 36; Baptists, 12; Episcopalians, 9; Congregationalists, 3." The first paper in the volume is a very interesting account, by Dr Charles Mackay, the poet, of "The Scotch in America." We give the following extract: 66 66 There were pre I was invited to dine with a wealthy gentleman of my own name. sent on that occasion 120 other Scotchmen, and most of them wore the Highland dress. My host had a piper behind the chair playing the old familiar strains of the pipes. The gentleman told me, in the course of the evening, that his father was a poor cottar in Sutherlandshire. My mother," said he, "was turned out upon the moor on a dark cold night, and upon that moor I was born." My friend's family afterwards went to America, and my friend became a dry" merchant, or as you would say in Scotland, a draper. I said to him, seeing that his position had so improved, Well, suppose you do not bear any grudge against the people by whose agency your family were turned upon the moor. "No," he replied, "I cannot say that I bear them any grudge, but at the same time I cannot say that I forgive them. If my position has improved, it is by my own perseverance, and not by their good deeds or through their agency." In every great city of Canada-Toronto, Kingstown, Montreal, New Brunswick, St John's, Nova Scotia, and in almost every town and village, you will find many Scotchmen; in fact, in the large towns they are almost as numerous as in Edinburgh and Inverness. You will see a Highland name staring you in the face in any or every direction. If you ask for the principal merchant or principal banker, you will be almost sure to find that he's a Scotchman; and no matter in what part of the world your fellow countrymen may be cast, they keep up the old manners and customs of their mother country. They never forget the good old times of "Auld lang syne;" they never forget the old songs they sung, the old tunes they played, nor the old reels and dances of Scotland. The Scotch, especially in Canada, take the Gaelic with them. They have Gaelic newspapers, which have a large circulation-larger, perhaps, than any Gaelic newspaper at home. They have Gaelic preachers. In fact, there is one part of Canada which might be called the new Scotland; and it is a Scotchman who is now at the head of the Canadian Government-John Macdonald.* Since the paper was written, the Hon. John Macdonald gave place to another Scottish Highlander, the Hon. Alex. Mackenzie, as Prime Minister of Canada. |