The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Gaelic Incagitations. 151
GAELIC INXANTATIONS, CHARMS. AND
BLESSINGS OF THE HEBRIDES.
1
Bv WILLIAM MACKENZIE.
PROCEED now to deal with the class intended to
accomplish certain ends by the exercise of the will,
and comiTience with
LOVE CHARMS.
In the list of amulets above given from Macalpine, we
have the Orra-ghraidh, or Love Charm. The Highlanders
of old, like the ancient Greeks, seem to have believed in the
efficacy of charms and philtres, in order, as Erastus has it,
to force men and women to love and hate whom they will.
" Sagae omnes sibi arrogant notitiam, et facultatem in
amorem alliciendi quos velint ; odia
inter conjuges serendi."
We have the idea of the Love Charm in Duncan Ban
Macintyre's Rainn a ghabhas inaigJidean da leannan
(Verses which a maiden will say to her sweetheart), but as
the ceremony prescribed may, on the whole, be regarded
as impossible, it is clear that the poet himself did not
believe in the efficacy of such incantations. That the
idea has, however, survived to recent times is undoubted,
and a good instance of it is given by the Kenlochewe
bard in the poem already referred to. Describing how
the bridegroom was " charmed "
b\' the j-oung woman's
mother, he says :
—
'S beag a bha dhuil aige 'posadh
An U chaidh Seonaid 'na chainnt
—
Rug i da uair air a chrogan
A's chuir i na li-orracJiami annt ;
Thionndaidh a chridhe le solas :
Chaidh dalladh a's sgleo air 's an am,
'S cha 'n fhaiceadh e aon te cho boidheach
Ri Ceit ged a sheoladh e 'n Fhrainsf.