The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Scenes of Long Ago. 163
The manner in which the course of the year was marked
and divided among communities hke that within which my
lot was cast, well illustrates what I have now said. The
ancient Gaelic divisions were rarely referred to, and even the
usual reckoning according to months and seasons was
almost equally ignored. In place ot these, a series of
periods were obser\ed, each of which was expressive of
some pursuit which in its turn claimed attention.
In so far as I remember them, there was, first, the time
of potato planting ; secondly, there was the time of sowing,
when the little patches of arable land received the oats and
barley seed. Then came the time of fox hunting, when
the dens among the mountains would, be visited by a
company of shepherds and keepers under the direction of
the fox-hunter of the district, and, with the assistance of a
promiscuous pack of terriers and hounds, they cleared the
sheep-walks to a considerable extent of the despoilers of the
flock—and urgent the need of this, for
was at hand.
the time of lambing
During its course the shepherds had to exercise constant
watchfulness and care— going out at the first streak of day,
and often not returning home until nightfall. Each carried
a bottle of milk, and with its contents, out of their own
mouths, they nourished the weaklings, which, but for this,
would have succumbed to cold and hunger. The giddy
gimmers, or two-year-olds, had to be sharply looked after,
for their love of freedom was frequently stronger than their
love of offspring.
On the death of a lamb sundry ruses were sometimes
employed to impose upon the maternal instinct of the
vigilant and knowing old ewe. Indeed, it was often with
great difficulty that she could be induced to tolerate the
approaches of the unfortunate orphan, or twin, who was
made to personate her deceased favourite.
At the end of a few weeks was the time of marking the
lambs ;
and,
closely following upon this, the time of shear-
ing, or clipping, the wethers—known in Gaelic by an appro-