The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

230 The^Hio-hland Monthly.
Translated
—
Two persons I met—Help and Christ
As Anna was delivered of Mary, and Mary of Christ
As Elizabeth was delivered of John the Baptist, wanting
neither foot nor hand ;
Relieve the woman, O Son ! relieve her, O Mother !
As it was you who conceived the Son, take the offspring
from the bone [womb] ;
Deliver the woman, and let her be well.
In connection with the matter of appeals in childbirth
to the Virgin Mary, it is interesting to refer to the case of
Roderick Macleod, the St Kilda impostor, described by
Martin, Buchan, and others. This man, we are told, taught
the women of St Kilda a devout hymn, which he called the
Virgin Mary's. It was never delivered in public, but
always in a private house or some remote place, where no
and he persuaded the
eye could see but that of Heaven ;
innocent women that it was of such merit and efficacy that
any one able to repeat it by heart would not die
in child-bearing. By means of this hymn the impostor
debauched many of the women ! He was paid a sheep by
every wife who learned it. A copy of this hymn would be
interesting. Will any reader furnish it ?
Appeals to the Virgin Mary by women in child-bed
appear to have been universal in Christian countries ; and
we have an interesting instance of it in the Book of
Lismore. In " Sgel an da leanabh," given in the intro-
duction to that work, we have the story of two children
one a Jew and the other a Christian—who lived in France.
The Christian child induced the Jewish child to go to the
temple, and there partake of consecrated bread. The
Jewish child afterwards informed his parents what had
happened. They were wroth at him, and flung him into
the flames [teined ar derglasad] to burn and die. He was
left there till burned to ashes. On the morrow his
parents found him as if in sleep. In response to their
enquiries, the child replied that he was saved by the
Virgin Mary [" mathair an aird-rig"], and that he was to be
:
;
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