The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Gaelic Incantations. 427
at the same time saying " So air Mam" — (naming a
particular inam or hillock). The needle was then shifted,
the axe placed across it again, and that portion of the
and so on for nine or
swelling assigned to another Mam ;
twenty-four times, according to ihe method of the performer.
The roiiin or apportioning nine times was considered
sufficient to cause the swelling to subside
—
dot air ais—but
the correct number, according to some, was twenty-four.
In apportioning the swelling over twenty-four Mams, the
sign of the cross was made on the floor with the edge of
the axe, after the eighth, sixteenth, and twenty-fourth
Mams enumerated below, the operator at the same time
saying— " Tha so air a' Mham Mhor Dhinrach, 's e 's an
dcicheamJiy
I am indebted to my friend Professor Mackinnon for
the following list of Mams mentioned in the rite as the
same is performed in Colonsay. It was recently noted
from the recital of Alexander Macneil, an old Colonsay
man, who thought it was required for some desperate case
that had defied the skill of all the Edinburgh doctors !
Ihe performer, taking the needle and the axe, and
going through the action above described, went over the
twenty-four Mams thus
—
1. So air Mam a Scriodain [Mull].
2. So air Mam an t-Snodain.
3. So air Mam Dhoire Dhuaig [Mull].
4. So air Mam Chloiche Duinn.
5. So air Mam an t-Sruthain.
6. So air Mam an t-Siosair.
7. So air Mam an t-Seilisteir.
8. So air Mam Shiaba [Mull].
f (on the floor) So air a' Mham Alhor Dhiurach, 's
e 'san Deicheamh.
9. So air Mam Astal [Islay].
10. So air Mam Choireadail [Islay].
11. So air Mam a' Bhatain.
12. So air Mam Shraoisnich.
13. So air Mam an t-Siobarsaich.
14. So air Mam Chataibli [so pronounced in Colonsay,
where Caithness is understood].