The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

iiaelic Incantations. 441
and blessings for all the more important duties engaged in.
When the cattle were sent to the sheilings in the earlysummer,
there were Blessings suitable for the occasion.
Specimens of these are given in the paper on " Old
Hebridcan Hymns," contributed by Mr A. A. Carmichael
to Lord Napier's Report (Royal Commission, Highlands
and Islands, 1883).
The Blessing of the Boats was a ceremony regularly
observed in the Outer Islands ;
— —
but the old Gaelic Blessings
appear to be now forgotten. Bishop Carsewell gives a
Boat Blessing (Modh Beandaighthe luinge ag dul diold-
saidhe na fairrge) in his Gaelic translation of the Liturgy
of John Knox ; and the manner of Alexander Macdonald's
" Beannachadh" of the Birlinn of Clan Ranald indicates that
such Blessings were common in his time. In the Ritual of
the Church of Rome there is a Blessing for a New Ship
" Be7iedictio Nova; Navis"—and this Blessing is regularly
attended to in the Catholic parts of the Hebrides. The
ceremony is quite a short one. The priest goes on board
the new boat, says the Benedictio, and sprinkles the boat
with Holy Water. This ceremony is repeated every time
there is a change in the crew.
The Barra fishermen always carry a bottle of Holy
Water in the prow of the boat, and a Blessed Candle in the
cabin. When in danger they sprinkle themselves and boat
with Holy Water, and lighting the Blessed Candle in the
cabin, gather round it on their knees and say their prayers.
In throwing out the long lines and nets, they do so invoking
the three persons of the Trinity.
According to Hibbert a somewhat similar practice pre-
vailed among the ancient Shetlanders. A layman assuming
the role of an ecclesiastic muttered certain religious incan-
tations over water. The element was then named " Fore-
spoken Water," and boats were sprinkled with it, and limbs
washed with it.
The fishing in Barra is annually inaugurated with
religious services in the Church on St Bride's Day
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