The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

570
The Hic^hland Monthly.
leman, who is said to have composed her lover's elegy
like the bereaved maiden much celebrated in Border
Ministrelsy :
—
longer from thy window look,
' No
Thou hast no son, thou tender mother !
No longer walk, thou lovely maid ;
Alas, thou hast no more a brother !
No longer seek him east or west,
And search no more the forest through ;
For, wandering in the night so dark.
He fell a lifeless corpse in Yarrow.'
The catastrophe of Drumuachdar was a favourite theme
with the milk-maids of Kingussie and Laggan. For many
years after the event, all the details connected with it were
well-known to the songstresses ;
—
and, as many of them v/ere
in the habit of improvising additional couplets to the
distinctive air, it is impossible to sa}' how much of the
ballad, as it now stands, beU^nged to it originally. On the
other hand, I am aware that this version is not quite con-
secutive—that lines (which I have heard) are awanting^
especially about the beginning and end." I am now able
to give half-a-dozen additional couplets, which were sung
by an old woman, known as Piuthair a' Bhalbhain. I have
heard at least two more couplets— -the one expressing
Captain Macpherson's scornful unconcern as to the fate of
his cattle, and the other giving some account of the contents
of the poor lad's pockets !
This ballad throws an interesting light upon the life
and manners of the period that produced it. How strong
were the ties that bound together those of the same kin !
The untimely end of a single herdsman threw whole
districts into mourning, and has been sung with moistened
eyes for six score years.
'S fhir nan sul donna,
Cha choma learn beo thu ;
'S fhir nan sul miogach,
B'e mo mhiann bhi do chodhail.