The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

S/cye Bards. 689
Neil Ross. Gained the first prize at the first Competition
of the Highland Association.
Maggie Maclean, Dunvegan. She contributed a Highland
lament and a Lullaby to Parlane's National
Choir, vol. i. She composed other pieces.
V.—Skye Songs—Authors unknown.
1. Taladh by the Queen of Fairies.
2. Cumha Mhic-Cruimein.
3. Oran do Throternish—in Donald Macleod's Collec-
tion.
4. C'ait an Caidil an ribhinn ?
5. Oran an Uachdarain.
These lists do not pretend to be complete, but I believe
they are the best attempt yet made. I have consulted a
large 'lumber of books, so as to make as complete a list as
possible. Some may object to my including Mary Mac-
leod, as she was born in Harris. True, but her parents
belonged to Dunvegan, and she herself spent all her
life time in Dunvegan, with the exception of the short
time she was under banishment in Scarba ; and besides, it
seems she was pretty well advanced in life before her poetic
faculties were called into pla}-.
It would have been most instructive to classify the
songs as to their subject matter, or as to their melodies,
whether commtjn or peculiar. This I have not attempted,
though Skye songs are as varied in their subjects and
objects as Highland songs generally. Many of them are
elegies, many of them songs in praise of some chief, many
of them love songs, marching songs, labour songs, boatmen
songs, etc., etc. I hope that some one who has more time
at his disposal than I have, will undertake this work, as it
would show the condition of the people of Skye better than
any records of feuds and battles between chiefs.
MAIKl NIGHEAN ALASDAIR RUAIDH.
Mairi Nighean Alasdair Ruaidh, or Mary Macleod, was
born in Rowdil, Harris, in 1569, and died in 1674 at the
ripe age of 105 years. Her father, Alexander Macleod.
was a son of Alasdair Ruadh, a descendant of the chief of
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