An gaidheal - National Library of Scotland

—''—''' Whaur28 THE GAEL. ilarch, 1878would trespass too mucli on your spacewere I to take notice of all the M-ords,but let me just say a word or two of Dunbartonand Lomond.DtinbarioH is not Welsh or it wouldappear not as dun, but din, or ratherdinaii, which is a common word for a fortifiedtown in Welsh, see D'lnas Coozyn,Diiias Faraon, Dinas Emrijg, &c. Thereis no Welsh word dun signyfying fort orfortress or even town din and dinanbeing always used. Barton is, I suppose,a corruption of Breatan, and to thisday is the Gaelic name among the Highlandersfor the Mdiole island, Scotland andEngland, Breatain, and as invariably theycalled Scotland, A Ihain. Lomond, saysMr Edmund, I suspect, too, is none otherthan the British word Imnan, a standard,&c. " This word "Lomond" meets us underseveral forms in the place names ofScotland and Ireland too. Observe BenLomond and the River Leven flowingfrom Loch Lomond, Dumbartonshire. Thetwo hill Lomonds in Fifeshire and closeby I.,och Leven and issuing therefrom theRiver Leven.In Gaelic we have the following formsof this word, leamlian, leibhin, liobhan,and perhaps leanhuachd, leamhan uisce isthe prototype of the old territorialLcvanax, now Lennox ; here too belongLean, Lian, Linn, Liomh and Leobh, (asin LeobJias the swampy Island,) all thesemean swampy plain or meadow, and pool&c. To this same root I would comiectabhain dhu liobhan and beinn leibhan, bhas often for mh. Irish leabar smooth,Icamain river. In English the kin fromlake of the same name in Killarny, leanameadow, ieimeas flatness, and in the^Vel8h a7//(/«J for smooth, level in femininegender sleon, whose form comes nearer.Compare here Leman lake with its placidshore Umnos, lenmun Greek kibo, kinio,leinini', Umcn, moist grassy places witheither sand or mud, Latin limis, litxn!(?H equal to jihin, but heis no guide to follow. Mr. Edmunds hasbeen, I ween, trusting too much to Chalmers,in his, no doubt, laborious " Caledonia."Forsooth, Chalmers himself, didnot learn his ignorance of the Celtic languages.Plynlbjmman in the Welsh dialectis jjerfectly pointed, completely sharpor pointed, I think it is not Irish, and aScottish Highlander like Colonel Robertsoncould hardly be made, to pronounce it.I hope I have not trespassed too muchon your sjpace.—Most respectfully yours,January 20, 1873.Fraoch.Scarcity of Snuff.—A severe snowstormin the Highlands, which lasted forseveral weeks, having stopped all commvmicationbetwixtneighbouring hamlets,the snuffboxes were soon reduced to theirlast pinch.Borrowing and begging fromall the neighbours within reach were firstresorted to, but when these failed, all werealike reduced to the longing whichunwillingly-abstinent snuff-takers aloneknow. The minister of the parish wasamong the unhappy number ; the cravingwas so intense, that study was out of thequestion, and he became quite restless.As a last resort, the beadle was despatched,through the snow, to a neighboiiring glen,in the hope of getting a supply; but hecame back as unsuccessful as he went."What's to be dune, John?" was theminister's pathetic inquiry. John shookhis head, as much as to say that he couldnot tell ; but imm ediately thereafter .startedup, as if a Jiew idea had occurred to him.He came back in a few minutes, crying,"Hae!" The minister, too eager to bescrutinizing, took a long, deep pinch, andthen said,did you get it " ?"I soupit the pou2)it," was John's expressivereply. The minister's accumulatedsuperfluous Sabbath snutì' now came intogood use. Dean