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Old Gaelic Songs. 121
Clia tliuobli mi bantrach lir idir,
Na seann te gun duin' aice riaiiih,
Fo altrum tc oig clia teid mi,
Bho' n a's flieudar a bhi triall.
Tliaghainn thu gu boidheach, banail,
Tliaghainn thu gu fiillain, fial;
Pailteas spreidh is moran chairdean,
Ciall is naire 's cail gu gniomli.
MOllT NA CEAPAICH, NO CUMHA CLANN NA CEAPAICII, LE
IAN LOM.
Fifteen verses of this song have been published by Turner
in his collection of Gaelic Songs in 1813. There are also fifteen
verses, line for line as in Turner's, printetl in John Mackenzie's
" Beauties of (.Jaelic Poetry." I used to hear more of this lament
in Strathglass, and by aid of the Dornie MS., I can now give you
twenty-three verses of it. About the time " Ian Lorn " composed
this lament he found his native district too hot for him, in
consequence of which he sought and received the hospitality and
protection of " Mac-Coinnich mor Chinntaile," i.e., the Earl of
Seaforth. By command of the Earl, John was placed in a farm
called Oragaig, in Gleneilchaig. In this farm he remained until
some person inimical to " Ian Lom," composed a villainously ugly
and lying satire of four or five short lines on the men of Kintail.
" Ian Lom " was accused of being the author of the offensive
couplet. He denied it with all the power of speech in his versatile
vocabulary, but all to no effect. He was obliged to leave Kintail.
It was on that occasion he composed the song in which the following
lines occur :
" Dha mo chur a Cinntaile
Gun fhios de an t-aite do'n teid mi."
I was passing through Gleneilchaig about fifty-five years ago, along
with an elderly man who pointed out Oragaig to me as " Ian
Loni's " old farm; he also stated that it was on Mam-an-tuirc when
leaving Gleneilchaig the Poet composed the song in which the following
verse occurs :
" Dha m'chur a m' fhearann gun aobhar,
'S nach mi shalaich an t-saobhaidh.
Mar mhadadh-alluidh
Sa' chaonnag m'a lorg."