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44 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
Havinc; given so many old sayings unfavourable to the raven, I
think I must in justice now give other two more favourable ones,
which say, " Feumaidh na fithich fhein a bhi beo"—The ravens
themselves must live; and, " Ge dubh am litheach, is geal leis
'isean"— Black as is the raven, he thinks his chickens white.
Here, of course, the white raven's chicken is used figuratively,
but as the old saying holds good that " truth is stranger than
fiction," so we have even pure white ravens in the flesh, as will be
seen from the following quotation from Grey's Birds of the West
of Scotland :— " In Macgillivray's work on British Birds, it is
stated that as many as two hundred ravens have been known to
assemble in a flock on the Island of Pabby, in the Sound of Harris,
a large herd of grampuses which was driven ashore there ha^ing
been the means of attracting them. Afraid of their jtrolonged
stay, and not liking the company of so many birds of evil repute,
the inhabitants resorted to the extraordinary expedient of capturing
a few and plucking off all their feathers, except those of the
wings and tail, in which plight they were set adrift as scare crows.
The main flock then left in a fright and did not return. In this
unusual congregation of ravens, an albino (or pure white one) was
observed, and a pied specimen was noticed some time afterwards
in Harris by Macgillivray. . . . These pied birds have been
observed of late years in one or two of the Outer Hebrides." This
mention of a white and pied raven reminds me of a story common
in Strathardle, of a farmer who had a sheplierd, who thought the
only way to gain favour with his master was to say with him in
everything right or wrong, a practice, I am sorry to say, far too
common. However, after a time the farmer began to have his
.suspicions that the constant backing up of his opinions and sayings
was not genuine, so to try the truth of them, he one day, on his
return from the hill, said to the shepherd, " Chunna mi fitheach
geal, am braighe a mhonaidh n' duigh"'— I saw a white raven today
on the top of the hill. Now, this was a staggei-er, for even
the obsequiousness of the shepherd, who, afraid to go quite that
length, yet still true to his nature, answered, " Creididh mi sin,
oir chunna mi fear bieac n' de ann !"—I can well believe that, for
1 saw a spreckled one thei-e myself yesterday —an answer which
soon convinced the farmer liow far his servant could be relied
upon The raven is the first bird to breed in the Highlands,
which was noticed and put iiito rhyme by our ancestors, like so
much else of their knowledge, as being more easily remembered :
" Nead air Brighde, ubh air Inid, ian air Cliaisg ;
Mar bi sin aig an fhitheach, bithidh am bas."
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