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AnRubhaThe Highland Village Gaelic Folklife Magazine

Naidheachda’ Chlachain

Stories of Fairies& Jealousy

Under theRafters

From the pagesofMac-Talla

www.visithighlandvillage.ca

Interpretive Successes

Recorded from Iona’sMickey Bean Nìllag

The Black House, Part 2

Na Sìthichean

No. 2: An t-Earrach / Spring 2008

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AnRubha© 2008, Nova Scotia Highland Village Society

AnRubha (The Point) is published in Iona,Nova Scotia, Canada twice each year byComunn Clachan Gàidhealach na h-AlbannNuaidh/Nova Scotia Highland Village Society.Comments, suggestions and contributionsare welcome.

Contact:4119 Rathad/Highway 223Sanndraigh/IonaAlba Nuadh/Nova ScotiaB2C 1A3 - CanadaGuthan/Phone: 902.725.2272Toll Free: 1-866-4GAELICFacs/Fax: 902.725.2227E: [email protected]: www.visithighlandvillage.ca

Editorial Committee: Rodney Chaisson,Eòsag MacIntyre, Pauline MacLean &Seumas Watson

Contributors: Celtic Colours Festival Society,Rodney Chaisson, Shannon MacDonald,Eòsag MacIntyre, Dr. Richard MacKinnon,Pauline MacLean, Vince MacLean, MarionMacLeod, Jenna MacNeil, Vicki Quimby,Ellison Robertson, School of Scottish Studiesof the University of Edinburgh, Dr. JohnShaw, James O. St.Clair, Seumas Watson

Layout: Rodney Chaisson

Printing: City Printers Ltd, Sydney

Front cover photo:For almost 20 years John MacDonald of BigBaddeck brought to life the Highland Village forge.During that time this master ironworker sharedhis art with thousands of visitors. In 2007, Johnretired from the Village. His legacy can still befound in reproductions throughout the site. Wewish John all the best in his future endeavours andthank him for his contribution to our successes.

Also, on the front cover is the new Gaelic image forGaelic Nova Scotia. For more information on theimage, visit the website for the Office of GaelicAffairs at www.gov.ns.ca/oga

ISSN # 1914-6043

Mailed under Canada Post Canadian Publi-cations Mail Product Sales Agreement#41257540

Inside This IssueFrom the Director’s Desk 4Adapting, Growing & Leading

Mar Is Léir Dhomh Fhìn 5People, Regional Gaelic Traditions & Gaelstream, Guest Editorial from Dr. John Shaw

Featured Artifact - An Slabhraidh (Pot Chain) 6Seinn fo Sgàil nan Geugan Uaine 7Songs from the Greenwood

Naidheachd a’Chlachain - The Village News 8Sùil air n-Ais - Interpretive Successes

Ag Éirigh Air Òrain/An Rubha Song Selection 9“Fa lìll éileadh ò ro” - Collected from Maxie MacNeil

Fo na Cabair / Under the Rafters 10An Taigh Dubh - The Black House Part II

Mac-Talla excerpt 12Story of Fairies and Druids

Photo Album - Interpretive Successes 14Naidheachdan air Sìthichean is Farmad 16Stories of Fairies & Jealousy Collected fromMickey Bean Nìllag

An t-Eilean Muileach 18The Isle of Mull by Jim St.Clair

Rug Hooking in Cape Breton - Part II 20An Gàidheal Portmhor 22Còta Mór Ealasaid / Elizabeth’s Great Coat

In Memory - Michael Anthony MacLean 23Memories of Michael Anthony from Jenna MacNeil

An Rubha Review 24Dr. Keith Branigan’s From Clan to Clearance

An Rubha Review 25Dr. Seósamh Watson’s Saoghal Bana-mharaiche

Our People, Acknowledgements & Accolades 26

The role of amuseum in 2008 is very dif-ferent from that of the 1950s. Yes, museumsare still expected to be custodians of thematerial evidence of the past. However, weare also increasingly seen as a place to pro-vide memorable experiences; preserve anddevelop the intangible evidence of the past;and to be leaders, facilitating change with-in our communities.

In the past 10 years, we have put a lot oftime and energy into adapting new inter-pretive methodologies to strengthen ourmessages and better engage the visitor. Inthe next few years we are going to intro-duce further adaptations resulting fromour recent internal interpretive renewalprocess with international interpretive con-sultant John Veverka, as well as the NovaScotia Museum’s interpretive master plan.

Also, in the past decade we haveexpanded our programming - on site, offsite and on-line. In addition to growing ourdaily animation program we have addedchildren’s programs, special tours, work-shops, lecture series, in-class cultural expe-riences, internet based exhibits and muchmore. See Naidheachd a’Chlachain on page 8for more on our programming.

Since the late 1990’s, interest anddemand for Gaelic language and culturalprogramming has grown. Nova Scotiansfrom Halifax to Bay St. Lawrence are seek-ing new opportunities to learn, or beexposed to, the Gaelic language or its vari-ous forms of cultural expression. Inresponse we have increased our languageand cultural content on site. But moreimportantly we have taken a leadershiprole in the community to help supportGaelic renewal in Nova Scotia. We havesupported the work of Gaelic DevelopmentSteering Committee and Comhairle naGàidhlig. Most significantly, we introducedNova Scotia to Finlay MacLeod and his TIP(Total Immersion Plus) methodology, basedon language renewal success stories inHawaii and New Zealand.

That is not to say there have not beenany challenges. Our local population baseis shrinking and aging. The tourism indus-try in Nova Scotia is also facing seriousobstacles to growth.

Fortunately, the Government of NovaScotia has been diligent in the past decadeto firm up support for heritage develop-

ment in Nova Scotia, especially Gaelic her-itage. These initiatives provide a strongerfoundation for the sector and new opportu-nities for us to improve our effectiveness asan institution for Gaelic heritage in NovaScotia.

Nova Scotia’s first heritage strategy,entitled “A Treasured Past, A PreciousFuture,” was approved by cabinet this pastwinter. This government-wide strategywas developed by the Heritage Division ofthe Department of Tourism, Culture &Heritage in conjunction with every depart-ment and agency that has jurisdiction overany aspect of heritage. It will guide her-itage development and investment over thenext five years. It has three main goals:” (1)to better coordinate the efforts of those whoshare the responsibility to preserve, protect,promote and present Nova Scotia’s her-itage; (2) to improve the development andsustainable management of the full rangeof the province’s significant heritage; and(3) to increase public recognition of thevalue and significance of the province’srich heritage.”

The Heritage Strategy will strengthenunderstanding and commitment to her-itage throughout government. It will resultin stronger heritage infrastructure; betterand more relevant sites; higher quality andmore varied heritage activities; and more.

We are also pleased to see increasedsupport from government to the Gaelic cul-tural community through the Office ofGaelic Affairs. Since its inception over ayear ago, the Office has worked diligentlyto support language and cultural develop-ment around the province and raise theprofile of Gaelic within government.

The next few years are going to be excit-ing ones for the Highland Village. There aremore opportunities than ever before togrow our relevance to our constituent com-munity as well as share Nova Scotia’s richGaelic heritage to its visitors.

Change is in the air. While demograph-ic and tourism industry issues will provideus with significant challenges, the new her-itage infrastructure will assist us in increas-ing our relevance, meeting the needs ofNova Scotians, achieving our vision (seeright), and living up to our year 2000 agree-ment with the Nova Scotia government(see proclamation on page 14). �

The Nova Scotia Highland Village Society(Comunn Clachan Gàidhealach na h-AlbannNuaidh) was incorporated on November 3,1959 under the Societies Act of Nova Scotia.Its purpose was to construct and operate anoutdoor folk museum dedicated to theScottish Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia.

The vision of the Highland VillageMuseum/An Clachan Gàidhealach is to beinternationally acknowledged for advancingresearch, fostering appreciation, learningand sharing authentic Gaelic language andheritage while serving a vibrant Gaelic cul-tural community.The mission of the Highland VillageMuseum/An Clachan Gàidhealach, a livinghistory museum, is to research, collect, pre-serve and share the Gaelic heritage and cul-ture of Nova Scotia and represent it accurate-ly and vibrantly.The Highland Village Museum/An ClachanGàidhealach is a part of the Nova ScotiaMuseum Family (Nova Scotia’s ProvincialMuseums), Department of Tourism, Culture& Heritage. The Nova Scotia HighlandVillage Society operates the site on behalf ofthe Province.

The Society is a member of Comhairle naGàidhlig (Gaelic Council of NS), NationalTrust of Scotland, CLI Gàidhlig, GaelicSociety of Inverness (Scotland), CanadianMuseums Assoc. (CMA), Iona ConnectionHeritage Co-op, Council of NS Archives(CNSA), Genealogical Assoc. of NS (GANS),Cape Breton Genealogy & Heritage Society,Interpretation Canada, Costume Society ofNS, Assoc. of Living Historical Farms andAgricultural Museums (ALHFAM), AmericanAssoc. for State & Local History (AASLH),Tourism Industry Assoc of NS (TIANS),Baddeck & Area Business Tourism Assoc.(BABTA), and Destination Cape Breton Assoc.

4 An t-Earrach/Spring 2008 AnRubha

From theDirector’sDeskADAPTING, GROWING & LEADING

In 2009, the Nova Scotia Highland Village Society will mark its 50th anniversary asan organisation founded to develop and operate the Highland Village site and to pro-mote the “Scottish” Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia. We have much to celebrate. In spiteof our challenges, we continue to adapt to changes in the world around us; grow our pro-gramming and offerings; and play a leadership role in thewiderGaelicNova Scotia com-munity.

__________________________

Nova ScotiaHighland VillageSocietyRodney Chaisson, Director

AnRubha An t-Earrach/Spring 2008 5

In our new age of gradually dawningglobal awareness and the emerginginterdependence of needs and interests

thatbecomeevermore real inourdaily lives,too little thought has been given to theimportance of cultural traditions to the eco-nomic and social survival of a region. In themany hundreds of cultures worldwide thatare founded on oral tradition, archives con-serving sound, visual andwrittenmaterialshave become an invaluable – often a vital –means of maintaining cultural autonomyand distinctiveness in the face of ‘blind’(read ‘unregulated’) cultural assimilation.Among the many areas and peoples sub-jected to such intense pressure, the Gaelicworld ofNova Scotia is remarkable for hav-ing survived at all, given its North Atlanticlocation and its historical status as a politicaland economic appendage to English-speaking NorthAmerica.

The Gael Stream Project as a ResourceThanks to the Sruth nan Gàidheal/GaelStream Project, the Gaelic Cape BretonCollection at St. Francis XavierUniversity is now well placed to play acentral role in the survival of the region’sunique Gaelic culture. Given the recentdedicated work on digitizing the exten-sive Gaelic archive and the value andpotential of the materials, the question is:How can the resource best be put to use?No one can be more aware than the col-lector in the field that the thousands ofsongs, tales, tunes and other items of tra-dition recorded and stored are a uniquelegacy contributed by individuals andcommunities as an investment, in theform of ‘intangible heritage’, in thefuture of the region. Now that technolo-gy has broadened our options so dramat-ically, it is possible to reintroduce essen-tial components of Gaelic oral cultureback into communities, where untilrecently they thrived and lent strengthand conviction to individuals andgroups. It will be necessary to identifythe most powerful cultural assets, buthowever these emerge, the underlyingprinciples for successful developmentremain the same: cultural assets requireand deserve the same respect and long-term planning as the more tangible natu-ral resources such as forests, clean waterand fish stocks, and priorities for theirdevelopment must be set by those whohave contributed them and know thembest: the relevant communities.

Along with the introduction of thegreatest possible degree of ownership bythe communities must be the awarenessthat, as with environmental initiatives,only a centralized, coordinated approachwill work. While it is certainly true thatthe social environment for Gaelic culturehas changed and the contexts for some ofthe types of archived material will nothave remained the same in all cases, allGaelic speakers and all areas associatedwith Gaelic tradition have something oflinguistic, cultural and social value tocontribute. With Gaelic in many areasnow on the verge of eradication, thelong-term development of archival mate-rials, be they educational, social or eco-nomic, will have to be approached strate-gically; planned projects need to beprioritized and initial projects designedto lay the groundwork and establish thebenchmarks to be incrementally built onin succeeding stages.

Mar is léir dhomh fhìnPEOPLE, REGIONAL GAELIC TRADITIONS &GAELSTREAM

ensuring that high standards are set andadhered to for successful completion.Likewise, the selection of appropriateskill sets for each project, local or region-al, will be necessary to ensure qualityand positive assessments in project out-comes. For long term planning and pri-oritization of projects to be viable, a qual-ified steering committee consisting of theprincipal partners participating in openconsultation will be needed. In additionto encouraging the exchange of informa-tion and ideas between the various sec-tors, this structure with its strong com-munity component is likely to beattractive to funders. Through consulta-tion, basic, simple and transparent poli-cies can be formulated: for example, theimportance of emphasizing regionalGaelic content and its value as a symbolof ownership for people in those com-munities represented. An important con-sequence of a directed policy of long-term planning and prioritization ofprojects will be that potential amounts offunding derived from funding agencies,and other sources, should not be the pri-mary concern driving project proposalsand applications, or the standard bywhich success is measured. The yard-stick for good practice in proposals andassessments should remain the benefitsthat projects bring to people and commu-nities.

First StepsThe Gael Stream resource is multi-pur-pose. Together with its clear applicationsto community education, for example, itcan provide access to important local

�...now that technology has broadenedour options so dramatically, it is possi-ble to reintroduce essential components

of Gaelic oral culture back intocommunities...�

Practical AspectsThe further development envisaged

for the Gael Stream project will involvesome practical considerations. Firstly, thebasic stages of project development suchas meeting goals, implementation anddelivery cannot be carried out withouteffective partnerships, and Scotland’smultimillion pound project for the digiti-zation and dissemination of oral tradi-tion archives, Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o’Riches (The Well of Tradition) provides aready example of how effective partner-ships between various sectors (universi-ties, Gaelic and economic developmentagencies, national heritage organiza-tions, electronic media) can be achieved.

Experience has shown that a ‘top-down’ approach does not yield the bestresults and that the communities andtheir expressed needs must be at the cen-tre of the process. In the case of educa-tional materials – an important compo-nent of any viable plan – professionalsupport from agencies can be vital in

Guest Contribution from Dr. John Shaw, University of Edinburgh

continued on page 6...

PhotofromUniversityofEdinburghwebsite


Obair an Taighe - FEATURED ARTIFACTAn Slabhraidh - THE POT CHAINScottish Gaels coming to Nova Scotia were accustomed to burning peat as fuel in

hearth constructions, vernacular by region. Fireplaces in common use includedthe hanging chimney (similear crochaidh), and hearths with flues built into thegable end of cottages. Perhaps the most commonly depicted fireplace is thatmade simply with a few flat stones in the centre of the black house living area,while the smoke left to find its own way out through the roof, or a hole cut in theroof. Regardless of its setup to deal with smoke, the fire of Highland homes wasusually accompanied by the pot chain, or slabhraidh (pronounced swow-ree), nec-essary for cooking. The slabhraidh served the purpose of suspending pots (pòitean)and griddles (greidealan) over the fire. It was secured to a cross member in the roofbymeans of a rope, or iron bar. Adjusting proximity of cooking utensils to the firewas accomplished by using pot hooks and looping the chain to achieve a desiredtemperature.

Pot hooks were stylized according to the artistic efforts of the individual black-smiths who made them. As a commodity to be purchased, iron was a luxury anda family’s economic status could, perhaps, be estimated by the thickness of theslabhraidh hanging over its hearth. Poorer homes might simply have a pot chainmade from a wooden arrangement. A description of the pot chain over the fireplace is given by Sìleas NicCoinnich in her bookWhirligig Beetles and Tackety Boots(available through Blythswood Bookshops) as posted on www.ambaile.co.uk:

Crochte san t-similear, bha slabhraidh a bha crochte air crann iarainn na b’fhaide shuas san t-similear. Bha dubhan air ceann na slabhraidh agus bhiodhcoire, poitean, greideal no friochdan gan crochadh air an sin. Bha bulasganair na h-uidheaman sin uile airson an crochadh air an dubhan. Bha smachdga chumail air ìre a’ ghoil le bhith a’ cur na poite na b’ àirde air an t-slabhraidh agus a’ cur na slabhraidh fhèin na b’ àirde.

-Used with permission from Am Baile, Highland Council

Hung over the hearth, thepot chain was drapedfrom an iron bar furtherup the chimney. Therewere hooks on the end ofthe chain on which a ket-tle, pots and griddle, orfrying pan were hung.There were handles on allthese implements forhanging on the hooks.The degree of boiling(temperature) was con-trolled by placing the pothigher on the chain, orraising the chain itself. �

The slabhraidh pictured herewas made on-site inMatheson’s Forge by JohnMacDonald (see front cover)recently retired iron workerfrom Highland Village.

materials in the Gaelic performing arts,such as settings to songs or tunes, recon-necting communities with authenticmeans of expression that have containeda central meaning for them over manygenerations. At the same time the materi-als, along with their built-in performanceand interpretive techniques, will providea rich reservoir for expressive arts, allow-ing and encouraging regional Gaelic per-forming artists to broaden both theirrepertoires and their potential audiences.Gael Stream content can form the basisfor a wide spectrum of publications:books, CDs, monographs, Gaelic lessonsand cultural manuals. The collection isdiverse enough to allow a regional publi-cations program that focuses on local-ized materials directed to specific audi-ences with particular requirements. Bytransformation of its files into multi-media formats, Gael Stream is an idealwarehouse from which to disseminatevalidating cultural information for con-cerned communities and the greaterpublic. Educational projects are powerfultools for raising awareness, understand-ing and support from wider audiencesfor Gaelic renewal in Nova Scotia. Peopleprojects have a great capacity to makefriends and allies for Gaelic amongwideraudiences. With continuing directed andthoughtful enhancement, the GaelStream website will be capable of posi-tioning itself strategically within themedia for image promotion and attract-ing the positive support that good pub-licity can bring to well managed initia-tives.

Through the interaction of the newopportunities provided by digital tech-nology with well-disposed institutions,the long-term and unfailing generosity ofactive Gaelic communities, and dedicat-ed individuals, the Gael Stream Project isproviding Gaelic Nova Scotia with anopportunity to maintain and develop itsdistinctive regional culture and the posi-tive power contained within it. For thereasons given above and many more, it’san opportunity that Gaels of the regionmust seize, because, above all, it’s theirown. �

This installment of Mar is léir dhomh fhìn(My Viewpoint) was submitted by Dr. JohnShaw, Senior Lecturer in Scottish Ethnologyat the University of Edinburgh.

Mar is léir dhomh fhìncontinued from page 5...

HighlandVillageLibraryPhoto


His song is made from the perspectiveof an aging bear lamenting that its pen-chant for sheep killing has raised theacrimony of those whowould kill it formisdeeds. The bear’s first personaccount is reminiscent of another songcomposed by Benbecula immigrantAngus Campbell who describes thefinal moments of a wounded bear’s lifein its own words. (See Gaelic Songs inNova Scotia, page 80.)A descendent of Moideart stock,

Allan MacDonald, died in 1903 at theage of 37. His Òrain a’ Mhathain isreported on pages 126 - 127 in the wellknown Smeòrach nan Cnoc ‘s nanGleann, a collection of Gaelic songsmade by Margaree composers. The airto Òrain a’ Mhathain is that of the OldCountry song Gura trom tha mo cheum.The melody (and some verses) of bothsongs were recorded from the singingof Peter MacLean (Peadar mac Bean“Jack” Pheadair), of Rear ChristmasIsland, during the Nòs is Fonn songproject conducted by Highland Villageduring the winter and spring of 2004.

Fonn:

O, gur fann tha mo cheumLeis cho gann a tha ‘n spréidhMa nì mi gluasad ‘nan còirBidh an tòir as mo dhéidh

(Oh, scarcity of livestock has made mystride weak. If I make a move towardsthem, I will be pursued.)

Fhuair mi sanas ‘s an uairGu robh ‘n Dùgh’lach mun cuairtLeis a’ ghunna ghuineach, ùrTogail smùid air feadh nam beann

I got timely notice that MacDougall was inthe vicinity, blasting away with his new,wounding gun.)

‘S ged a tha mi glé aosd’‘S mi air bànadh mu ‘n ghnùisNam faighinn caora fom’spòigDh’fhàgainn brònach a’ rùd’.

(Although I am aged and white about themuzzle, if I got a sheep in my claws, Iwould leave the ram saddened.)

Gu bheil an Dùgh’lach làn foillBidh e daonnan ‘s a’ choill’Thuit mo bhràthair fo làimh‘S ùr a bhàs ann am chuimhn’

(MacDougall is cunning and stalks thewoods. My brother fell to his hand and hisdeath is fresh in my mind.)

Saoil ma théid mi an dràsd’Feadh nan aonaichean àrd’Am faigh mi caora na uanO, gur truagh tha mo chàs

(Do you think if I go now about the uplandpastures that I will get a sheep, or lamb?Oh, my plight is pitiful.)

Mi fo chùram ‘s an àm‘S mi air chùlaibh nam beannGun tig nàmhaid mu ‘n cuairtChuireas luaidhe ‘nam cheann

(I’m in back of the mountains, worried thatan enemy will approach and put a bullet inmy head.)

‘S ma théid mi gu srathNì na béisdean mo bhrathBidh gach sealgair ‘nam dhéidh‘S bheir iad éirig amach

(If I go to the valley, the beasts will betrayme. Every hunter will pursue me, and theywill exact their punishment.)

Far am b’àbhaist dhomh triallFeadh nam pàircean seo shios‘S fheudar fuireach ás an dràsd’No tha ‘m bàs ann `am bheul

( I must now avoid where I usually trav-eled among these fields below, or facedeath.)

Cha n-eil innleachdan bàisAir an cuimhneachadh nàmhNach do chleachdadh ‘s an tìrGus mi fhìn chur an sàs

(There’s not an instrument of death theenemy could think of that wasn’t used formy capture.)

Ann an toiseach mo chuimhn’Mun do dh’fhàg sinn na tuillBhiodh mo mhàthair ag inns’Mu na nithean ud dhuinn

(In my early memory, before we (the cubs)left the dens, my mother would explainthese things to us.)

Ged tha riaghailtean mórA’ cur duais air mo spòigGheobh sinn cìnntinn gun taingFeadh gach gleann agus fròg

(Although the might of law has placed abounty on my paws, we’ll get our ownshare in every glen and dell.)�

From the Nòs is Fonn Collection. Recordedby Shamus MacDonald. Transcribed andtranslated by Seumas Watson.

Seinn fo sgàil nan geugan uaineSONGS FROM THE GREENWOODBy Seumas Watson

In addition to praising the NewWorld’s bounty, natural beauties and thegenteel attributes of neighbours, Gaelic song making in Nova Scotia hasdealt with harsher aspects of rural life, such as the presence of maraudingbears. In this issue An Rubha looks at a bear song composed by Margareebard Allan MacDonald (Ailean Aonghais ‘ic Ailein ‘ic Ruairidh).


On that day, the occasion was marked bysigning of a proclamation between theNova Scotia Department of Tourism andCulture and the Nova Scotia HighlandVillage Society. In declaring HighlandVillage as the newest provincial muse-um, the proclamation reads in part:Therefore we, the undersigned, duly pledge tocontinue to work toward the creationof an understanding of the Scots-Gaelic people through our museum.We promise to preserve and presentthe Gaelic language and culture forthe benefit of all Nova Scotian’s andvisitors. We agree to strive to inspirethe people of our province to know,value and maintain this importantpart of Nova Scotia’s past, presentand future: the culture, traditions,and language of the Scottish Gaels.Contained in this commitment isthe footing on which the tasks,achievements and emergent chal-lenges of the past eight years haverested.

Fast forward to November 24th2007, Highland Village staff andboard members gathered in St.Columba Parish Centre to discussthe ongoing vision and mission ofHighland Village in context to its suc-cesses and future progress. Facilitated byformer board member David Newlands,discussion throughout the day raisedissues and ideas for Highland Village’scontinuing development. Subsequent tothis meeting, it was suggested that AnRubha’s readership be brought up to dateon interpretation progress sinceHighland Village joined the Nova ScotiaMuseum family.

Bringing the Village towards meetingits mandate over the past several yearshas meant engaging in a course of actionspread over various linking fronts.Initiatives described here are not allinclusive, but should serve to give read-ers a background to innovationslaunched to meet mandates set out in theproclamation of 2000.

The way ahead for interpretation atthe Village hasn’t been a randomapproach. An important first step was tocommission a strategic study whichfocused on five key areas of museumdomains: interpretation, site develop-

ment, instituting a seanachas centre, fundraising and marketing. The study wascarried out by Catherine Cole andAssociates, a heritage consulting compa-ny, in conjunction with Gaelic historianDr. Michael Kennedy and architect BrianMacKay-Lyons. Their 114 page docu-ment, completed in 2002, was titled Ar

Dìleab ‘s Ar Dóchas: Our Heritage and OurHope and adopted by the HighlandVillage board as the Highland VillageDevelopment Plan. Professionallyresearched and detailed, this blueprintfor reaching specific objectives servesHighland Village as a foundation docu-ment to the present. In conjunction withthe Cole report, Jim Watson, Manager ofInterpretation, brought forward Sàth ‘sIomairt: A Five Year Action Plan for GaelicDevelopment 2001 - 2006 designed toexpand and deepen the presence ofGaelic language and culture on site.Current programs and related projects toachieve this end, as summarized here,remain informed directionally by thesetwo action plans.

Over the past number of years,approaches to advancing interpretationgoals have become multi-faceted, focus-ing on staff training (language and cul-tural skills, acting, and skit develop-ment), scheduled ceilidhs, milling frolicsand implementation of a daily animationschedule. Other interpretive develop-ments include creation of a staff guided

Candle Light Tour, Gaelic feast day pro-motions, a cloth production program,improved period costuming, relocationof the Malagawatch Church, setup ofCash’s Carding Mill with an explanatoryvideo produced in cooperation with theDepartment of Education. Barvas ware(pottery) making, introduction of a Soay

sheep flock and construction of adry stone dyke typical of theHighlands, have especially compli-mented the black house to goodeffect. Regular interpretive pro-gramming specifically for childrenis also now available weekly, dur-ing school summer break, throughthe Na Làithean Sona/Happy Daysprogram and Spòrs/Gaelic Gamesfor Kids. Event programming ofparticular note is the very success-ful Oidhche Shamhna (Halloween)promotion, which has been wellattended over the past four years.

Through work placement part-nerships with university museumstudies programs, a bi-lingual storyboard of the Gaels history greetsguests in the visitor centre foyer.Along with a growing website, the

presence of Highland Village on theworld wide web is highlighted by theaward winning Céilidh air CheapBreatainn: A Virtual Tour of Gaelic NovaScotia.

In order to better research tangibleand intangible culture representations onsite, the acquisition of supporting libraryand research materials has increasedaccordingly. Purchases and donations ofbooks, manuscripts and recordings havenearly pushed space requirements totheir limits. Significant acquisitionsinclude the following:Nòs is Fonn (Gaelicsong collection recorded from Iona andarea singers),Mar Bu Nòs, (video record-ings of Gaelic speakers from CentralCape Breton and Inverness Countygrouped by dialect), several photo-copied volumes of Mac-Talla, a copies ofthe Fàilte do Cheap Breatainn andAngus Y.Beaton song collections, and the RalphRinzler Gaelic collection, courtesy of theRalph Rinzler Folklife Archives andCollections at the Smithsonian Center forFolklife and Cultural Heritage (See TheMusical Gael on page 22).

This issue’s Naidheachd a’Chlachain is a retrospective that looks at interpretation enhance-ments at Highland Village since becoming a part of the Nova Scotia Museum family on

June 17th, 2000.

Naidheachd a’ Chlachain - The Village NewsSÙILAIR N-AIS - INTERPRETIVE SUCCESSESSeumas Watson, Manager of Interpreter

Our 2007 planning workshop involved both staff and trustees.Clockwise from top left: Kathy MacKenzie (president), Marie

MacSween (secretary/treasurer), Jean MacNeil (animator), Pat Bates(trustee), Hoss MacKenzie (trustee) and Catherine Gillis (animator).


The following song was recorded fromthe singing of Malcolm MacNeil

(”Maxie” Dan Angus Iain Aonghais Eòin),Highland Hill, Victoria County duringthe Nòs is Fonn song collection project atHighland Village in 2004. Maxie is wellknown as a member of the Iona GaelicSingers, advocate for traditional CapeBreton singing and a prominent figure atthe milling table.

Though a good deal of discussion onthe subject took place among informantsduring the project, no reliable conclusionwas reached as to who actually madethis local song. It is generally agreed thatin all likelihood it was composed by aMacNeil, or MacNeils, from the commu-nity of Glen Garry in the rear of BigPond, Cape Breton County. Singers alsofelt that the crew manning the boat werenotable seaman from that community.Mention in the song of Baddeck, a trad-ing village and municipal centre forVictoria County on the Bras ‘Or Lake,may be significant to circumstancesdescribed in the verses.

Informants reported that older record-ings of the composition contain addition-al verses. The song remains popular tothe present among singers from the Ionaand Christmas Island area. An OldCountry setting is also known in CapeBreton, and can be found in Brìgh anÒrain (A Story in Every Song) on page170.

Fa lìll éileadh ò ro,Ho rò hi rìthill ò roFa lìll éileadh ò ro,‘S ochoin mar a dh’fhalbh sinn

Siod far a robh ‘n iùbhrachNuair a chuir sinn rith’ a h-aodachGun seòladh i mar fhaoileagAn aodann na fairge

(That was the sailing ship when we hoistedher canvas. She sailed like a gull on the sur-face of the sea.)

Baddeck a rinn sinn clearanceAir madainn moch Di-ciadaoinBha brìothas ann o ‘n iar-dheasA’ tarraing gruaim gu soirbheas

(We cleared Baddeck early Wednesday morn-ing. A south west breeze was bringingaround a dirty wind.)

Mach aig beul Bhra ‘OrBha uisge mór ‘s ceò air

Bha crodh againn air bòrdMi-dhòigheal ‘ad air fairge

(Heavy seas with fog were running at themouth of the Bras d’Or. We had cattle onboard. They were ill-suited for voyaging.)

‘Dol seachad Rubh’ an t-SalmonARìgh gu robh i gàbhaidh‘S i ‘togail an t-sàileAn àird’ o ‘n ghainmhich

(Going by Salmon Point, Lord it was rough!The ocean was churned up from the very bot-tom.)

‘S e dh’fhàg mo làmhan grànda‘Nan gàgan mar a tha ‘adCho tric ‘s a bhios an sàl annRi ropa làidir cainbeach

(Hemp ropes, so often soaked in sea water, arewhat has made my hands calloused.)

Eachann ‘s e ‘taomadhEalasaid bidh aotramA’giulain móran aodaichMus sgaoil i air fairge

(Hector was bailing. Ealasaid (name of boat?)be spritely carrying full sails, lest she heelsover on the sea.”)

‘Dol seachad Point AconiBha double reefs ‘s a’ foresailBha mainsail air a’ lowaradh‘S an jib cha mhór nach dh’fhalbh I

(Passing Point Aconi, the foresail was doublereefed. The mainsail was lowered and the jibnearly lost.)

Mis’a bha stiùireadh‘S an caiftean ‘gabhail ùrnaigh‘Daididh air a’chùlaibh‘S e ‘cunndais a chuid airgead

(I was steering while the captain prayed.Daddy was aft counting his money.)�

Recorded by Shamus MacDonald.Transcribed and translated by SeumasWatson.

AgÉirighAirÒrain / AnRubhaSONGSELECTION“Fa lìll éileadh ò ro”Collected from Maxie MacNeil

Outreach to the community hasgrown in a variety of ways that includean annual Spring song workshop, coor-dination of Eilean nan Òg, (a two weekcultural apprenticeship for teens, held incooperation with Comhairle na Gàidhlig)and Cainnt is Cànan an annual Gaelic lan-guage learning day for the public. TheVillage has also reached beyond theprovince’s shores by founding a Gaelicinterpretative apprenticeship programwith the Highland Council, Scotland,under the aegis of the M.O.U. betweenthe Highland Region and Nova Scotia.As well, the site regularly hosts Scottishgroups such as the contingency visitingfrom the Isle of Barra in 2006 and educa-tion projectGàidhlig na h-Òigridh teacherswith immersion students from schools inthe Highland Region.

At home, secretariat and advisorysupport for Comhairle na Gàidhlig is ongo-ing, as is consultation with the Srtuth nanGàidheal /Gaelstream committee work-ing to digitize the Cape Breton Gaelicfolklore Collection housed at St. FrancisXavier University. Significantly,Highland Village introduced FinlayMacLeod and his TIP Gaelic immersionmethodology to Nova Scotia in 2003through a one week program designedto train language tutors.

In furthering its educational man-date, the Village has successfully initiat-ed the Seòmbar na Gréine/Summer Roomlecture series, which includes the annualJoe Neil MacNeil Memorial Lecture.Guest speakers in this schedule of highquality evening presentations have beendrawn from Canada, Scotland andIreland. They include Dr. Ken Nilsen,Department of Celtic, St.F.X., Dr. DonMacGillivray, History Department,C.B.U., Dr. John Shaw, the School ofScottish Studies, Lorri MacKinnon, CapeBreton Gaelic song expert, Ontario, Dr.Rob Dunbar, Department of Celtic,University of Aberdeen and Dr. JanetMuller, Pobal, Belfast, Northern Ireland,to name a few. As well as raising its pro-file through public talks, the Village hasbeen a regular host for book launches,and special acknowledgments, oftenworking with CBC and BBC to bringthese events to listening audiences in theprovince and internationally.

While the naidheachd for this issue ofAn Rubha only touches on aspects ofinnovations under the heading of broadthemes; reviewing is a reminder for theVillage to take stock from time to time, asdiscussions ensue on how best to main-tain the momentum of our mission. �

Compiled by Seumas Watson, manager ofinterpretation.

PhotocourtesyofCeltic

ColoursFestivalSociety

Maxie MacNeil


Aig an Teine - The Fireplace

Because kindling was scarce to be foundin some areas, great care was taken toensure that the fire’s hot embers wereproperly smoored (buried in ash) beforethe household retired. Covering the ashoften included a ritual accompanied by aspecial smooring prayer. One suchprayer is reported by Margret Fay Shawin Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist:

Smàlaidh mise an nochd an teineMar a smàladh Muire ‘n t-aingealCó bhios air an fhaire an nochdMuire Gheal ‘s a Mac‘S aingeal geal an dorus an taigheGus an dig an là màireach

I shall smoor the fire tonightAs Mary would smoor the fireWho shall be on the watch tonightBright Mary and her SonAnd a white angel at the door ofthe houseUntil tomorrow comes

It was around the fire that the Gaelsoften with gathered to share their news,songs. A typical evening’s visit by thehearth began with a mundane account-ing of the day’s activities and discussionof the weather. As the night wore on thetalk might turn to genealogy, poetry, thequoting of proverbs, and telling of sto-ries, including those of the supernaturaland tales from the Fenian and UlsterCycles. Singing was also prominent atthe fire-side and during the round ofdaily tasks. Many songs were set in tem-pos suitable for the work at hand such asfulling, churning butter and spinning.

Ho rò gun togainn air ùgan fhathast‘S ù ho rò mun téid mi laighe leatHo rò gun togainn air ùgan fhathast

Beannachd aig a’ làimh a shnìomh e‘S i rinn gnìomh na deagh bhean antaighe- gun urra

Ho rò, I would still shout hùgan,And ù ho rò before I go to laydown with you

Ho rò, I would still shout hùgan,May the hand that spun the yarnbe blessedIt did the excellent housewife’sdeed- traditional spinning song

An t-Ùrlar - The Floor

Flattened earth, and occasionally flag-stones, formed the floor of the house. Thefloor of the byre was set at a lower levelthan the rest of the house, to accommo-date the manure accumulated over thewinter months. Onemethod of creating anew floor involved laying down a freshmixture of mud and clay. After sprin-kling the floor with water, the men spentsome time pressing it down with theirfeet. Following this preliminary prepara-tion, as many sheep as possible werecrowded into the house to tramp thefloor for a day, rendering it hard packed.This floor was called ùrlar casan chaorach(the sheeps’ feet floor).

Homely but efficient, the earthen

blackhouse floor was easy underfoot andwarm compared to rock or concrete. Inthe Outer Hebrides it was a commonpractise to use white sand from the beach(machair) to cover the floor, giving acheerful aspect to an otherwise drab inte-rior. If available, wood was sometimesused as flooring for the sleeping com-partment.

Na Ballachan - The Walls

Double drystone walls form the black-house’s interior and exterior perimeter.These measure around six feet in heightand are set about six feet apart. The spacebetween them is filled with earth andgravel to form an insulating core (glut-lìon) between the double wall. The hall-mark of the Hebridean blackhouse is itslack of eaves, resulting in a wide flatwall-top (tobhta) from which grass, fre-quently grazed upon by goats and sheep,grows.A late nineteenth century descrip-tion of the Hebridean type’s wallspenned by Alexander Carmichael (1832-

Fo na Cabair / UNDER THE RAFTERSAn taigh dubh -THE BLACK HOUSE

Fireplaces (cagailtean) in Hebridean black houses were made of flat rocks and placedcentrally on the floor of the middle room. The smoke of the fire fuelled by dried peats

(fòid mhòineach) rose to exit at will through a hole in the roof (farleus). Cooking over thepeat fire was customarily done in a three-legged iron pot (poit thrì-chasach) or griddle(greideal) hung from a hook on a chain (slabhraidh) that was affixed to a roof timber.

Seumas Watson


1912), collector of the lore appearing inCarmina Gadelica, gives us a plain viewof the dwelling in its natural setting.

In the outer isles the walls of the hous-es are very thick, varying from four toeight feet. A facing of stone is to theinside and another to the outside, thespace between being filled with gravelstones or earth. The corners of the build-ing are rounded and there are no gables,the low walls being level to the ground.The roof is raised from the inner facing ofthe wall, the rest being laid over with turfand green grass where pet sheep orlambs often graze and occasionally -when the building abuts on a bank, as issometimes the case - a courageous cowand calf or even a mare and a foal. Twoor three stone steps project from the wallnear the door, to enable the family toascend and descend when occasionrequires. In suitable summer weather thewomen of the family take possession ofthese grassy wall tops, and sew, spin orknit and look about them, while thehousehold dogs sleep beside them in thesun. The principal object of these stonesteps, however, is to enable the men toget up to thatch and rope the house, lad-ders being short or non-existent.

Historic Scotland’s research of theblackhouse at 42 Arnol in Lewis, pub-lished in The Hebridean Blackhouse, pro-vides us with an example of the methodsof construction used in putting up such abuilding. To begin with, all topsoil wasremoved from the general area of thehouse site, down to a base ground of blueclay. At that point, shallow, stone-linedfurrows connected to the overalldrainage system, were cut into the clay toallow surface water to drain away. Theclay, because it is slippery whenwet, wasthen studded with small stones of a sim-ilar size to create a gripping surface uponwhich the stone walls could be built.

The walls were made with local rocks.Each is erected with two faces, inner andouter. The space between each wall wasfilled with top soil cleared from the site,peat dust and ashes. This mixture wastamped solid as the wall went up.Horseshoes, along with bits of iron wereoften included to ensure the household’sgood luck. Upon completion, the wallhead was sealed tightly with blue clay toprotect the inner core from rain water’seroding effects. Turf was then placedupon the clay capping to prevent it fromdrying out. (Capping the wall dispels themistaken idea that water dripping intothe walls was desirable to prevent draftsThe wall heads were bevelled to preventthe pooling of rain water.) �

Written by Seumas Watson. Fo naCabair/UNDER THE RAFTERS is a regular fea-ture of An Rubha that looks at the buildingsof the Highland Village.

(Top) Interior of Mary Beaton’s black house, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye - ref #2126; (Bottom) croft onthe Isle of Lewis - ref #3373; and (Opposite page) Black house in Kentangaval, Isle of Barra - ref#745. Photos courtesy of the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.


Iùn 16, 1894

NA SÌTHICHEAN

Ré móran ùine, bha ‘n amaideachd ab’fhaoine air a creidinn, feadh

Galldachd agus Gàidhealtachd, mu thim-chioll nan daoine sìthe. Do réir na h-eachdraidh thàinig anuas d’ ar n-ionn-saidh, anns na sgeulachdaibh spleadhacha bha air an aithris umpa air feadh nadùthcha, bha iad ‘nan creutairibh neo-shaoghlta, guanach, eutrom, do-léirsin-neach do shùilibh dhaoine, ach nuair butoil leotha fhéin, a’ sìor ghluasad air an aisagus air an aghaidh a làthair anns gachcuideachd agus amach air gach comhd-hail. Bha aca seo, ma b’fhìor, an còmh-naidh ann an uamhaibh fada fo thalamhann an uaigneas ghleann agus fo gach tol-man uaine.

Chuireadh as an leth gun robh iad a’sealbhachadh àrd-shùbhachas ‘nan tal-lachaibh rìomhach fo thalamh; gun robhaca cuirm shuilbhearra air àmaibhàraidh, le ceòl bu bhinne na aon nìchualas air thalamh; agus gun robh ammaighdeanan ni b’aillidh na uile òigheanan t-saoghail seo, iad do gnàth ri aighearagus ri dannsa gun sgìos gun airtneul;‘na dhéidh seo gu léir, gun robh sìor-fharmad aca ri muinntir an t-saoghailseo: a h-uile togradh aca gu brìgh gachsòlus a dheoghail uatha agus domblas athilgeadh anns gach deoch a bu mhilse.Anns na linnibh dorcha chaidh seachad,

bha gach bàs obann, gach sgiorradh agusdosguinn air a chur as an leth: goidnaoidheana agus gnàthachadh ioma-druitheachd nach fiach aithris. Mar bhaanns gach dùthaich ‘s an àm sin daoinecuilbheartach, seòlta a bha mealladh namuinntir shocharach le ‘n gisreagaibhfaoine, ‘s ann, ma b’fhìor, o ‘n lean-nanaibh sìth a tharmaich iad an t-eòlas abha iad a’ gabhail os làimh gu bhi aca.

Ged a chaidh an saobh-chrabhadhseo, agus iomadh amaideachd eile de ‘nt-seòrsa seo air chùl, ann an tomhas mórair feadh na Gàidhealtachd, agus ged atha ‘n t-iarmad de na tha làthair a’ teic-headh mar a sgaoileas ceò na h-odhicheroimh éirigh na gréineadh, is iomchaidhan nì gum biodh fios aig daoinibhcionnus a thòisich an fhaoineachdamaideach sin. Chìthear seo ann aneachdraidh na dùthcha.

O chionn dà cheud deug bliadhna,agus còrr, chaidh creidimh nan Druidh athilgeadh gu tur bun os ceann. Bha geur-leanmhuinn ghuineach air a dhèanamhorra-san a ghnàthaich e. Bha iad air amfògradh o ionadan còmhnaidh dhaoineagus air an co-éigneachadh gu tèaruin-teachd iarraidh ann an glinn uaigneachann an uamhaibh ùdlaidh nan creag faram faigheadh iad an creideamh aghnàthachadh gu foighdeanach ann andòchas gum faigheadh iad saorsa uair nouaireiginn o ‘n chruaidh-chàs anns arobh iad a’ fulang.

Bha na Lochlannaich ‘s an àm sin ag

aideachadh creidimh nan Druidh, agusfhuair móran de na chaidh fhògradh ásan dùthaich seo dìon fasgadh uatha.Bhrosnaich iad seo na Lochlannaich guéiridh as an leth, agus tha eachdraidh nadùthcha ‘g innseadh dhuinn gur iomadhoidhirp a thug iad, linn an déidh linn,aicheamhail a thoirt amach as an leth. ‘Sann ‘nan aobhar-san a thàinig iad ‘nancabhluichibh a thoirt sgrios le teine ‘s leclaidheamh air gach àite ‘s an robheaglaisean an t-Soisgeal no taigheanmhanach air an suidheachadh. Fad nalinn sin, bha móran de na sagartaibhDruidhneach ‘s an tìr seo aig an robhcòmhnaidh, mar a chaidh a ràdh, annsgach doire agus anns gach fàsachuaigneach. Chum an àireamh a chumailan àirde, bu gnàth leò mnathan agusclann a ghoid air falbh agus gachcothrom a bha ‘nan comas a ghabhailchum an uireasbhaidh a dheanamh suasmar a b’fheàrr a dh’fheudadh iad.

Bha iad innleachdach, seòlta, amfeadh ‘s a bha muinntir na dùthcha choaineolach dall. Thug iad, mar seo, air ant-sluagh a chreidinn gun robh aca fios-rachadh os cionn nàduir agus o ‘n àm sinthòisich eachdraidh nan daoine sìth. Seoainm a bhuineadh gu h-àraidh do sha-gartaibh nan Druidh. B’ e ‘n gnothuch-san reachdan a schocrachadh agus sìthna dùthcha a chumail suas. Chum iadam mòid air tulachaibh uaine, air cùirnliatha agus air beannaibh àrda, agus, anlorg seo, tha móran de na h-àitibh air an

Each issue of AN RUBHA features an excerpt from Jonathan G. MacKinnon’s MAC-TALLA (Echo) with translation. MAC-TALLA, published in Sydney, Nova Scotia, was the longest running Gaelic weekly (ending as a bi-weekly) 1892-1904.MacKinnnon, born in Dunakin in 1869, published his first issue at 22 years of age. He was a life-long promoter of Gaelicand was involved in other publications including Gaelic translations of English literature.


ainmeachadh, gus an là ‘n diugh, Dùn-sìth, Carn-sìth, Sìth-bhruth agus iomadainm eile de ‘n t-seòrsa sin.

An déidh do na Druibhibh seo bhi aircur fodha, smuainich daoin’ aineolach, o‘n eagal a bh’aca rompa, gun robh iadfathast air mhodh neo-shaoghalta achòmhnaidh ‘s na h-ionadaibh sin. Athaobh na cumhachd a bh’air a cur asleth nan daoine sìth, bha e air ain-meachadh, druidheachd a dearbhadhgur ann mar chaidh a ràdh a thòisich aneachdraidh amaideach sin. Tha e gu h-àraid air innseadh mu ‘n timchioll gunrobh àmanna sònraichte ann anns nachrobh e sona teachd an gar d ‘an bruth-sìth, gu h-àraid air oidhche Shamhnadhagus Bhealltuinn. ‘S ann gun teagamh ochleachdadh nan Druidh a thàinig seoanuas, oir b’iad seo an dà chuirm mhóraca-san, agus is dùgh dhuinn a’smuaineachadh gun oidheirpicheadh iaddaoin’ a chumail air falbh an àm nancomhdhailean sin fhads a bha iad fhéina’ cleachdadh nan deas-ghnàth sin. Aguso nach b’urrainn daibh sin a dheanamhas eugmhais teine r’a fhaicinn air na sìth-bhruthaibh sin air co-ainm nan àm sin.

Mar seo, chìthear cionnus a thòisicheachdraigh nan daoine-sìth, do ‘n robhcho liuthad aon a’ toirt creideas gus ochionn ghoirid.ann an iomad ceàrna de‘n rìoghachd. - Leabhar nan Cnoc

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

For the longest time, there was a mostridiculous belief, in the Lowlands and

the Highlands, in the fairies. According tothe history that has come down to us, inthe fabulous stories told about fairiesaround the countryside, they wereunworldly creatures who were malicious,fickle, lightsome and invisible to humaneyes except when they wished to moveabout in the presence of any company andgathering. They dwelt, if true, in cavesdeep under the ground, in remote glensand under every green hillock.

They were attributed with enjoyinglively pastimes in their elegant, subter-ranean halls, celebrating congenial feastson special occasions with sweeter musicthan any heard on earth and that theiryoung women were more beautiful thanall themaidens of this world. It was theircustom to be merry and dance withoutfatigue, or gloom. Having said all that,they were incessantly envious of mortals

to the extent of depriving them of anyhappiness and casting bile in the sweet-est of drinks. In the dark, by-gone ages,fairies were blamed for every suddendeath, accident and misfortune: the theftof infants and many other magical prac-tices not worth mentioning. As therewere persons everywhere at the timewho were cunning in deceiving gulliblefolk who held silly superstitions, theseclaimed that their knowledge was gottenfrom fairy sweethearts.

Although this irrational belief, andmuch else of this sort of foolishness, hasbeen largely abandoned in theHighlands, and, although what remainsis fleeing like the dark of night from thedawn, it is fitting that people beinformed as to how this absurd notionbegan in the first place. The explanationcan be found in the country’s history.

Twelve hundred years ago, or more,the Druid religion was completely reject-ed and its followers made out to bewicked. These people were exiled fromthe dwelling places of men and, in des-peration, forced to seek sanctuary inlonely glens and the dark caves of cliffswhere they could maintain practice oftheir religion anytime at all and free frompersecution in their difficult circum-stances.

At that time, the Norse acknowledgedDruid faith and many exiles receivedshelter from them. These exiles incitedthe Norse to rise up on their behalf, andhistory tells us that the Norse mademany attempts, century after century, to

revenge the Druids. It was for their causethat the Norse came in fleets to bringdestruction by fire and sword to anyplace where churches of the Gospel andmonasteries were located. Throughoutthat era, many Druid priests of this coun-try lived, as was said, in every thicketand wilderness. In order to sustain theirnumber, their custom was to abductwomen and children and take advantageof every opportunity tomake up for theirdeficit as best they could.

The Druids were resourceful andcrafty during the time country-folk wereblindly ignorant. In this way, they madethe people believe they had supernaturalpowers. From that time the belief in thefairies began. This was a term thatapplied especially to Druid priests. Itwas their concern to establish authorityand maintain peace throughout thecountry. They held court on green hill-sides, mounds of grey stone and in thehigh mountains. As result, many of theseplaces bear names to the present such asDùn-sìth, Càrn-sìth, Sìth-bhrugh andnumerous other names of this type.When the Druids had been overcome,ignorant people thought, because theywere afraid of the Druids, that they stilllived in such places through supernatu-ral powers. As a result of the powerattributed to the fairies, this magical abil-ity was called druidheachd, thus proving,as was stated, the historical origin of thisfoolish belief.

It is notably reported of the fairies thatthere were certain times during which itwas unlucky to come near their hillocks,especially on Halloween night and thefirst day of May. Without a doubt thesebeliefs are derived from Druidic prac-tices. Since these were their twomost sig-nificant observances, it is appropriatethat we assume they would make aneffort to keep people away during thetime of these gatherings while they per-formed those ceremonies. - Leabhar nanCnoc�

Edited and translated by Seumas Watsonfrom Mac-Talla, June 16, 1894. An excerptfrom Mac-Talla is regular feature of AnRubha. Illustration of druids from OldEngland: A Pictoral Museum of Regal,Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal andPopular Antiguities by Charles Knight, pub-lished in 1845. Volume 1, page 32.


PhotoAlbum: Sùil air n-Ais / Interpretive Successes

Proclamation~

between the Department of Tourism & Culture of the Province of Nova Scotiaand the Nova Scotia Highland Village Society Iona, Cape Breton Island on theoccasion of an event to celebrate Nova Scotia Highland Village as a new member

of the Nova Scotia Museum family~

Whereas, Nova Scotians believe the history, culture, language and traditions ofthe Scots-Gaelic people are a valuable and living part of the Nova Scotian story;

and, these people have contributed greatly to the formation of ourNova Scotian identity; and,

~Whereas, after due consultation, the people of Cape Breton and its heritage com-munity have indicated their desire to see Cape Breton Island heritage further rep-resented in the Department of Tourism & Culture provincial museum system;

and,~

Whereas, the Board of Governors of the Nova Scotia Museum has recommendedthat Nova Scotia Highland Village become a part of the Nova Scotia Museumfamily and the Province of Nova Scotia has accepted this recommendation;

~Therefore, we, the undersigned, duly pledge to continue to work toward the cre-ation of an understanding of the story of the Scots-Gaelic people through ourmuseum. We promise to continue to preserve and present the Gaelic languageand culture for the benefit of all Nova Scotians and visitors. We agree to strive toinspire the people of our province to Know, value, and maintain this importantpart of Nova Scotia’s past, present and future: the culture, traditions, and lan-

guage of the Scottish Gaels.~

Signed this day at Iona, Cape Breton Island, Nova ScotiaSaturday, June 17th, 2000

J. Bruce MacNeil, President, Nova Scotia Highland Village SocietyThe Honourable Rodney MacDonald, Minister of Tourism and Culture


Opposite page (from top): Then Tourism & Culture Minister Rodney MacDonald and Highland Village president Bruce MacNeil sign the proclamationlaunching a new relationship in the operation of the Highland Village in 2000; Dr. Mike Kennedy and Catherine Cole lead the 2001 strategic planningprocess that laid in place the foundation for interpretive growth; animator/textile consultant Vicki Quimby has helped grow and authenticate textile inter-pretation and representation on site including various natural dyes; animator Catherine Gillis makes barvas ware pottery with youth participants of NaDeugairean (The Teenagers - living history program for youth).

Above (left to right): Representation of Gaelic cultural expression on site has grown significantly over the past few years with music, dance, song, andstorytelling, milling frolics and céilidhs; children make candles in the Làithean Sona (Happy Days - living history program for children.

Below (left to right): Finlay MacLeod of Scotland introduces the Nova Scotia Gaelic community to the TIP (Total Immersion Plus) methodology of lan-guage learning; tradition bearers share Gaelic culture with youth through the innovative Eilean nan Òg program offered in partnership with Comhairle naGàidhlig.


AN SLUAGH

Tha sibh a’ bruidhinn mu dheidhinn slu-agh. Bha fear ann ris an canamaidDiarmaid. Bha sin anns na h-àiteachanseo fhèin. Cha n-eil e fad sam bith bhoShanndra shuas a’ seo. An oidhch’ a bhaseo, bha còmhladh ann aig an taigh. Chachreid mi nach e ag iomairt chairtean abha ‘ad. “O,” thuirt a’ fear seo, “tha midol amach. Tha agam turas a dholamach.”

Cha robh e mar a tha e an diugh. Charuig thu a leas a dhol amach. Tha h-uilerud a h-ann ac’ anns na taighean. Achchaidh e mach. Cha robh e muigh achùin’ a bha coltach. Cha robh e ‘tilleadhastaigh. Ghabh ‘ad an uair sin beagan dochùram dé bha ‘ga chumail.

Uel, bha ‘ad a’ feitheamh, ‘s a’feitheamh, ‘s a’ feitheamh, ‘s a’feitheamh. Cha robh e tighinn, ach anceann ùine mhóir thànaig e staigh. ‘Snuair a thill e dhachaidh, bha e aircholtas gu robh e air tàir-riasladh fhaigh-inn gun chiall, air tàilleabh gu robh e gealleis an eagal.

“Uel,” os’ esan, “tha mi dìreach,” os’esan, “gus a bhith marbh”

“Dé dh’éirigh?”“Uel, nuair a chaidh mi mach,” os’

esan, “chaidh mo thogail,” ors’ esan.“Bha ‘ad a falbh leam,”os’ esan, “àite guàite. Bha mi ‘feuchainn,” os’ esan, “rifhaighinn ghuapa, ach cha ghabhadhsin,” os’ esan, “dèanamh gus an duirt mi‘Dia ‘gam chuideachadh’. ‘S nuair athuirt mi na faclan sin, chaidh chantailrium. “Cad thuige nach duirt thu sin nabu thràithe? Cha bhiodh tu air do thurasa tharraing.”

AN RIOCHD NA MUICEADH

Uair dhe’n t-saoghal, cha chluinn thu sinan diugh na ‘s motha, ach chluinneadh

tu, “Chuir e droch ghuidh’ air an duine.”Bheil thu tuigsinn?

Fear a bhiodh a’ dol a Shudni....bhiodh e ‘traibhealachadh - dh’ éirichsin air an taobh thall seo. Bha e fhéinfalbh còmhla ri nighean. Bhiodh e ‘dol aShudni air ais ‘s air aghaidh. Bha seansago robh dùil aice gum pòsadh e i, ach charobh sgath dheth seo ‘na intinn ‘s an àm.Ach tha ‘n gaol cho làidir, cha n-urrainndhuit an gaol a bhristeadh nuair tha eann. Ach co dhiubh, tha seansa gu robhise ‘faicinn nach robh seans aice air anduin’ fhaighinn.

An oidhch’ a bha seo, bha e ‘dol air a’rathad a Shudni. Air a’ rathad a Shudni,gu dé thàinig ‘na mhiosg ach muc.Chaidh a’ mhuc am miosg an each. O,fhuair e tàir gun chiall mun d’fhuair e ‘nt-each a shocrachadh. Bha ‘n t-each a’gabhail a’ chaothaich. Ach an uair sin,chaidh e rithist air trup ‘s bha an aon rudroimhe rithist. An uair sin dh’ inns’ e donàbuidh.

“O,”os’ esan, a’ fear eile, an nabuidhseo, “théid mise còmhla riut,” os’ esan,“an ath-thrup agus bheir mi leam”, os’esan, “deagh chuip agus,” os’ esan, “chabhi troiblaid againn leis an each. Bheirdhomh-s,” os’ esan, “na reins ‘slaimheisichidh mi an t-each,” os esan.

Co dhiubh, thog iad aisd’ a Shudni ‘sdè rinn e ach cnapan beaga do luaidh’ achuir anns a’ leathar air son gum biodh a’chuip... gum biodh i math ... gun dugadhe deagh ghearradh aisde.

Cha d’fhuair iad ach sios a’ rathad chofada ri Ceann a’ Bheithe nuair a thànaiga’ mhuc a bha seo ‘nan coinneimharithist. Chaidh an t-each mar a bha ereimhid. Bha e ‘feuchainn ris a’chaothach a ghabhail. Rug a’ fear a bhaseo a bha làimheiseachadh an eich ... ruge air a’ chuip ‘s tharraing e strac dhe ‘nchuip air a’ mhuic: cros am peirceall aira’ mhuic. Chum iad romhp’ a Shudni.

Cha robh an còrr mu dheidhinn, ‘s thilliad dhachaidh.

‘S am feasgar a bha seo, thuirt esan risan fheadhainn a bha staigh, r’ a pharan-tan, “Tha mi dol anull air son a choim-head mo nàbuidh..” ‘S an nighean a bhafalbh còmhla ris, bha ise ‘s an taigh seo.Fhruig e thall. Bha iad bruidhinn.

“Dé mar a tha sibh uile?”“Gu math.”“Cà’il Màiri?”Chunnaig e nach robh Màiri mu

chuairt.“O, Màiri, cha n-eil i gu math. Tha i

bochd.”“Bochd?”“Tha. Tha i air a’ lobhta. Shuas air a’

leabaidh. Ma tha toil agad, faodaidh tu‘dol ‘ga coimhead.”

“Nì mise sin an ceann treis, nuair aghabhas mi biadh. Nì mi sin.”

Choisich e suas an staidhre dha ‘n lob-hta. Nuair a chaidh e far a robh i, thar-raing i ‘n t-aodach m’a ceann.

“Dé tha cèarr?” os’ esan.“Dé tha thu mìnigeadh, dé tha ceàrr?

‘S math tha fios agad dè tha ceàrr.“Cha n-eil fios agam-sa.”“Bheil thu ‘son siod fhaicinn?

Coimhead air a’ siod!” os’ ise.“Cha do bhuail sinn thu.”“Bhuail!” os’ ise.Shin agad anis rud eile, choinnich ise

riuth’ ann an riochd na mucadh.

Mìcheal mac Bean Nìllag, Ruairidh, Eòin a’Phlant

DERMOTT AND THE FAIRY HOST

You’re talking about the fairy host. Therewas a fellow we called Dermott. Thatwas in these parts, not far from Sanndraup here. This night there was a crowdgathered at the house. I believe theywereplaying cards. “Oh,” this fellow said,

Naidheachdan air Sìthichean is FarmadStories of Fairies & JealousyRecorded by Seumas Watson

The late Michael R. MacNeil or “Mickey Bean Nìllag”, as he was known, wasborn in 1917 and grew up in the thoroughly Gaelic neighbourhood of the Cùl

Mór (Big Rear) Iona, Victoria County. Nìllag’s premature death left Mickey father-less at the age of four years old. By the age of eight he had assumed the responsibilityof district mail driver with horse and wagon. Mickey remained in the Iona areathroughout his life, earning his bread as farmer, woodsman and deck hand on theGrand Narrows car ferry. He is well remembered in his parish as an inexhaustiblesource of traditional lore and historical anecdote. His specialty was dramatic presen-tation in his community’s expressive, idiomatic “Barra” Gaelic. Provided here aretwo transcripts of the very many stories he commanded without effort.


“I’m going out. I have to go outside.”It wasn’t like it is today. You needn’t

go outdoors. They have all the conven-iences in the house. In any event, he wentoutside. He was out there a seemlylength of time, but wasn’t coming backin. Folks became somewhat concerned asto what was keeping him.

Well, they were waiting, and waiting,and waiting and waiting. He wasn’tcoming back in, but after a long while hearrived back. When he returned home itseemed as though he had received a ter-rible mauling because he was white withfright.

“Well, he said, “I’m almost,” he said,“dead.”

What happened?”“Well, when I went out,” he said, “I

was carried aloft. They tookme,” he said,“from one place to another. I was tryingto get free from them, but couldn’t until Isaid, God help me! When I spoke thosewords, it was said, ‘Why didn’t you saythat earlier? You wouldn’t have beentaken on your journey.’

THE SHAPE SHIFTING LOVER

Once upon a time, you won’t hear thattoday either, but you used to hear, “ Heput a bad curse on the man.” Do youunderstand?

There was a fellow who used to go toSydney. He used to travel. That hap-pened on the other side here (Grand

Narrows side). He was going out with agirl himself. He used to be back and forthto Sydney. In all likelihood she expectedhim to marry her, but he had no suchintention at the time. But love is so pow-erful you can’t break it when it’s present.Anyway, it’s likely she realized she did-n’t have a chance of getting the man.

On this night he was on his way toSydney andwhat came in his midst but apig. The pig went into a horse. Oh, hehad a very difficult time before he got thehorse calmed down. The horse was fren-zied. Then he went on another trip, andthe same thing was waiting for himagain. This time he told a neighbour.

“Oh,” he said, the other fellow, hisneighbour, “I’ll go with you,” he said,“next time. And I’ll take with me,” hesaid, “a good whip. And,” he said, “wewon’t have a problem with the horse.Give me the reins and I’ll handle thehorse,” he said.

Anyway, they took off and what didhe do but put little lumps of lead in theleather so the whip would be good; sothat he would get a good cut out of it.They didn’t get down the road as far asEast Bay when the pig came to meetthem again. The horse reacted as he hadbefore. He was trying to stampede. Thefellow who was handling the reinsgrabbed the whip and drew a slash onthe pig, on the pig’s jaw. Across the pig’sjowl, as we would say. The pig took off.He split her, as we would say. The pig

went. They kept to Sydney. There wasnothing more about it, and they returnedhome. And, oh, this evening he said tothose at home, to his parents, “I’m goingover to see my neighbour.” And the girlhe was going with, she was in this house.He landed over. They were talking.

“How are you all?”“Fine.”“Where’s Mary?” He saw Mary was

absent.“Oh, Mary, she’s not well. She’s sick.”“Sick?”“Yes. She’s upstairs, up in bed. If you

wish you can go see her.”“I’ll do that shortly. When I take a bit

to eat, I’ll do that.”He walked up the stairs to the loft.

When he went to where she was, shepulled the sheet about her head.

“What’s wrong,” he said?“What do you mean, what’s wrong?

It’s well that you know what’s wrong.”“I don’t know.”“Do you see that? Look at that” she

said. “Look where I was struck with thewhip!”

“We didn’t strike you.”“You did,” she said.There’s another instance. She met

them in the form of a pig. �

Recorded, transcribed and translated bySeumas Watson.

MickeyBeanNìllagbyEllisonRobertson.


Such might have been the thoughts ofhundreds of emigrants, children andwomen and men, as they lived out theirlives in new circumstances on CapeBreton Island during the 1800s.

TheMuilich, the people of Mull, livedthrough times of great change beforethey left their homes, their familiar hillsand glens and their kin. The secondlargest of the inner Hebridean Islands,Mull seems small by North Americanstandards, for it is approximately 24miles from north to south and 26 milesfrom east to west. But its many inlets andcoves, however, create a long coastline ofnearly 300 miles.

While it appears that no formal evic-tions had been issued for the areas inhab-ited by the families who came to CapeBreton, the handwriting was on the wall.The new sheep were on their way andthe economy was changing. As well,there was a larger population on Mullthan the land could support.

According to thematerial found in Dr.Jo Currie’s Mull, the Island and its People,published in 2001 in paperback, the saleof his property on the Island of Mull byGeorge William Campbell, the SixthDuke of Argyll, to the Macleans of Colland to Captain Allan MacAskill duringthe second decade of the 1800s was astimulus for emigration. New land-lords...new demands!

The owners of the estates no longerwished as many people on their lands,nor did they respect the work of thetacksmen of the previous years. Thedecline in the harvesting of kelp, the dif-ficulty of employment, the lack of inter-est in the people of the island by the newowners, as compared to the previousmembers of the Argyll Family, and theknown opportunity for acquiring one’sown land in Nova Scotia certainlyencouraged families long settled onMullto depart.

In the oral tradition passed downthrough the years, many of the emigrantschose to leave before they would be

forced to go. They were aware of thechanges which had slowly developedafter 1745 and had heard of evictions inother parts of Scotland

As early as 1802, it appears,Pattersons(or Paterson as they alsospelled their name) arrived inBoularderie - three generations of them,with John Sr. and John Jr. and Neil (just ababy) settled near the location of thepresent Seal Island Bridge. They werefollowed by at least three other families,perhaps old neighbours or distant kin-folks, MacDonalds, MacNeils andBeatons. John Beaton’s tombstone in the

MacDonald lived where the Martins set-tled afterwards. Alexander MacQuarrie,one of many incoming people of thatname from Ulva, Isle of Mull, with hiswife Ann MacPhail, was followed sever-al years later (maybe 1824) by relatives ofhis wife, the Archibald MacPhail family.In the same area, as well, AlexanderMacQueen and Angus MacDonald areearly settlers, perhaps having been firston PEI. There were so manyMuilich thatthe inlet came to be called Mull Cove fora time. It is now known as Orangedale.

Not far away, perhaps in 1830, a fami-ly of MacKinnons settled at the Rear ofWhycocomagh at what is now Blue’sMills. A bit earlier, about 1820, a largenumber of other former Mull residentsfound land along the broad expanse ofthe River Inhabitants meadows - severalMacColl brothers and MacDonalds andBuchanans and a Campbell family.

Relatives of the MacColls and theBuchanans had found a considerabletract of ungranted land on the upperreaches of the Southeast Mabou River.Eventually, the settlement would cometo be known as Mull River in tribute tothe former home.

To Upper Southeast Mabou, fromAchnacroish, not far from Duart Castle,came two brothers, Peter and ParlanMcFarlane (who preferred the spellingof their name as MacPharlain) and theirwives Sarah Buchanan and AnnCampbell respectively. Ann Campbell’sbrotherAllan, his wifeMaryMacCallum,her sister Catherine Campbell, and herhusband John Livingstone took up prop-erties near one another. At one time inthe 1840s, there were four JohnLivingstones in the area - John Dubh Sr,John Dubh Jr and Red John Sr. and RedJohn Jr.

Allan Campbell (known as “Allan theMinister” for his ability to read the Biblein Gaelic and English and pray exten-sively at religious services in houses inthe area) operated a small store at hishouse, the first outlet of that sort in the

�...the people of Mull, lived throughtimes of great change before they lefttheir homes, their familiar hills and

glens and their kin...�Man of War graveyard, along the BigBras d’Or, states he was born on Mull in1815.

Of several families from Mull whowent to Prince Edward Island at thesame time as the Pattersons came toCape Breton, at least one, theLivingstones of SkyeMountain eventual-ly crossed over to Inverness Countywhere they found relatives living. Herethey would be able to acquire titles totheir own land.

Amajor immigration occurred in 1820(with possibly some arriving in 1819)when a number of families from the for-merArgyll estate landed on Cape Breton.Tradition carries the memory that theycame ashore in Judique and stayed withrelatives there (possibly MacDougalls?)until they found places to live.

Some found land available at an inleton the Bras d’Or Lake. At last, they couldown land and not be subject to thewhims of absentee landlords. Duncan

An t-EileanMuileachTHE ISLE OFMULLBy James O. St.ClairIn my eyes of memory, I see the mountains of MullIn my ears of memory, I hear the waves on the shoreMy feet recall the walks through the deep glensIn the distance are the sounds of new sheep advancingFive weeks of sailing across the miles of the AtlanticSeparate us now and forever from An t-Eilean Muileach


area. The Campbells had lived in Tengain the District of Torosay prior to emigra-tion. Living in Mull River, they wereclose neighbours to the family ofArchibald MacDonald and sons whoarrived in the area in 1824.

A small meadow at the edge of MullRiver still carries the name MacCallumin memory of the people of that namewho arrived about 1820 and who latermoved on to other parts of Nova Scotia.In the middle of a settlement, where peo-ple from Skye and North Uist were dom-inant, just outside of Whycocomagh, afamily of MacKinnons from Mull livedon a hillside and intermarried with otherMull families for two generations.

Families of MacDougallsfrom Mull lived in East LakeAinslie and near the site of theMacLean Church inStewartdale, Whycocomagh.Some of them had lived atAchnacroish, Isle of Mull. Theywere neighbours of severalfamilies of MacQuarries and atleast of one MacLean family atNorth Lake Ainslie who wereMull people. On the locationwhere the MacDonald HouseMuseum now is, AlexanderMacDonald, a weaver, and hisfamily settled after their arrivalin the early 1820s.

So many stories, so manytales of crossing the ocean andso many accounts of relativeswho had gone to PrinceEdward Island or to Australia.Some families stayed in CapeBreton, and some went on towhat were hoped to be greenerpastures, and places of less snow andfrost. Some like John Hunter, a memberof the group who arrived in Cape Bretonin 1820, are recalled by the geographicalnames still in use - Hunter’s Mountain inVictoria County, Livingstone Mountain,Middle River, MacColl Brook andMacFarlane Woods.

Probably most of the Mull peoplewere Presbyterian with a few beingBaptist. All were Gaelic speakers. Someof them could read in Gaelic and a fewhad some English as did ParlanMacPharlain, who (according to tradi-tion) taught his neighbour, PatrickDelhanty, an Irish immigrant, how toread his deeds and his accounts kept bylocal merchants which were expressedentirely in English.

Some of the new arrivals in CapeBreton may well have known the songcomposed by Mary MacDougall(McLucais) and known as Mary

MacDonald after her marriage to NeilMacdonald of the Ross of Mull.“Leanabh an Aigh,” sung widely todayat Christmas time in Cape Breton to thetune of Bunessan, is named for a Mullcommunity. It was certainly known byone of the late emigrants from Mull,Angus MacDonald, “Angus theShepherd.” He took a leave from hiswork in 1862 or 1863 as a professionalshepherd on one of the estates to come toCape Breton to see his parents who hademigrated to Skye Mountain a decade orso earlier. Also a seller of religious books,mostly sermons and tracts, he remainedin Cape Breton after he married AlexisMacDonald of a North Uist family,

although he did return to Mull for a brieftime to settle his affairs. Renowned as aGaelic singer, he was a noted precentorof the psalms sung at the MacLeanChurch in Stewartdale and kept therecords of the congregation in English.

In contrast to their neighbours inmany Cape Breton communities, whohad endured harsher treatment fromlandlords on Skye and South Uist, mostof the Muilich who came to Cape Bretonhad apparently decided on their own todepart as they sensed the changes in theeconomy and the attitudes of the ownersof the estates while enduring increasingrent and diminishing revenue. In theopinion of Jo Currie, the author of Mull,the Island and Its People, some of the set-tlers who came from Mull were descen-dants of tacksmen and sometimes werepeople of some education. Their ances-tors had been brought to Mull by theCampbells of Argyll as tenants a century

ormore earlier. But the times and the atti-tudes and the very names of the landowners changed.

It is not known at this time whetheror not any of the people from Mull whowere actually evicted in the 1840s, l850sand l860s ever came to Cape Breton. Buttheir stories came to be known asaccounts of cruelty spread by word ofmouth and in newspapers and song.

The people of Mull, as was true ofthose of so many of the isles and of thehighland regions, were unwilling partic-ipants in the effects of the slow funda-mental change in the culture and theeconomy of their region - a changewhichhad started long before Culloden as has

been argued by AllanMacinnes and Eric Richardsin their writings on theHighland Clearances.

In this short account, cer-tainly just the beginning of amore thorough look at immi-grants from one of theHebridean islands, it is myintention to gather in oneplace some of the names ofthis group of people whoarrived in Cape Bretonbetween 1802 and 1830. Itwould appear that the majori-ty settled in the Mull River-Glencoe area and around theBras d’Or Lake in the WestBay-River Inhabitants region,on the shores of Lake Ainslieand on Boularderie Island. Inthe nearly two centuries sincetheir arrival, their childrenand grandchildren havebecome intertwined in the

diverse fabric of Cape Breton people. Aswell, many of their descendants are nowpart of the diaspora of Cape Bretonersliving across the continent of NorthAmerica. It is hoped that perhaps somewho read this short account will beinspired to add accounts of their familiesto the growing collection of material atthe Highland Village.

For most, the sights and sounds of“Mull of the Cool Mountains” are nowno longer recalled or even much valued.It is important, however, to try to recordthe names and some of the experiencesof the immigrants who left so muchbehind, but also brought their courageand their culture and language to theseshores. �

Jim St.Clair is an historian living in MullRiver, Inverness County.


The dyestuffs were boiled over the fire,then the wool added and simmered.Tannins from tree bark or vinegar or saltwere used as mordants to set the colors.In fishing communities, nets were dyedevery spring with boiled spruce andalder barks to darken and preserve them.Afterwards, the women would soaktheir rags and yarns in the vat to get areddish brown dye. Synthetic Diamonddyes were in general use by the last halfof the 19th century and rapidly replacedmany of the natural colors.

Materials continued to be in shortsupply for many Cape Breton familiesthroughout the 19th century and beyond.They were sometimes forced to go toextraordinary lengths to obtain enoughfibre to complete a rug. Notable exam-ples of this were seen in the early 20thcentury Acadian areas of Cape Bretonwhere worn-out knitted woolen goodssuch as stockings and long underwearwere unraveled, cut up into small pieces,processed in a butter churn, then teased,carded, and re-spun into yarn to be dyedand used once again – this time in ahooked rug.

Even the burlap fibres themselveswere used. Cape Breton’s Magazinedescribes a rug hooked by MaisieMorrison of Wreck Cove in the 1930’smade entirely of burlap. She and hermother pulled the threads out of burlapbags, dyed them in shades of green,brown and pinkish off-white, then plied5 similar-colored strands together. Shehooked these fibres through 2 flat 100-pound grain sacks sewn end-to-end andsewn onto a wooden frame her fathermade.

In other instances, noted in theCheticamp area, women would washburlap bags, then take them apart strandby strand, and dye them. They wouldnext twist 3 strands together with a spin-ning wheel, knotting them on each end.(The knots would be cut off during thehooking process). These strands wereballed up and used as wool yarn wouldhave been used.Additionally, at least one

Acadian family was recorded as havingwashed burlap sacks, cut them into tinypieces, churned them in a butter churn,then carded, spun, dyed and hookedmats with the resulting fibres. The rugsincorporating burlap were a bit morerough in texture than the wool ones, butcould still be quite beautiful.

Rug hooking was popular in bothAcadian and Gaelic communities. Whenwool supplies became short in the fish-ing village of Cheticamp (where manyrugs were made entirely from woolyarn), more was purchased from the“Scots” in North East Margaree. Thewool was bought in its raw state, thenwomen would gather together to pickand card the wool. Later, when womencould send their wool to be carded atmills, many sent theirs to the Hart’s Millin North East Margaree, a place knownfor its quality work. The rolls were thenspun, often bywomenwho had gatheredto work together, then skeined, dyed andwound into balls. And in the homes ofthe Gaels, working on a rug was often anoccasion for singing Gaelic songs, espe-cially if two or more women were work-ing together.

Rug hooking was often done in thewinter when the weather preventedmuch of the usual outdoor work,although some was also done on longsummer evenings after the outsidechores were finished. Usually the task ofthe women of the household, rug hook-ing was also a past-time for some men aswell. Sailors stuck for long periods at seawould make mats, but even young menat home would help work on the rugs.And sometimes children would be calledupon to help cut rags or skein wool.

Designs ranged from the deceptivelysimple “hit and miss” random-stripedmats to the more intricate florals. In theearly years, patterns were taken frommotifs found about the home such pat-terns from china or outlined shells orcups. And it was more than one familyhousecat that was held down on theburlap while someone traced its outline

onto the fabric.Geometric designs were probably the

earliest designs, and as time went onwere usually the ones to be used bybeginners. Straight lines could be madeby following the rows of warp and weftin the burlap. From there, diagonals,blocks, diamonds, even circles could berepeated in innumerable combinations tocreate pleasing designs, offering a chal-lenge to even the more skilled rug hook-ers. Later, quilting patterns such as LogCabin or Wedding Ring often appearedon the face of a rug.

Floral patterns were quickly adaptedto rugs as well. One of the earliest floraldesigns was that of a basket with flowers– a traditional French textile pattern hun-dreds of years old. One of the oldest rugsin the Canadian Museum ofCivilization’s rug collection is a largehooked rug with this motif. Leaves,twigs, branches, and, later, scrolls weresometimes used as borders to enhance afloral design, and the better yarns werenow saved for hooking detailed flowers.Other favorite local patterns includedthistles, fleur de lis, and shamrocks tosymbolize Scottish, French and Irish cul-tures.

There was also a hierarchy of rugdesigns. Rugs with geometric patternswere the “everyday”mats of the kitchensand well-used areas, whereas floralswere saved for the parlors or sometimesrolled up and tucked away to be unrolledquickly when esteemed guests were seenarriving. Good rugs were even lent outfrom time to time to be used elsewherefor special occasions. The best wool ragsand wool yarns were used in the floralrugs, but the kitchenmats could bemadeof any combination of mixedwool or cot-ton rags or yarns.

Although geometric and floraldesigns dominated the earliest designs,they were followed by images of animalsand by the turn of the 20th century,scenes of life and landscapes. Finallycame mottos and commemorative pat-terns. As time went on, some rug makers

Dèante le làimhRUGHOOKING INCAPE BRETON - PART IIVicki Quimby

If hand-spun yarn was to be used for rug hooking, it was usually white and need-ed to be dyed a variety of colours. Cloth rags were sometimes over-dyed as well.Natural dyes were used in the early years and were either purchased (indigo, mad-der, logwood) or made at home from goldenrod, butternut, maplebark, onion skins,crotal (lichens), etc.


became less confident that they couldmake their own good designs. Theybegan relying on ready-made patternsrather than using their own freehanddesigns. Although these patterns helpedto strengthen the popularity of rug hook-ing – already fading in some areas by thelate 1800’s – it could be argued that theuse of these patterns didhave the effect of diminish-ing creativity in the laterhooked mats. Today, thefavored rugs are often theones that were hand-drawnof the maker’s own design.

The first rug patternswere available in theUnited States after the CivilWar in the 1860’s andEdward Sands Frost inMaine became the bestknown producer in theeastern States in the 1870’s.But patterns were alsomade in Nova Scotia, andthere were three main sup-pliers of stamped patternsto local rug hookers. InYarmouth, a partnership oftwomen in 1879 – Perry and Grantham –sold mat bottoms, none of which survivetoday. By 1892, John E. Garrett estab-lished his mat printing business in NewGlasgow. Over 400 designs were eventu-ally produced through this mail orderbusiness and by the turn of the century,stamped patterns were being soldthrough T. Eaton & Co., the Hudson’sBay Company and other large retailers inCanada, the United States and Britain.The business prospered until World WarII, but struggled thereafter until theywent out of business in 1974.A thirdmailorder company was Wells andRichardson of Montreal who soldDiamond Dyes.

As a way of promoting these dyes –over 100 colors for dyeing either wool orcotton – they published stamped pat-terns and catalogs for at least two yearsin 1899 and 1900.All of these commercial patterns didhave a part in spreading new designideas to even the most remote regions.

Over the years thousands of CapeBreton hooked rugs – including many ofour oldest and most unique – have madetheir way to the urban areas of Canadaand the United States. By the 1920’s ped-lars began traveling to all areas of theisland, marketing goods never easilyavailable to rural residents before. Storiesabound of women gladly exchangingtheir hookedmats for a piece of linoleumor selling them for 25 cents apiece. One

Although known as a kind person,she was also a demanding taskmasterwho was known to make women takeout sections she did not approve of, re-dye and re-hook them. They were paidonly by the square foot of finished prod-uct, so these alterations would have beenat their own expense. Although she paid

little for the rugs, and therug hookers eventuallyrebelled and formed theirown co-operatives, she wasresponsible for the founda-tions of a high qualityproduct still in demandtoday.

There has been an evo-lution in Cape Bretonhooked rugs, from mathooking simply out of adesire for a warm floorcovering to producingfunctional works of art,with some makers ulti-mately engaging in com-mercial enterprise. Thecraft reached the height ofits popularity around theSecond World War, after

which tastes became more “modern” asfloor coverings such as tile, linoleum andwall-to-wall carpeting were becomingeasily available and more affordable.Rug hooking was seen by some as a partof the struggles of the past and old fash-ioned. However, especially in many ofthe homes of the pioneer Gaels’ descen-dants, women continued making theirbratan ùrlair. These rugs are receivingrenewed appreciation today as rug hook-ing experiences another resurgence.

Rug hooking, though, has changedforever. As the author of the bookCollecting Hooked Rugs lamented in1927, “Soon there will be no morewomen spinning yarn and weavinghomespun as part of their daily life, nomore workers trained from girlhood inthe technique of hooking rugs. Thehooked rugs of the future will not bemade to the tune of Gaelic folk-songs orthe whir of the spinning-wheel, but theirmakers can at least imitate the conscien-tious artistry of the hooked-rug makersof Cape Breton.” �

By Vicki Quimby, Highland Village textileconsultant and animator.

Déante le làimh (handmade) is a regularfeature of An Rubha that explores variousaspects of textiles and craft production inGaelic Nova Scotia.

Cheticamp woman exchanged sevenrugs, each 10 square feet in area, for acheap winter coat. Another, knowing lit-tle English, when asked how much shewanted for a particularly beautiful andfavorite rug, answered “Nothing.” Shemeant to convey that she didn’t want tosell it, but the pedlar thanked her and

went off with it. When these mats were,in turn, sold to dealers in the States orUpper Canada, the demand for themgrew. Soon, pedlars and dealers began toarrive with truckloads of linoleum,sometimes buying every rug in the housefor a pittance, or exchanging them forlinoleum. This continued from the 1920’sto the 1940’s and although the rug mak-ers did not receive much in return fortheir efforts, this trade was responsiblefor reviving an interest in hooked rugs inmore affluent areas.

It was because of this demand forrugs that a craft industry developed onCape Breton Island. Much as Sir WilfredGrenfell (in Newfoundland andLabrador) sought to fund his medicalmissions by establishing an “industry”out of local rug hooking in 1913, a simi-lar effort to benefit rural women wasorganized in the Cheticamp area in the1920’s. Lilian Burke, an artist and afriend of Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell,hoped to create a home-craft industry bytaking the natural rug-making talents ofthe Acadian community and producingfinely crafted hooked rugs for a NewYork clientele. With this, she hoped toprovide income and employment for thefamilies of the area. The local designswere thrown out and substituted withpatterns of her own making. The colorsand designs were carefully considered toappeal to the American market, and sheclosely controlled their execution.

Rag rug made by Catherine “Ceit Bheag ni’n Aonghas Iain” Rankin ofMabou Coal Mines in the 1920’s. Photo by Pauline MacLean.


copy the screech of all sorts of wild cats. Quitea character, indeed, and was known to prac-tice his presenting directly into the kitchenoven! He took a second wife late in his yearsnamed Nora (MacQueen) Matheson. Theykept separate homes, but she helped him getby at his own place.Here’s one more story that’s short:One night there was a great storm. The

next day my grampy was visiting Dan andsaid:“Did you hear the storm last night Dan?”“Yes indeed I did,” he says.“You didn’t sleep through it then?”

Grampy says.“No indeed,” says Dan. “One squall

would turn me over, and the next one wouldroll me back.”

Còta Mór EalasaidElizabeth’s Great CoatRuidhle Gun Urra/Traditonal

Tha còta mór Ealasaid air Anna nighean anfhìdhleirTha còta mór Ealasaid air Anna ‘dol aphòsadhTha còta mór Ealasaid air Anna nighean anfhìdhleirTha ribeannan air Ealasaid, an nìneag a ‘sbòidhche

Air Iseabal, air Ealasaid, air Anna nigheanan fhìdhleirAir Iseabal, air Ealasaid, air Anna ‘dol aphòsadhAir Iseabal, air Ealasaid, air Anna nigheanan fhìdhleirTha còta mór Ealasaid air Anna ‘dol aphòsadh

Anna the fiddler’s daughter is wearingElizabeth’s great coatElizabeth’s great coat is on Anna who isgoing to marry

This issue of An Rubha looks at a tradi-tional reel notation, which we’ve

only been able to find reported in theTraditional Fiddle Music of Cape Breton byKate Dunlay and D. L Reich contained inthe MacLean Collection at HighlandVillage. Commonly played by CapeBreton fiddlers, a mouth tune (port á beul)setting is reported here noted from thesinging of the late “Montana” DanMorrison (Dòmhnall mac Aonghais Tùisg)of Rear Little River, Victoria County. Thefollowing information on “Montana”Dan was provided in an email fromShannon MacDonald and her relativeSadie Mae MacInnis (Sadie MhurchaidhDhòmhnaill Bhig), nee MacDonald, ofFrench River, Victoria County:

Dan Morrison was born 1882 at home inRear Little River, where he was also raised.The house was next door to Sadie MaeMacInnis’ childhood home. The house burnedin the summer of 1935. Dan was one of foursiblings: Maggie, Coinneach (Kenny), andChristie. His father was Angus ‘Tusk’Morrison (not sure if tusk is Gaelic or whereit came from, it’s said with a long eu sound).His mother was Christie (MacDonald).Dan was only ever called Dan before

going away to work in the wilds of Montana.‘Montana’ Dan he became when he returnedto the North Shore the first time in 1930/31.He soon left for Montana again, where hemarried, and had a daughter. His daughterstill lives in the States and is in her 70’s; hername may also be Christie. However, Danseparated from his family and returned onceagain to the North Shore to stay. He thenlived in a little house near Grampy’s, TommyMacDonald (Tòmaidh Peigi Thòmais) on theNorth Shore. So they were great friends. Hislittle house is still standing.My father walked past Dan’s place to get

to school, and remembers hearing from Danthe story of his incredible journey from theNorth Shore to Montana, which involvedevery conceivable form of transportation.Dan had a thunderous voice and took tosinging any time of the day. He could beheard up and down the Shore. Having passedmanys a night alone in a cabin in Montana,hearing the big cats all around, Dan could

AnGàidheal PortmhorTHEMUSICALGAELPauline MacLean


Montana Dan signing Gaelic Songs at HarvardUniversity, Cambridge, Mass.

MusicalnotationbyM

arionMacLeod.

PhotocourtesyofShannonMacDonald.

Còta Mór


Cape Breton lost another great treasure thisyear. Michael Anthony MacLean was a

family man, a fiddler, and a friend. He passedaway at the age of 95, leaving a gap in the heartsof many, and in the fabric of our Island’s cul-ture. Jenna MacNeil visited with MichaelAnthony inMay 2006 and shares these memo-ries of a man missed by many.

It was a warm spring day, everythinggreen and bright; a perfect day to sit inthe sun porch and visit with MichaelAnthony MacLean. He spent hours rock-ing back and forth, sharing stories abouthis life, his family, his music, and aboutWashabuck through the years. As welooked across St.Patrick’s Channel, hetalked of the ferries and motorboats thatonce kept the wharf at MacKay’s Pointbusy with travelers. He bemoaned howmuch of the shoreline had eroded. And

he recalled the stories associated withBeinn Bhreagh.

“This is the place (AlexanderGraham) Bell wanted to buy first, whenhe came to Cape Breton. My grandfatherwas just after buying it, and he said, ‘No,thank you’.”

Michael Anthony’s grandfather, PeterF., was born in Nova Scotia in 1826, theson of Barra immigrants. A love of music– and the talent to perform it – made thejourney with the MacLeans. When theshipAnn sailed from Barra in 1817, it car-ried Lachlan MacLean – Peter’s grandfa-ther – his family, and their few materialpossessions, including a set of bagpipespurchased when the ship called atTobermory, Isle of Mull.

Michael Anthony and his family did-n’t continue the piping tradition, but hisfather, Vincent, learned to play the fiddleand passed that on to his twelve chil-dren.

“He had an old fid-dle here and every nightafter work, he wouldtake out his old fiddleand he’d play aboutfour or five tunes. He’dplay those tunes everyevening. That gave us the start,” MichaelAnthony told me. He recalled his broth-ers & sisters fighting over the one fiddleat home, finally purchasing a second onewhen Michael Anthony was in his mid-teens. He said it came at a good time.

“It was only in the house here perhapsa couple of weeks, three weeks, when thethrashing mill came through to the dif-ferent barns and who comes along but a[Jimmie] MacInnis fellow fromInverness. He was one of sevenMacInnis’ that could play the violin. Soby jingo, we had music in every house inWashabuck while the thrashing machinewas here. He liked the fiddle so darnmuch and he played it and there was alittle shindig in every house. Talk about apicnic we had!”

Michael Anthony spent a lot of timethat day telling me about all the houseparties that used to go on in Washabuck.He remembered them becoming reallypopular shortly after that thrashing sea-son, mostly because he and his brotherswere starting to get a reputation forbeing able to provide the music.

“They’d have little house gatherings,you know, and you felt at ease to go inand play because we knew them. Theradio and the television weren’t aroundat that time, so the music, if you couldmake a squeak at all, they’d dance.Whenthere’d be a little house party, a racketgoing on, we’d get a call to go. I remem-ber of Mother telling about how theycame here, somebody came here forPeter F. to go play at a housewarming upat Billy MacKenzie’s. They’d built thehouse new and they had a party andthere was no music, nobody around. Sothey landed down here for Peter F. to goup. He was only just after learning a few,he had three or four tunes and he wentthere and he played all night and theydanced all night to the three or fourtunes. They had a hell of a good time!”

Michael Anthony was quick to talk ofthe talents of other musicians. He toldme stories about Red Rory MacLean andhis family, of spending time with DanMacKinnon’s family at Cain’s Mountain,and of the days spent swapping tuneswith the Gillis Point MacLeans and theMacKenzies of Washabuck Bridge. Somany of his great characteristics – hishumility, his generosity, his passion formusic, friends and family – shonethrough as he told these tales of happytimes spent growing up in and aroundWashabuck.

Some of the people Michael Anthonyplayed with growing up are still sharingtheir music with the world, but he wasone of the last ‘old time’ Washabuckplayers, and his loss to the musical tradi-tion is almost as great as his loss to hisfamily and his community. MichaelAnthony learned from his father, a self-taught musician who grew up just onegeneration away from Barra, surroundedby the Gaelic language night and day.The music that existed in that time is notthe same as the music that exists today,even if the notes are the same and thetiming is still good for the dancer.

Sitting in his sun porch that springday, on the same farm his grandfatherbought in the 1800s, Michael Anthonytold me he saw a change in the way themusic was passed down when electricitycame to Washabuck in the early 1950s.He talked about families getting smaller,fewer people gathering for house parties,and the reliance on ‘canned music’ overfiddles. But he beamed with pride as hetalked about his grandchildren taking upthe instruments again, learning fromwhat he called “other fiddlers that arebetter than I am.”

InmemoryMICHAEL ANTHONY MACLEANBy Jenna MacNeil


Michael Anthony with granddaughters(L-R) Jill, Marcia & Susan

Michael Anthony with grandchildrenSusan and Calum

PhotoscourtesyofVinceM

acLean.


Dr. Branigan gave a fascinating talk tomy Vernacular Architecture class at

Cape Breton University a number of yearsago about the archaeological work he wasjust commencing on the remains of Blackhouses on the Isle of Barra. From Clan toClearance: History and Archaeology on theIsle of Barra c. 850-1850 AD is a fascinat-ing, comprehensive book, the result ofhis many years of fieldwork examiningthe remains of buildings and otherarchaeological artifacts on Barra, amidstthe lands that once formed the estate ofMacNeil of Barra. As Branigan says, “Itwas to try and trace the story of humanoccupation of the islands that in 1988 agroup of archaeologists at the Universityof Sheffield decided to launch a pro-gramme of archaeological research onSouth Uist, Barra and adjacent islands.”To that end, he and his team ofresearchers recorded almost 200 sites andmonuments and conductedmore than 70excavations on the Isle of Barra, and itsadjacent isles, to try to understand thesettlement pattern over one thousandyears. It’s a daunting task that took overseventeen years and involved 250 peopleat a cost of more than 300,000 pounds.

The description of the extensive,detailed fieldwork conducted is themajor strength of the work. The work isdivided into nine chapters and some aremore interesting than others.After a historical chapter bringing thereader from the Norsemen to Napoleon,in the years 871 to 1820, the authordelves into his real interest: the archaeo-logical remains in Barra that provideinsights into the kinds of buildings andfoodways of the early Gaels of thisisland. Castles, towers, estate houses,churches, chapels, cemeteries, black-houses, byres, drying sheds, haystackbases, clearance cairns, cultivation plots,land boundaries, pens and enclosures,shielings, huts, peat dryers, kelp ovensand fish traps are all explored in greatdetail. The team has even discoveredsome artifacts that have defied catego-rization and have puzzled the academicresearchers. These are small stone blocks,or boulders, arranged in the shape ofboats “though some have a pointedprow and flat stern and others are point-ed at both ends. The interior is usually

flat, never hollowed and only rarelyslightly mounded. They range in sizefrom 2.5 m to 11 m in length. But 75% ofthem are between 4 m and 8m.”Withoutknowing the purpose and function ofthese artifacts, Brannigan speculates they“represent a sequence of ritual eventsthat took place over decades or centuries.Such rituals might have been concerned,for example, with the erection of memo-rials for those who died at sea.” Theauthor admits that this is speculation forhe was not able to find analogues forthese peculiar human-made artifactsfound along the coastlines.

Other chapters deal with the Historyand Archaeology of a CroftingTownship, Pottery usage in a CroftingCommunity, The Rise and fall of theKelping Industry in theWestern Isles, theClearances in Barra and Emigration fromBarra to British North America, 1770-1850. This is truly a remarkable book andone that anyone interested in HighlandGaelic culture should read. The detailedfieldwork into the extant archeologicalmaterial culture is indeed a strength andalso a weakness. I was fascinated withsome chapters (the ones dealing withbuildings and the one on emigration tothe New World) and I thoroughly readevery line. I suspect that some readerswill find some of the fieldwork datadescription tedious, particularly thechapters that read like archaeologicalreports providing lists of artifacts foundin the particular sites.

Despite this cautionary note for thegeneral reader, the various appendicesattached to the main book will fascinateCape Bretoners and others interested intheir Gaelic ancestors and will be of par-ticular interest to genealogists. The last69 pages of the book are a treasure trovefor any Cape Bretoners of Barra ancestrywho are trying to research aspects oftheir family tree. Branigan provides a listof the various MacNeils who petitionedfor land in Cape Bretton [sic] between1807 and 1826.While Braningan is uncer-tain that these petitioners came fromBarra, he strongly suspects their roots liein Barra and he lists them here with the“hope and expectation that furthergenealogical research might identifytheir origins.” For example, he lists a Neil

“Ban” MacNeil as the first petitioner forland at Cooper’s Pond in 1807. Likewise,Mary MacNeil of Benaccadie [sic] peti-tioned for land in 1816 at the age of 70and the petition states that she was onthe land in Benaccadie since 1806.Appendix 2 offers a data base of 1050emigrants from the Isle of Barra to BritishNorth America between 1772 and 1851.The kind of information in this databasecan be seen by looking at one individualwho made the trek from Barra to NovaScotia in the early years of the nineteenthcentury. Branigan lists Christie MacNeillwho was born in Barra in 1821; herfather’s name was Murdoch and shecame on board the ship Harmony whosePort of arrival was Sydney. Her final des-tination, however, was Gillis Point.Branigan does not provide any indica-tion of relations (sisters, brothers) forChristie but does so for many other emi-grants. The variety of destinations fromQuebec to Christmas Island provides aglimpse into the fascinating world ofemigration from Barra 200 years ago towhat is now Canada.

In my view, this is an excellent bookthat shows the value of extended archae-ological fieldwork in one region forunderstanding the complex culturallandscape made by human beings. �

From Clan to Clearance: History andArchaeology on the Isle of Barra c. 850- 1850AD is written by Dr. Keith Branigan with J.M. Bumstead, D. Parker, P. Foster and C.Merrony, published by Oxbow Books,.Oxford England, 2005.

Dr. Richard MacKinnon is a professor offolkore and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair inIntangible Culture at Cape BretonUniversity.

An Rubha REVIEWFromClan to Clearance -Dr. Keith BraniganA review by Dr. Richard MacKinnon, Cape Breton University


Tha roinn do leabhraichean tarraingeachan deaghaidh am foillseachadh bho

chionn treis a thìde ‘s a bheil fiosrachadhseaghail mu chuspairean a bhuineas do chà-nan agus do chultar nanGàidheal. Gun a bhitoirt air ainmeachas ach trì dhiubh sin, thamibeachdnachadh a’ seo air leithid Dùthchasnan Gàidheal, taghadh do dh’aistean sgrìob-ht’ aig Iain MacAonghais agus air andeasachadh le Mìcheal Newton, Duanairena Sracaire, a dhéiligeas ri bàrdachd namMeadhon-Aoisean, air a dheasachadh leWilson MacLeòid ‘s Meg Bateman agus NaBeanntaichean Gorma agus Sgeulachdan Eile àCeap Breatainn, deasaichte le Iain Seathach.Anns a’ chuideachd ghrinn ud, agussaoilidh mi mar ghné do leabhar comhar-raichte, feumar luaidh a dheanadh air leab-har eile agus e air a shònrachadh le bhistéidhichte air seanachas ‘ga aithris aigban-dùthchasach fhad-shaoghalach abh’ann a chunnaig ‘s a chuala.

Tha Saoghal Bana-mharaiche ‘na thrusadhdo naidheachdan ‘gan innse air chuimhneaig té Isbeil Anna (bean UilleimMhicAonghais) a bhuineadh do Bhaile a’Chnuic am Machair Rois, ionad dodh’Albainn far nach eil fileantachdùthchasach air fhàgail a’ là an-diugh. ‘S ean t-Ollamh Seòsamh Watson dha ‘m buchòir dhuinn buidheachas a thoirt ‘son antabhartais mhòir seo do dh’ionnsachadhmu ‘n Ghàidhlig air raointean mar a thaforfhais ainneamh air dual-chainntean,eachdraidh shoisealta agus cultardùthchail. ‘Na h-iomairt mhóir a mhair fadbhliadhnaichean, ‘s e a thug fos làimh andarna cuid seanachas Anna Isbeil achlàradh, agus dreach a thoirt air nachualas aice gu bhi ‘na leabhar eireachdail,fiosrach. Amach air an deasaiche a bhi curri sgoilearachd reachdmhor, (agus thathas‘ga moladh sin aig àrd ìre cuideachd), gunteagamh ‘s e saothair na dìlseachd a th’ann,mar a thuigear agus siod soilleir an uireada bhlàiths ‘s a thlachd dha ‘n bhana-bheulaiche a nochdas air feadh teags a’leabhair bho thoiseach gu crìch.

Air chùl a’ gnothaich, ‘s ann a thug a’fear-clàraidh air fhéin caochladh sgrìobando Mhachair Rois los buill-shampaillchàinnt-dhùthchasasch a chlàradh ‘s a’cheàrnaidh ud thairis air diobharshamhraidhean eadar 1967 agus 1983. Thaan t-Ollamh Watson air aideachadh ‘na ro-ràdh, ged ‘s e rannsachadh air dualchain-tean a bha fos near dha ‘ruigsinn nadùthcha, cha b’ann fad’ an ùinemun dàinige air gu robh dealbh beòthail ag éirigh áaithris muinntir an àit’ a bha ‘na bhuan-nachd phrìseil a thuilleadh air mion-sgrù-dadh cànain.

Am miosg nam beulaichean uil’ a rinnaithris, ‘s e Isbeil Anna a bu mhó a thugseachad na naidheachan a gheobhar am

miosg dhuilleagan a’ leabhair seo. Tro’stòraidhean ‘gan innse ‘na briathran fhéin,mu beatha agus mu coimhearsnachd, thacunndas brìghmhor a’ tighinn am follais airsaoghal boireannaich a rugadh anns a’ bhli-adhna1889 agus a dh’àraicheadh air a’Ghàidhlig ri linn dar a bha a’ ghlùn a bushine fhathast ‘ga cleachdadh mar chànanlàitheil. Tha teisteanas buan ann cuideachdair boireannach fosgarra, làidir, neo-eiseimeileach a mhair beò an ceann teagh-laich gun duine aice, (thugadh air falbh acompananch leis a’ chnatan mhórSpainnteach) agus na bige aig a’ chagailtaig àm nuair nach gabhadh faighinn ‘s anàite ach beòshlaint’ air éiginn an cois cionairgid ‘s obrach cruaidh.

‘S e caitheamh-bheatha air muir ‘s air tìr‘s am miosg nan cladaichean air a robhAnna Isbeil ‘s na coimhearsnaich aic’ ab’eòlaiche mar an àbhaist, agus ‘s annaréisd a tha ‘m fear-deasachaidh a’ cur seòlair a cuid naidheachdan ‘nan rian. Tha a’cheud ochd cabaidealan dhe ‘n leabhar‘gan roinn aréir chuspairean a ruitheas fona tiodalan farsaing a leanas: Ag Ullachadhan Éisg, An t-Iasgach, An Seòladh, AirMhuinntearas, Am Fearann, Saoghal nanDaoine, Fearas-chuideachd agusEachdraidh na Dùthcha. Tha 151 naid-heachd ‘na bhroinn gu léir, gach gin dhiubha’ leantail na cùiseadh a ‘s freagarraiche.Gus a bhi leudachadh amach air na thàinigair lom á aithris Anna bean UilleimMhicAonghais mu ‘n t-saoghal ud nachmaireann, tha an deasaiche a’ cur ris naduilleagan deiridh trì chabaidealan a bhar-rachd. Buinidh an naoidheamh agus andeicheamh cabaideal ri seanfhaclan agusgnàthsan-cainnt mar a chluinnte ‘s andualchas aig a’ bhana-mharaiche, agus tha‘n cabaideal mu dheireadh suidhichte aircunndasan ‘s beul aithris a rannsaich an t-Ollamh Watson air tubaist mhara a dh’a-mais do shoitheach air a robh an Linnet.Chaidh am bàta driod-fhortanach seo asgriosadh anns an Fhaoilleach, 1843, air nacreagan pìos mu thuath air Baile a’ Chnuic,dachaidh Anna Isbeil. Chailleadh taosg dodh’fhireannaich a bha air bòrd innt’ abhuineadh do Bhaile a’ Chnuic. Leis mar athachair, rinneadh òran air na dh’éirich abha fhathast air chuimhne aig muinntirBhaile a’ Chnuic aig àm a’ chlàraidh.

Amach air a bhi sònrachadh iomraid-hean air tobraichean rannsachaidh, faclanair iasad ‘s a leithid, cha ghabh lìdeagBheurla anns a’ leabhar seo faighinn. Chanurrainn nach bidh cuid a dhaoine ‘g ion-ndrainn an eadar-theangachaidh a leugharan cois na Gàidhlig mar ‘s minig. Ach thabuaidh mhór aig a’ Ghàidhlig gu bhi anngu léir air barrachd do thruimead a chur riseanachas Anna Isbeil mar a’ bhuille-sùlafa dheireadh air saoghal Gàidhealach nach

fhaicear gu tuillidh bràcha. Tha taing mhórr’a toirt dhi-se, dha ‘n fhear-deaschaidhagus, gun a bhi ‘ga dhiochuimhneachadhdòigh sam bith, am foillsichear Clann anTuirc. Tha toradh na h-obrach seo fos cionnluach. Faodar Saoghal Bana-mharaiche adh’òrdugh aig a’ url:

www.clanntuirc.co.uk

Synopsis:Anumber of excellent books on the subjectof Gaelic language and culture have beenpublished over the last while. Among theseis Saoghal Bana-mharaiche, edited by Dr.Seósamh Watson from his Gaelic record-ings of the late Anna Isbeil (MacInnes, neeSutherland), of Baile a’ Chnuic situated incoastal Easter Ross. From a woman’s view-point, and as one of the last Gaelic speakersnative to this area of the Gàidhealtachd, thelife of late nineteenth-century Machair Roisfisher folk is encapsulated in her storiesand reminiscences as a working mothersupporting her family in a sparse economyafter losing her husband to influenza.

Anna Isbeil’s reminiscences of being afish seller, herring gutter and domestic,along with folklore and memories of socialcustom, make this book a classic of its kind.Supporting information on dialect, andresearch into the ship wreck Linnet, on theadjacent coastline with loss of men’s livesbelonging to the village of Baile a’ Chnuic,brings the reader to doorstep familiaritywith a Gaelic Scotland now lost to moder-nity and North Sea oil. Saoghal na Bana-mharaiche is equally accessible as an aca-demic work, or entertaining andinformative read. In Gaelic only, it contains226 pages with accompanying photos andillustrations, is printed in soft cover andcan be purchased through its publisherClann an Tuirc at url: www.clanntuirc.co.uk

An Rubha REVIEWLéirmheas: Saoghal Bana-mharaicheA review by Seumas Watson, Manager of Interpretation


OurPeople,Acknowledgements&AccoladesTAPADH LEIBH-SE GU MÓRThe Nova Scotia Highland Village Societygratefully acknowledges the support ofmany individuals, organisations and gov-ernments for their unwavering support ofthe Highland Village and its work.

PUBLIC SECTOR PARTNERS - Province of NovaScotia through the Depts. of Tourism, Culture& Heritage (Heritage Division - Nova ScotiaMuseum), Transportation & InfastructureRenewal, Economic Development, and the Officeof Gaelic Affairs. Government of Canadathrough Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation,Department of Canadian Heritage & ServiceCanada. Municipality of Victoria Countythrough the Recreation and Tourism Dept.

DONATIONS - River & Lakeside PastoralCharge, Janet Cameron, & Donna Marie Meza.

ARTEFACTS & ARCHIVAL DONATIONS - MikeLynch (stove).

DEPARTING STAFF - All the best to DebiMacNeil, animator, who moved on to otheremployment. All the best Debi.

CONGRATULATIONS&BESTWISHESTo staffers Janet and TimMacNeil on the birthof their son Rory. To term staffer PatriciaKibyuk-MacDonald and husband on the birthof their daughter Samantha. Also, best wish-es to board member Walter MacNeil and hiswife Florence, who are both recovering fromsurgery.

SYMPATHIESTo boardmember Pat Bates on the passing ofhis wife Kay; board volunteer Dan Chiassonon the passing of his mother Charlotte; boardmember Donald Beaton on the passing of hisbrother Roddie MacKinnon; animator KayeAnne MacNeil on the passing of her brotherLeoMacNeil; and volunteersMargie Allen andfamily on the passing of her husband, Bruce.Our hearts go out to all their families. �

BOARD OF TRUSTEES (Elected June 2008)Kathleen MacKenzie,Antigonish (Pres.)Catherine Ann Fuller, Baddeck (VP)Hugh MacKinnon, Benacadie (Secretary)Marie MacSween, Ironville (Treasurer)Pat Bates, SydneyDonald Beaton, Little NarrowsMadeline Harvey, EstmereSteve MacDonald, WhycocomaghBeth Anne MacEachen, Sydney RiverFrank MacKenzie, NewWaterfordHoss MacKenzie, Gillis PointWalter MacNeil, Sydney/Grand NarrowsHugh Webb, AntigonishDaniel Chiasson, Baddeck (Ex-officio)

Staff (as of June 2008)AdministrationDirector - Rodney ChaissonAdministrative Asst - Cynthia MacKenzie(acting), Janet MacNeil (on maternity)

InterpretationManager - Seumas WatsonChief Interpreter - Joanne MacIntyreFarm hand - Sandy MacNeilBlacksmith - Jamie KennedyAnimators - Colleen Beaton, Marie Chehy,Catherine Gillis, Aileen MacLean, BethMacNeil, Jean MacNeil, Kaye Anne MacNeil,Vicki Quimby (Textile Consultant), & SylviaTupper (Costume Coordinator)

Collections, Archives & GenealogyManager - Pauline MacLean

Visitor Centre Services/Gift ShopGerry MacNeil & Sadie MacDonald

OperationsManager - James BrydenMaintenance - Tim MacNeilGroundskeeper - David MacKenzie

Summer StudentsPaul Geddes, Colin MacDonald, KeithMacDonald, Kyle MacDonald, JustinMacKenzie, Maria MacMillan, Crystal MacNeil

Volunteer ProgrammersHV Day Producer - Quentin MacDonaldCandlelight Tour Guide - James O. St.Clair

Nova ScotiaHighland VillageSociety

Anna the fiddler’s daughter is wearingElizabeth’s great coatElizabeth, the prettiest girl, is wearing ribbons

On Isabel, on Elizabeth, on Anna the fiddler’sdaughterOn Isabel, on Elizabeth, on Anna the fiddler’sdaughterOn Isabel, on Elizabeth, on Anna the fiddler’sdaughterElizabeth’s great coat is on Anna who isgoing to marry�

Recording of Montana Dan courtesy of theRalph Rinzler Folklife Archives andCollections at the Smithsonian Center forFolklife and Cultural Heritage:http://www.folklife.si.edu/center/archives.html

Transcription and translation by SeumasWatson and Eòsag Nic an t-Saoir. Musicalnotation by Marion MacLeod

* Shannon notes that a wedding took place onthe North Shore at which brides having thenames of women mentioned in this port weremarried, hence speculation that this port ábeul may have been made in Cape Breton.

Michael Anthony’s contributions tothe fiddle world extended far and wide,and his loss is being felt deeply by theCape Breton Fiddlers’ Association, agroup he proudly played with from itsbeginning until his end, sharing hisencouragement and talent with genera-tions of players and thousands of appre-ciative audience members. He turnedthat passion and commitment he showedto music to several other interests,spending a lifetime as a stalwart sup-porter of the Progressive Conservativeparty. He was also known for his love ofcard playing, bird hunting, and telling agood tale.

It’s always difficult to say goodbye,and even harder still to lose the presenceof someonewho gave somuch of himselfto those around him, but the long,healthy and happy life of MichaelAnthony MacLean should be celebratedand treasured by all those who had thegood fortune to meet this man. �

Freelance journalist Jenna MacNeil is a formerstudent researcher at the Highland Village, nowliving in Toronto. She has roots in Red Pointand Beaver Cove.

An Gàidheal Portmhorcontinued from page 22...

Michael Anthony MacLeancontinued from page 23...

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COMING THIS SUMMER TO A COMPUTER NEAR YOU.Cainnt mo Mhathar - My Mother’s Tongue

Unique audio and video recordings of Nova Scotian tradition bearers for Gaelic learners.Features clips from Highland Village’s Nos is Fonn andMar bu Nos Collections.

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a rubh a · jamesst.clair&yvonnelevert nancy’sweddingfeast&other tastytales $19.95each...

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