The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
to illustrate to Morag that, at the rate at which she was
consuming ox-tongues, she would be responsible at the end
of a year for the slaughter of a herd of that size. And
thereafter Morag of the Heads was content with simpler
fare.
Morag expressed a desire in her declining years to be
interred at a place in sight of her native island of Coll.
So, when she departed this life, her remains were conveyed
in a boat all the way from Eoligarry to the tiny islet of
Uinessan, lying off the Uidh of Vatersay. As the day of
her burial was hazy, it was not until the succeeding day,
when the mists had lifted, that the Islesfolk discovered Coll
could not be seen from Uinessan because of the lofty Island
of Muldoanich. MacNeil's people were now eager to
exhume Morag's remains ; but MacNeil protested, on the
ground that already she had given him more bother than she
had been worth. Therefore the remains of Morag of the
Heads were left undisturbed within the precincts of the now
ruined caiheal on Uinessan, close to the Isle of Vatersay.
A Tale of the Second-Sight.
The story is told in Harris of how some natives, more
endowed with the second-sight than their neighbours, used
to be seeing a certain man with an arrow in his thigh.
And they believed, therefore, that before he died he would
be shot in the thigh with an arrow, possibly in some
conflict. In course of time, the man died in the natural way.
Now, it so happened that, at the very hour his body was
brought for burial to St. Clement's Church, at Rodil.
another funeral arrived. A violent quarrel arose as to
which interment should take place first. Soon the
respective funeral parties came to blows. In the confusion
that ensued, one of their number discharged several arrows
from his bow. When, eventually. Sir Norman MacLeod of
Berneray, who was present on this occasion, persuaded the
rival parties to terminate their strife, it was discovered that,
as prophesied by the seers, an arrow had pierced the thigh
of the dead man while he lay on his bier, waiting for burial.
This story was related by Sir Norman MacLeod to
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