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

FOLK-TALES OF THE BOW AND ARROW
while he occupied his fort in Loch a' Bhaile, however, that
there occurred an incident round which the following folk-
tale has gathered.
Off the coast of Ness, the northernmost part of Lewis,
there anchored at a date unknown a sailing-vessel manned
by one of the strangest crews the inhabitants of the Hebrides
had ever beheld. In course of time these weather-beaten
seamen came ashore at " the Stoth," near the Butt of Lewis.
They were well received by the people of Ness. As was
the wont until two or three hundred years ago, all strangers
who came to these parts, either by land or by sea, were
given hospitality at " the Big House of Habost," where
lived the hereditary brieve, or justiciar, of the Lewis.
It soon transpired that the strangers were monks, who
had sailed from lona to spread the Gospel among what they
imagined to have been a semi-barbarous race. The success
of their mission in Ness induced them to go farther afield
and so in time they proceeded southward along the western
coast of Lewis by Shader and Barvas, until they arrived at
Arnol. On a dread day they essayed to pass along the
narrow strip of land separating Loch a' Bhaile from the
ocean, when Black Neil, secreted in his tiir quite close at
hand, sent an arrow through the breast of all who came
within reach of his bow. The surviving monks fled by
the water's edge until they came to Teampull Eoin, the
Temple of John, the ruins of which may yet be seen in the
churchyard, hard by Bragair Bay. In Teampull Eoin they
sought sanctuary. The dead monks were interred at a spot
by the side of a knoll that to this day is known as Cnoc nam
Manach, the Monks' Hill. And the old folks living at
Arnol and Bragair assured me that their tombstones may
still be located. They told me, moreover, that eventually
Black Neil was brought to justice when a famous archer
from the mainland was dispatched to the Hebrides, and
concealed in a cavern overlooking his fortress in Loch a'
Bhaile. This archer, they say, dislodged Black Neil.
The Fury of the Quiver.
About the time that dynastic differences were playing
havoc with the ancient heritage of the MacLeods of Lewis,
195
;