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

THE PEAT-FTRE FLAME
but. with the exception of a little, lame tailor who. with
legs crossed in appropriate fashion, sat sewing in an alcove,
not a living soul did there appear to be about the place. In
upon the unsuspecting tailor rushed Black Roderic MacNeil.
who was about to put him to death when a watchman,
hitherto concealed, thrust a dirk into Black Roderic's thigh,
and raised the alarm.
Seizing the dirk, and holding it tightly in position. Black
Roderic withdrew his men. and sped to his gallev. He
then gave orders to put back to Barra with all haste, that
he might have the satisfaction of expiring in his ancestral
hall. Whenever he set foot in Kisimul Castle, he let go his
hold of the dirk, and out of him flowed the life that was in
him.
And thus, they sav in the Outer Isles, died Black Roderic
the Unjust. XXXVIIIth Chief of the MacNeils of Barra.
Neil of the Snow-drift.
Untrained in warlike activities, possessing worldly goods
in the form of cattle and sheep, and far removed from
succour in the event of distress, the natives of Heiskeir, or
the Monach Isles, often had to contend in olden times with
the rapacity of their Hebridean neighbours, who from time
to time would be surprising them, and carrying off as large
a spreagh as could be accommodated aboard their sailingcraft.
On one occasion a band of rieving Lewismen set out
in a commodious galley for the Monach Isles, intent on
plunder. They sailed down the west coast of Harris and
North Uist, until they arrived opposite Ceann Ear, one of
the Heiskeir group. But weather conditions turned out less
propitious than when they left home; and they sorely
needed a pilot to navigate their craft through the
treacherous seaways now dividing them from Port Roy and
the well-stocked folds of Heiskeir. Reluctantly, they
disembarked at Port Scolpaig, on the shores of Balranald.
in North Uist, in the hope of kidnapping a suitable pilot,
for they knew that their scheme would be too obvious to any
seaman whom thev might ask to take them across.
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