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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
entered the bothy. Mary received him graciously. She
gave him food and drink; and, as he sat warming himself
before her fire, he said to her " : Noo fetch
"
man's heid in yer apron, ma lassie !
me the guid-
" Na, na, Laird " ! replied Mary of the Yellow Locks.
" I've ower mony heids at ma fireside for me tae spare ye
"
his heid !
" Hoot, lassie," continued MacAlpine, " gae awa' and
"
bid him come in !
So Mary went to the door, and called her husband. In a
moment he and MacAlpine had patched up their difference
and MacAlpine had bestowed upon him one of the best
farms in Rothiemurchus. For generations thereafter the
MacGregors remained as faithful tenants and servants of
successive lairds of Rothiemurchus.
In the year, 1890, there died at the Doune Square an old
man named Hamish MacGregor, the last descendant in the
locality of the two MacGregors whom Rob Roy left with
MacAlpine.
MacAlpine, it is said, prayed till his dying day for two
men only. One was the Duke of Gordon :
the other.
MacNicol's Leap.
Rob
Roy was
At Dun Othail, in the Isle of Lewis, there is a ravine
sheering down to the Minch known as MacNicol's Leap.
With this ravine is associated one of the several folk-tales
current throughout the Highlands and Islands of the
manner in which some valiant fellow, usually when pursued,
managed to escape the vengeance of his foes by leaping
across some yawning chasm, leaving his foes behind,
bewildered, and unable to follow. The following story is
one of the many describing how MacNicol's Leap came by
its name.
For an offence, the nature of which tradition does not
specify, a chief of Lewis sentenced one MacNicol to death
by violence. MacNicol, in retaliation, fled with the chief's
only child. Pursued by the chief's retainers, he sprang
across the chasm at Dun Othail, bearing the infant heir in
his arms. All attempts to circumvent MacNicol having
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