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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
accepted the smaller farm at Scarista, on the mainland of
Harris.
All went so well for a time that the Laird believed
harmony now had displaced the animosities which had
existed for years between the brothers, as well as between
their respective families. Yet, all the time the sons of the
brother now renting Scarista harboured suspicions as to
how their uncle and cousins had acquired the superior farm
of Risgarry. When they discovered that a sum of money
actually had been paid by their uncle to the Laird of Harris,
and at the very time negotiations for a settlement were
being entered into, they resolved, with their father's
connivance, to sail over to Berneray, put uncle and cousins
out of the way, and take possession of their property. They
disembarked on Berneray at dead of night, laid siege to their
uncle's house, and killed all the family, with the exception
of tlieir eldest cousin, John MacLeod, who was away from
home at the time, and whose strength and swordsmanship
the Scarista invaders dreaded.
Father and sons now conspired to waylay John as he
came home in the morning, when he was least likely to be
prepared for a fight. It was arranged that the father, clad
as he was in a coat of mail, would engage his nephew, while
the sons would remain in concealment near at hand. In
accordance with programme, John MacLeod, on his return
to Berneray in the morning, was accosted by his evil uncle,
who did not hesitate to tell him that not one of his
kinsmen had survived the previous night's massacre, and
that he himself was about to experience a similar fate.
Against the sword of his uncle, poor John had neither shield
nor armour wherewith to defend himself. Yet, in the duel
that ensued he drove his uncle to give ground all the while,
and finally thrust him through. At nightfall he swam
across to Uist, and sought shelter at the hands of a fosterbrother,
who was instrumental in having him ferried over
to Nunton, in Benbecula, the seat of another uncle, Clan
Ranald of the Isles. Under Clan Ranald's roof John
MacLeod remained for a twelvemonth.
Eventually MacLeod of Harris, together with several
petty lairds acknowledging him as their superior, set sail in
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