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

FOLK-TALES OF DOUGHTY MEN AND DOUGHTY DEEDS
weak, and like any other man. The charm was dispelled.
No longer was he invincible : no longer was he invulnerable
to the swords of men.
Thus perished John Mor MacKay at the hands of the
MacAulays of Uig : thus avenged were Donald Cam and
his son-in-law, Alasdair Little-heel.
Adrift in an Oarless Boat.
And now to another Lewis tale I propose including in this
chapter. It. too, concerns Donald Cam ; and I reproduce it
here just as it appears in my book. Searching the Hebrides
with a Camera.
During the years that the invincible Donald Cam
MacAulay was obliged to conceal himself among the most
inaccessible parts of the Hebrides, he was accompanied by
a young man called Dark John of the Large Fist, who, as
it were, acted as his personal attendant. Although Dark
John had not the strength to wield the broadsword as could
his master, Donald Cam respected the lad because he could
keep him at bay with the small sword. Sometimes Donald
Cam and his attendant took refuge in ruined duns that they
refortified, sometimes in caverns high up among the
Mountains of Uig or of Harris, sometimes on islets situated
in lakes. For a time they entrenched in a dun on an islet
in Loch Bharabhat, a small lake on the moors onlv a few
miles from the storm-beach at Aird Uig. The ruins of an
ancient fort are still to be seen on this islet, as are also the
unsubmerged portions of the stone causeway leading out
to it.
Donald Cam MacAulay and Dark John of the Large Fist
maintained themselves on Loch Bharabhat for many a day,
living chiefly on fish and venison. By the shores of the
open Atlantic at Gallan Head they had a boat so cleverly
hidden that no foe ever was able to locate it.
On a boisterous day that there was, they put out to sea,
to fish with hand-lines. Through rough water Dark John
rowed the boat as best he could, while Donald Cam attended
to the lines.
" Pull her ahead ! " cried Donald in a moment of
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