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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
readily seen from the window of the room in which it was
arranged that the king's messenger should spend the night.
"What horrid thing is that I am seeing?" gasped the
sheriff-officer, on rising the following morning.
" Och, nothing at all, at all ! " replied the MacNab, with
an air of complete indifference. " Only a messenger that
came from Edinburgh the other day to serve a summons on
"
myself !
The ruse proved successful. The sheriff-officer, now
stricken with visions of himself dangling in like manner,
hastily quitted the house of the MacNab, and returned to
Edinburgh with the summons unserved.
RoRY Mor's Revelry at Rodil.
On a night of nights in 1601, Rory Mor MacLeod revelled
at Rodil with his retainers, after he had carried fire and
sword into the territory of his enemies, sparing no living
thing. Moreover, it was a night on which Rory declared
that even his fiercest foe might be admitted to his banquet
without endangering himself.
As it happened, a galley of the Clan Ranald, with Donald
Mac Iain Alhic Sheumais aboard, was driven ashore that
very night on the wild coast of Harris, not very far from
Rodil ; and Rory, suspiciously eager to fulfil his declaration,
already having received word that misfortune had overtaken
his bitterest foe, sent a henchman to meet the storm-delayed
crew, and to persuade its members to join his revelry and
accept of his hospitality. Rory even went the length of
directing that a wooden outhouse should be erected forth-
with, that the MacDonalds might shelter therein until the
storm had abated, or at any rate until daybreak. Apprehensive,
and not without due reason, were the Clan Ranald
seamen, since Rory in his time had set many a trap, and had
trapped many an unsuspecting enemy. And so, with a change
of wind in the early hours of the morning, they repaired to
their galley, which they had drawn up above tide mark
among the rocks near Rodil on the previous night. Scarcely
were they afloat when they observed that the outhouse was
ablaze. Clan Ranald's men by this time were well out of
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