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

NORSE AND VIKING FOLK-TALES
island called Sandray an old, trusty friend of his, they
should take him into their confidence, because he knew of
no one who could render to them more valuable assistance
in the attainment of their purpose.
Eventually brother and sister embarked from Ireland;
and at the falling of the succeeding day the Irish skipper
descried what he took to be Berneray, the island on which
Barra Head Lighthouse now stands, and the most
southerly of the Outer Hebrides. Some hours later young
MacNeil and his sister found themselves on the strand of
Sandray Isle, whence, following their father's instructions,
they made for a certain house, into which daylight and air
were admitted by mere holes in the wall in lieu of windows.
Having crept up to the wall and listened at one of the holes,
the boy was relieved to learn from a conversation in progress
within that the inmates of the house still were loyal to his
father's cause. Keeking through one of the holes, he
observed an old man lying face downward upon the earthen
floor, near the fire, while the old wife was rubbing salt butter
into his back.
" If old MacNeil would be in Barra, it's no' myself that
would be in this sorry plight," the old man was heard to
mutter through his writhing. At the opportune moment
young MacNeil and his sister entered the house, and made
themselves known to its aged occupants. In course of
conversation, they discovered that the old man tenanted the
Isle of Sandray; and, by way of explaining his pitiable
condition to them, he related how the new governor at
Kisimul Castle had slashed him across the back for his being
unable to pay his rent to the full.
MacNeil and his sister had scarcely divulged the object
of their mission when the old man expressed his willingness
to assist them, as best he could, in driving the Lochlannaich
out of Kisimul. As the tide was at the turn, they and the
Irish crew hastened toward Castlebay, in order that they
might seize the geimhleag—the iron level or crow-bar
before the tide came in upon it again. Everything went
according to plan. With the aid of the geimhleag, the
portcullis of Kisimul was levered up; and in a trice young
MacNeil, his sister, the old man, and the Irish crew, having
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