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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
admittance to the Castle. Fully aware that his life was
seriously in danger, he eventually made his way to Ireland.
In the same year he was captured by order of one of the
O'Donell Chiefs, and put to death in a manner most cruel.
Poor Iain Dubh !
If ever a man were punished on this
earth for his sins, that man was Iain Dubh at the hands of
the O'Donells.
The site of the conflict between the MacDonalds and the
MacLeods on Pabbay Isle is not the only one on which the
Islanders say that grass will never grow. At Luskentyre,
on the mainland of Harris, there is the grave of a man who,
all his days, had been an inveterate swearer, though they
tell me that he was a thoroughly good fellow in other
respects. He used to live in a little house at a place called
Nisabost, some miles away. One day a friend of mine,
when on his way home from Kyles on a wild night with a
pony and trap, halted at his house for some refreshment.
On setting a plenitude of tea and oatcakes before the
sojourner, the occupant stood aside with a large knife in
his hand, as if at any moment he might have stabbed his
guest in the back. He then delivered himself of one of his
favourite Gaelic oaths " : O, Son of the Devil, eat every
"
morsel of that, or I'll stick this knife into you !
This was the usual manner in which he welcomed stormstayed
friends to Nisabost.
Now, it was prophesied during the lifetime of this man
of violent oaths that, because of the blasphemous nature of
his tongue, vegetation would never grow on his grave. He
was buried at Luskentyre ; and, despite several attempts at
manuring the surface of the grave, and sowing it with grass
seeds, not a blade will spring upon it.
DocKENS, Nettles, and Blaeberry.
A tradition very similar is connected with Ardnamurchan.
In the burial-ground surrounding the ruined church of
former times, on the hillside just behind the Manse at
Kilchoan, is a grave screened off by a very high iron railing.
It denotes the resting-place of one, MacColl, once tacksman
or tenant-farmer of Mingary, who is reputed in western
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