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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
had flayed the right arm of it with a view to making from
the skin a dirk-sheath. When this self-same dirk-sheath
was seen by the Rev. Alexander Stewart (known throughout
the Highlands and Islands as " Nether Lochaber," his
pseudonym), it was dark brown in colour, limp and soft to
the touch, and bore no ornamentation except a small piece
of brass at the point, and a thin edging of brass round the
opening, on which were inscribed the date, 1747, and the
initials, D.C.M. It is nearly seventy years since Dr.
Stewart handled this grim relic of " the Forty-five." There
is no trace of it in Appin to-day. But some years ago a
number of MacColls emigrated from these parts to New
Zealand ; and among them were two or three Julias. And
so it is thought that the dirk and sheath may now be in the
keeping of Julia MacColl's descendants at the other side of
the earth. If this be the case, they form an interesting,
though gruesome, link with Appin and " the Forty-five."
A Pedlar's Fate.
Several well-known traditions and folk-tales associated
with Prince Charlie are still recounted by the older
inhabitants of Glen Moriston. The story is told of a pedlar
who, in passing through the glen, was shot dead by a band
of soldiers who took him to be the Prince—so strongly did
he resemble the latter in facial expression. No explanation
is forthcoming as to why they took the pedlar's life when
they could have taken him alive with the greatest ease, if
they seriously thought him to be Prince Charlie. The officer
in charge immediately had the pedlar's head cut off. With
this head he proceeded triumphantly to the Duke of
Cumberland, who at the time was at Fort Augustus.
Perhaps he expected to receive the substantial reward
offered for Charlie, dead or alive !
The story continues that Cumberland exhibited the head
to a number of Jacobite prisoners then incarcerated at Fort
Augustus, and enquired of them whether they recognised
it to be the head of their Prince. " It is, indeed ! " they
murmured, hoping that in so doing they might be giving to
the fugitive some brief respite from pursuit.
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