Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/247

 Collectanea. 209

rising again, the motions being performed very swiftly. He would wheel about singing —

" Thoir ruidhil do'n choileach dubh. Damhsaidh sinn na tunnagan." (Give a reel to the blackcock. /We will dance the ducks.)

It will be noticed that this is a solo performance, though called a reel by the performer, who claims that he is now the only man in Kintyre who can do it.

Another hunkering dance is called

Am Fac thu Fiadli riomh ? (Did you ever see a Deer ?)

This is a girl's game found in Lorn. They crouch down, with their hands between their calves and their haunches, the fingers interlaced. One commences: "Am fac thu fiadh riomh?" The others replied : " Chunnaic." The first speaker rejoins, " Agus gu de dheannadh e?" to which the reply was, " Ruitheadh e, 'us roideadh e, 'us leumadh e, 'us sheasadh e air cnoc, 'us dh'amhairceadh e." "Agus am fac thu Mairi nighean Alasdair?" " Chunnaic, 'us Mairi nighean Sheumais. Chunnaic mi Mairi nighean Alasdair 's iad a' mireadh ri cheile." (Have you ever seen a deer? I have seen (a deer). And what would it do? It would run, and it would race, and it would jump, and it would stand on a hillock and it would look. And have you seen Mary Alexander's daughter? I have seen (Mary Macalister) and Mary James' daughter. I have seen Mary Alexander's daughter and them playing together. (Flirting, wanton play.) At this stage the players, retaining their position, commence to dance, singing at the same time —

" Punnd 'us plang 'us neapaicean sioda 'Us pios do chantair an dannsaidh." (A pound, and a plack, and a silk napkin,/And a piece to the chanter of the dance.)

In Luing an old woman explained that this game had come down from the Druids who, as well as the money, etc., men- tioned in the last two lines, claimed as theirs the blankets in which a person died, A pound was also due to the Druids from the estate on the death of the head of a house. We have in this evidently a recollection of the corpse-present, mortuary, or head- money, paid to the clergy at the time of a death. The statement

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