The Land of Tiree 



seeing that his own wife was of the party, and therefore 

 a witch, and knowing that they were in the spell of the 

 evil one, wished them Godspeed on their journey. Instantly 

 the egg-shells were sunk and the man's witch wife drowned. 



Fairies were not so long ago held to have their dwell- 

 ings beneath the grassy slopes of Ceann a' Bharra. These 

 "silent people" were said to come always from the west, 

 for they could pass with equal ease over the ocean as on 

 the land. When travelling they moved in little eddies of 

 wind. When wind and rain came from opposite directions 

 — that is on a sudden change of wind after a shower — it 

 was possible to bring down the fairies in a body by throwing 

 a piece of horse-dung against the breeze. 



It is, perhaps, on a clear day of sunshine early in May 

 that Ceann a' Bharra is at its best. By now the grass is 

 springing up fresh and green, and wild hyacinths are 

 tingeing the southern slopes of the hill with blue, while 

 many primroses blossom in the sun-bathed and sheltered 

 crannies, and throw out their scent far across the hill. Away 

 to the east the high corries of Ben More Mull, still deep 

 in snow, throw back the sun's rays, while in the Passage 

 of Tiree trawlers are busy fishing, their mizzens set to 

 steady them in the gende swell. Far beyond Skerryvore 

 and Dubh Hirteach does the view extend, as far indeed as 

 the track of the big ships, as they make for the Irish coast. 



Nestling between Ben Hynish and Ceann a' Bharra is 

 the little crofting township of Ballephuill. Here many 

 of the older generation "have no English," as they quaintly 

 put it, but will greet you in the Gaelic and offer you the 

 hospitality of the Highlander. On the small crofts the 

 land is green and fertile, and then besides the harvest of 

 the land there is the harvest of the sea to keep starvation 

 from the people. 



The bracken, or " raineach," as it is known in the Gaelic, 

 is so plentiful and widespread throughout the western coast 

 that it is curious to find it almost entirely absent on Tiree. 

 L i6i 



