A CURIOUS DIRK SHEATH. 77 



owner, is as follows : In the summer of 1746, about two months 

 after the battle of Culloden, a detachment of Saighdearan Dearge, 

 red (coated) soldiers, or Government troops, was passing through 

 Lochaber and Appin on its way to Inveraray, the men amusing 

 themselves, and enlivening the tedium of the march, by burning 

 and plundering as they had opportunity. When passing through 

 the Strath of Appin, a young woman was observed in a field, 

 busily engaged in the evening milking her cow. A sergeant or 

 corporal of the band leaped over the wall into the field, and putting 

 his musket to his shoulder, shot the cow dead upon the spot ; after 

 which gallant exploit he began the most brutal ill-treatment of the 

 woman. She, however, defended herself with great courage, and as 

 she retreated towards the shore, she picked up a stone, which she 

 hurled at her persecutor with such good aim that it struck him 

 full on the forehead, stretching him for the moment senseless upon 

 the grass. She then fled towards a boat that was afloat on the 

 beach, and leaping in, rapidly rowed towards Eilean-bhaile-na- 

 gobhar, an island at a considerable distance from the mainland, 

 where she was safe from further annoyance. The tradition is so 

 minute and precise that the heroine's name is given as Silas-Nic- 

 Cholla, or Julia MacColl ; and our informant declared himself to 

 be her great-grandson. The sergeant, stunned and bleeding, was 

 picked up by his comrades, and carried to the place of halt for the 

 night, near Tigh-an Ribbi, where, before morning, he died of his 

 wound. His body was buried in the old churchyard of Airds, 

 but was not allowed to rest there. On the disappearance of the 

 soldiers from the district, the body was exhumed by the people, 

 and cast into the sea ; not, however, before a brother of Silas-Nic- 

 Chplla flayed the right arm from the shoulder to the elbow, and of 

 the skin thus flayed was made a dirk sheath, and this sheath we saw 

 and handled with no little curiosity a week or two ago. The 

 sheath is of a dark brown colour, limp and soft, with no ornament 



