276 NETHER LOCHABER. 



We haven't as yet had many opportunities of making inquiry into 

 'the matter, but from all we can gather from some old women in 

 our neighbourhood, we believe empty egg-shells are, or perhaps we 

 should say were, frequently treated after the fashion stated, and 

 for the reason assigned. Some of our readers in the north-west 

 Highlands and Hebrides may perhaps know something more about 

 a very odd and curious superstition to be met with in the latter 

 half of the nineteenth century. For obvious reasons, it is a super- 

 stition more likely to be prevalent among islanders and dwellers by 

 the sea-shore than in the more inland parts of the country. 



The following fragment of a curious old poem we picked up 

 about ten days ago from the recitation of Alexander Maclachlan, 

 shepherd, Dalness. It is unfortunately but a fragment, as we 

 have said, but we give it here in the hope that some of our friends 

 of the Gaelic Society, or of our many readers throughout the 

 Hebrides, may be able to supply more or less of the remainder. 

 Maclachlan heard the entire poem from a Glenetive forester, a very 

 old man, some years ago, but this man is now unfortunately dead, 

 and the reciter could not direct us to any one likely to be able to 

 repeat the poem at length. Perhaps our friend Mr. J. F. Campbell 

 of Islay, so indefatigable and marvellously successful in his search 

 after Celtic song and story, " all of the olden time," may have met 

 with it in a more or less complete form ; if so, he would very much 

 oblige us all in the north by giving us a version of it and its 

 history, as far as he knows it. We may state that it does not 

 appear in Ledbhar-na-Feinne, which we have searched for it, 

 though unquestionably a production of considerable antiquity. 

 Maclachlan told us that the old forester, in reciting it, called 

 it Conaltradh nan Ian, or Tlie Parliament of Birds. The fol- 

 lowing were evidently the opening lines of the poem, and like 

 liest to be remembered by one who only heard it repeated once 

 or twice : 



