DEER 129 



The land of these "cattle" has been described lately in a spirited 

 " Recitative " by William Allan, Sunderland, in a contribution to 

 the Celtic Magazine, as follows : — 



The Highlands, the Highlands, the Highlands ; 

 The Bays, the Sounds, and the Islands, 

 The land of the purple heather. 



And Deer and Roe, and Kite and Crow, 

 And Grouse and Hare, and Blackcock rare. 

 And Erne and Fox, and Bats and Brocks, 

 And Whaups and Owls, and Barnyard Fowls, 

 And Shaggy Kine, and Sheep and Swine, 



Browsing or flying together. 

 Live still in our Grand Scottish Highlands, 

 The Land of the Heather and Islands ! 



Our selection of " Deer " poetry would not be complete without 

 reference to that powerful piece entitled " Cabarfeidh," with which 

 all our readers are doubtless more or less acquainted. As is also 

 known, " Cabarfeidh " is the war-cry and charge of that gallant clan, 

 the MacKenzies. The head, etc., is their cognizance. We are not 

 aware that any translation of Cabarfeidh has ever been published. 



In the Folk-lore of the Highlands, deer are called *' fairy 

 cattle," and were supposed to be milked on the mountain tops by 

 the fairies. A famous fairy, or rather witch, known as " Cailleach 

 Beinn-a-bhric," or Beinne-bric, is reputed to have been in the 

 habit of doing so, and certain verses are extant which she sung 

 to them on such occasions. It is said she even had a " buarach " 

 or "cow-fetter" in use when so employed, singing, as above 

 mentioned, to her "cattle," as all good dairymaids do. Her 

 song began "M'aghan fhin thu, nach teid do'n bhuailidh," 

 My own heifer you that goes not to the fold, etc. The words 

 segh and agh-allaidh are commonly in use as names for wild deer. 

 Cailleach-mor-nam-fiadh, great-hag of the deer, used to live among 

 the mountains of Jura, where many places are still named after 

 her. The fairies had no other cattle. 



Long before the introduction of Christianity, the Irish say, 

 there was an Irish "monarch" called "Eochaidh Fiadhmuine," 

 so named from his passion for deer hunting, also another, named 

 " Nia' Sedamin," because it was during his reign that the cows 

 and the does (sed or segh and haighe or aighe) were milked 

 alike ; seada is the Irish form of the word for a hind or doe. The 

 banner of the McCarthys, who are said to be descended from a 

 King Eunda, who reigned in Ireland in the fifth century, is a stag, 

 that monarch having had a certain exciting chase of one ; while 

 the name of a certain famous Irish Prince was Lughaidhe or 

 Laighe, a fawn (lugh aighe). (See Fingal, Duan IV., 241, and 

 Temora I., 376, as to custom of burning horns of deer.) Deer of 



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