FISH 



361 



'N uair a chaidh sinn thun a 



chnudain, 

 Righ ! gur mise nach robh surdail, 

 Bha na musgan na mo shuilean, 

 Chaidh mo dhusgadh tuille 's luath. 



'Nuair a ruig sinn sgeir-na-cruban 

 Bha mi 'm shineadh air a h-urlar 

 Anns an taoim am measg nam 



musgan, 

 Agus murlach fo mo chluais. 



Ged tha mi gun slat gun mhaorach, 

 Chaneil mi gun ramh gun taoman, 

 Gheibh mi slat 's a choille-chaorain 

 Agus maorach taobh nan stuadh. 



When I went a-gurnet-fishing. 

 Lord ! 'twas I that did feel squeamish, 

 A mildew in my eyes was seeming, 

 I'd been waked too soon for me. 



When we reach the rock of partans. 

 On the floor I lay athwart her. 

 Midst the hosefish and bilge- water, 

 And a dogfish 'neath my head. 



Though both rod and bait's awanting. 



Oars and laver I've in plenty, 



The rowan-wood has rods not 



scanty. 

 The bait I'll get beside the sea. 



As the foregoing may not have left the most pleasant impression 

 of the power of poetry on the reader, let us give the following 

 extract from "Birlinn chlann-Raonuill/' by the famous Alasdair 

 MacMhaighstir Alasdair : — 



The sea was churned and mixed up 



through other. 

 Seals and whales in dire distress. 

 Waves raging and roaring ; the ship 



going, and 

 Dashing spark-like their white 



brains on the flood. 

 Their howling was high-sounding 



and sad as they cried 

 "Abject ones are we, drag us 



aboard." 

 The smallest fish that's in the sea, 

 White belly uppermost 

 By the fierce force of the tempest 

 Dead in their thousands ; 

 The shellfish and stones of the deep 

 Came to the surface. 

 Plucked from their iastnesses 

 By the sea's awful raging. 



An fhairge 'g a maistreadh 's 'g a 



sloistreadh 

 Roimh a cheile. 

 Gu'n robh roin a's mial-mor 

 Am barrach eigin, 

 Onfhadh is confhadh na mara 

 'S falbh na luinge 

 Sradadh an eanchainnean geala 

 Feadh gach tuinne, 

 lad ri nuallanaich ard uamhannaich 

 Shearbh, thursaich, 

 Ag eubhach " is iochdarain sinne 

 Draghaibh chum buird sinn " 

 Gach mion-iasg bha 's an fhairge 

 Tarr-gheal tionndaidht, 

 Le gluasad confhach na gailbhinn' 

 Marbh gun chunntas, 

 Clachan a's maorach an aigeil 

 Teachd an uachdar, 

 Air am buain a nuas le slachdraich 

 A' chuain uaibhrich. 



As a set off against the above, we may mention that the word 

 " spreidh " is made use of in a certain Barra fisherman's hymn 

 of prayer, where he says : — 



Drive towards them (the nets or 

 lines) as is meet 



The flocks (shoals) that are grazing 

 or feeding in the deep. 



Loch Lomond has, or had, the solitary reputation of having 

 "fish without fins," thought, however, to mean vipers which were 

 wont to swim to and from the islands, but South Uist is also said 

 to have finless trouts. The island of Lewis boasts just of seven 

 species of land mollusca. 



" lomain thuca maris iomchaidh 

 Spreidh tha 'g ionaltradh 's an 

 aigeann." 



