6 NETHER LOCHABER. 



■with propriety be worn by a maiden in tlie good old anti-chignon 

 days of our grandmothers. The Highland maiden's narrow ribbon 

 for binding the hair was in the south of Scotland called a snood, 

 probably from the old English snod — " neat, handsome " — a word 

 still in use in the English border counties. In the south, even more 

 pointedly than in the north, the emblematical character of the 

 maiden ribbon or snood was recognised. It was only when a 

 maiden became an honest, lawful wife that the coif — also called 

 curch and toy — could be worn with propriety. If a damsel was so 

 unfortunate as to lose pretentions to the name of maiden, without 

 acquiring a right to that of matron, she was neither permitted to 

 wear that emblem of virgin purity, the snood, nor advanced to the 

 graver dignity of the coif or curch. In old Scottish songs there 

 occur many sly allusions to such misfortunes, as in the original words 

 of the popular tune of " Ower the muir amang the heather " — 



" Down amang the broom, the broom, 

 Down among the broom, my dearie. 

 The lassie lost her silken snood. 

 That gart her greet till she was wearie." 



And in a verse of a curious old ballad that we took down some 

 years ago from the recitation of a grey-headed Paisley weaver — 



" And did ye say ye lo'ed me weel ? 



Then, kind sir, ye maun marrie me ; 

 For that I maunna wear my snood 

 Aft brings the saut tear to my ee. " 



The reverend author of the above lines was probably born about the 

 year 1700, or perhaps ten or twenty years earlier, for we find that he 

 died a man well advanced in years in 1760. In the Scots Magazine 

 of that year there is the following notice of Mr Macleod's death : — 

 " Jan. \Wi. — At Durinish, in the Isle of Skye, the Eev. Donald 

 Macleod, minister of that parish, a gentleman, says our correspondent, 



