Fians, Fairies and Picts by David MacRitchie
page 36 of 72 (50%)
page 36 of 72 (50%)
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figures in the story of Diarmaid and Grainne, and one version says that
he "came in from the western ocean in a coracle with two oars (_curachan_)" (_The Fians_, p. 54). (His name assumes various shapes--_e.g._, Ciofach Mac a Ghoill, Ciuthach Mac an Doill, Ceudach Mac Righ nan Collach.) These three terms--_samhanach, uamh dhuine_, and _ciuthach_--all seem to indicate one and the same race of people. And these are probably the people referred to by Pennant when he says, speaking of the civilised races of the Hebrides in the beginning of the seventeenth century:--"Each chieftain had his armour-bearer, who preceded his master in time of war, and, by my author's (Timothy Pont's MS., Advocates' Library, Edinburgh) account in time of peace; for they went armed even to church, in the manner the North Americans do at present [1772] in the frontier settlement, and for the same reason, the dread of savages." (Pinkerton's _Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 322.)] [Footnote 42: Hibbert's "Description of the Shetland Islands," Edinburgh, 1822, pp. 444-451. With regard to the "Dwarfie Stone" of Hoy, the following references may be given:--"Jo. Ben," 1529, at p. 449 of Barry's "History of the Orkney Islands," 2nd ed., London, 1808; and other writers subsequent to 1529. These speak of this stone as the abode of a "giant." Sir Walter Scott (_The Pirate_, Note P.) and many others invariably say "a dwarf." Note also J.F. Campbell (_W.H. Tales_, p. xcix): "The Highland giants were not so big, but that their conquerors wore their clothes." Also the dwarf in Ramsay's "Evergreen" who says that he was engendered "of giants' kind."] [Footnote 43: _Dean of Lismore's Book_, p. lxxvi.; _Celt. Scot._, vol. i. p. 131; vol. iii. chap. iii.; &c.] |
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