Carmina Gadelica, Volume 1, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900], at sacred-texts.com
THIS poem was taken down at Creagorry, Benbecula, on the 16th of December 1872, from Janet Campbell, nurse, Lochskiport, South Uist. The reciter had many beautiful songs and lullabies of the nursery, and many instructive sayings and fables of the animal world. These she sang and told in the most pleasing and natural manner, to the delight of her listeners. Birds and beasts, reptiles and insects, whales and fishes talked and acted through her in the most amusing manner, and in the p. 61 most idiomatic Gaelic. Her stories had a charm for children, and it was delightful to see a small cluster of little ones pressing round the narrator, all eyes, all ears, all mouth, and all attention, listening to what the bear said to the bee, the fox to the lamb, the harrier to the hen, the serpent to the pipet, the whale to the herring, and the brown otter of the stream to the silvery grilse of the current. Those fair young heads, now, alas! widely apart, probably remember some of the stories heard at Janet Campbell's knee better than those they afterwards heard in more formal schools.
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BOISILEAG air th’ aois, Air do chuid an chugan dhut, Air do chuid an chomaidh dhut, Air do chuid an uidheam dhut, Air do chuid an chuilm dhut, |
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A PALMFUL for thine age, For thy share of the dainty, For thy share of the supping, For thy share of the preparation, For thy share of the feast | |
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Air do chuid an fhaghaid dhut, Air do chuid an luchairt, A chuid nach fas ’s a chumhanaich, Tri baslach |
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For thy share of the chase For thy share of palaces, The part of thee that does not grow at dawn, The three palmfuls |