Folklore of the Scottish Highlands (25 page)

In my native place, Pool-ewe, Ross-shire, when I was a boy, it was the custom for the young to assemble together on the long winter nights to hear the old people recite the tales or
sgeulachd
, which they had learned from their fathers before them. In these days tailors and shoemakers went from house to house making our clothes and shoes. When one of them came to the village we were greatly delighted, whilst getting new kilts at the same time. I knew an old tailor who used to tell a new tale every night during his stay in the village; and another, an old shoe-maker, who, with his large stock of stories about ghosts and fairies, used to frighten us so much that we scarcely dared pass the neighbouring churchyard on our way home . . . it was a common saying ‘the first tale by the goodman, and tales to daylight by the guest’.

Rather than lament the rich treasure-house of lore and legend that has been irretrievably lost down the centuries, we should be deeply grateful for the amount of invaluable oral material that has been saved for posterity by the tireless labours and utter devotion of dedicated collectors, past and present.

Postscript

I should like to acknowledge the achievement of all the collectors of the past who worked tirelessly and in harsh conditions without the assistance of electric light and tape recorders, often in dangerous terrain, studded with peat bogs, lonely moors, and treacherous mountainsides. Our debt to them is immeasurable. I would also wish to make mention of some very distinguished field workers in the School of Scottish Studies, such as the late Calum MacLean of Raasay, Donald Archie MacDonald of North Uist, James Ross of Skye and many others. Today the School continues with its programme of recovering from obscurity valuable information of every kind concerning Scotland’s turbulent past. I myself had the privilege of being a Fellow of the School and of meeting and recording some fine tradition-bearers who are, alas, no more. It was a deeply enriching experience and one which brought a new dimension to my archaeological and historical studies of the early Celtic world.

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