Folklore of the Scottish Highlands (22 page)

Là Beltain
, ‘May Day’

Beltain was one of the most ancient calendar festivals of the Celtic year. It was sacred to the god Belinus, whose cult orbit stretched from the Italic Peninsula, across Europe and into the British Isles. The great Catuvellaunian leader in southern Britain, whose reign lasted some 40 years and ended shortly before the Claudian invasion in AD 43, bore the name of Cunobelinus — Hound of Belinus (
35
), and there is evidence that the mythological king in the story of
Lludd and Llefelys
in the Mabinogion,
Beli Mawr
, is a folk memory of this mighty god. His festival was held on 1 May, and the vestigial remains of it lasted into the twentieth century in the Highlands with all the essential elements of the pagan feast, modified, of course, by the dictates of Christianity. It was a great period of purification; at this time the Druids, the powerful pagan Celtic priests, used to drive the cattle between two fires, specially kindled, and made of sacred wood, to protect them from disease and the powers of darkness. Human sacrifice and offerings were made, and the ritual would be followed by rejoicing and festivities of all kinds. In recent centuries the sacrifices were replaced by token offerings.

Pennant says of the Conon region near Dingwall, that the sticks placed on the Thursday before Easter over the sheep-cot, the stable or the cow-house were, in his day, carried to the hill on 1 May where the rites were celebrated, all decked with wild flowers, and after the feast was finished, they were replaced on the places from which they had been taken; these sticks were known as
Clou-an-Beltain
or the split branch of the fire of the rock. He goes on to say: ‘These follies are now seldom practised, and that with the utmost secrecy; for the Clergy are indefatigable in discouraging every species of superstition’. But in spite of the very considerable power of the Church, the power of time-honoured tradition proved stronger, and these practices persisted into the twentieth century, publicly, or covertly. Shaw, commenting on Moray traditions from the eighteenth century, says that on May Day sacrifices were offered for the preservation of the cattle; the minister stated that, as a boy, he had been present at these.

Alexander Carmichael has, as always, much important information to give us which he recorded at a time when these pagan ceremonies were still practised to a certain extent, or when those who had taken part in them before they became redundant, were able to give him first-hand information about the details. The first day of May was the day when the summer grazings (
àiridhean
, ‘shielings’) began, and there is a whole world of folklore connected with the shielings alone. The cattle were taken to the hill, together with the sheep and goats; the women and children lived in small bothies and herded the beasts and saw to the dairy produce, and from time to time the men visited them, and there were stories told and songs sung, and the youths courted the girls, and this season was looked upon as the happiest and best of the entire year. After the huts had been repaired a lamb was killed; this was originally a sacrifice, but in Carmichael’s time it was simply eaten as part of the feast at the beginning of the summer grazings at Beltain. The shielings lasted in Lewis and some other places in the West until well into the twentieth century, but the custom, like so many others, has died out. Like everything else in the Celtic world, each activity must be hallowed by ritual; so the Driving of the Cows was sung or incanted for the protection of the beasts on the long journey. Another splendid and heroic mixture of paganism and Christianity is to be found in the incantation
An Saodachadh
, ‘The Driving’:

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Coins of CUNOBELINUS. A. Ross 1967, 30, figs 50b-c

The protection of Odhran the dun be yours,

The protection of Brigit the Nurse be yours,

The protection of Mary the Virgin be yours

In marshes and in rocky ground,

In marshes and in rocky ground.

The keeping of Ciaran the swart be yours,

The keeping of Brianan the yellow be yours,

The keeping of Diarmaid the brown be yours,

A-sauntering the meadows,

A-sauntering the meadows.

The safeguard of Fionn mac Cumhall be yours,

The safeguard of Cormac the shapely be yours,

The safeguard of Conn and Cumhall be yours

From wolf and from bird-flock

From wolf and from bird-flock.

The sanctuary of Colum Cille be yours,

The sanctuary of Maol Ruibhe be yours,

The sanctuary of the milking maid be yours,

To seek you and search for you,

To seek you and search for you.

The encircling of Maol Odhrain be yours,

The encircling of Maol Oighe be yours,

The encircling of Maol Domhnaich be yours,

To protect you and to herd you,

To protect you and to herd you.

The shield of the king of the Fiann be yours

The shield of the king of the sun be yours

The shield of the king of the stars be yours

In jeopardy and distress,

In jeopardy and distress.

The sheltering of the king of kings be yours,

The sheltering of Jesus Christ be yours,

The sheltering of the Spirit of healing be yours,

From evil deed and quarrel,

From evil dog and red dog [fox].

In this incantation for the protection of the stock we have, once again, a marvellous blend of pagan characters and Christian saints; a faith in the elements which were much sworn on by the Celts in ancient times, and continued to be invoked with equal fervour in a Christian milieu. Perhaps, in these incantations, recorded for posterity just in time by the devoted labours of Alexander Carmichael, one can achieve the most profound understanding of the true and abiding nature of the Celtic psyche and cultural individuality. Just as the new-born child, or the infant, helpless in its cradle, had need of every charm and blessing, so must the stock be kept from physical and supernatural danger by incantation and ritual. Nothing must be overlooked, nothing left open to the evil forces that constantly lay in wait to destroy the progeny, the stock, the unwary traveller, the labouring mother.

Là Beltain
, May Day, was then a most important calendar festival until the end of the nineteenth century. Fires were kindled that day on the mountain tops and all the cattle of the countryside were driven through them to preserve them until next May Day. On this day, all the hearth-fires were extinguished, in order to be kindled from the purifying flame from the sacred fire. In the past, the young people went out to the moors on this day, made a fire, baked a large cake, and this was cut into as many pieces as were people present. One of the pieces was daubed with charcoal and made quite black. Then all the pieces of cake were put into a bonnet, and all the men, who were blindfolded, drew out a piece. The man who selected the blackened piece was doomed to be sacrificed to Belinus; in order to avoid sacrifice. which would, of course, have taken place in pagan times, the victim had to leap six times over the flames. The writer heard of such festivities which still took place in Glen Lyon within living memory.

Lughnasa

Lugh was one of the most widespread and powerful gods both on the Continent and in the British Isles. Several towns are named after him and at Lugudunum (Lyon) an important festival was celebrated on 1 August in honour of the Emperor Augustus and it seems beyond question that this feast replaced one in honour of the native god, whose special day was 1 August. It goes back, then, to pre-Roman times and survived vestigially into the twentieth century. The Christian Church does not seem to have opposed this festival which was held to mark the beginning of the harvest. The feast is, of course, named after the pan-Celtic god, and Cormac in his ninth-century glossary makes the following comments: ‘
Lughnasa
, i.e. the
násad
of Lugh son of Ethle, i.e. an assembly held by him at the beginning of harvest each year at the time of
Lughnasa
’.

Násad
means ‘games’, or ‘assembly’; in the Celtic world, the two were synonymous. In modern times, the festival has been called by a variety of different names, masking its pagan connotation, but it is clear that it is the ancient feast which was deeply-embedded in the lives of the people whose well-being depended upon the nature and quality of the year’s crops. Originally connected with the corn, it was extended to the potato-harvest as well, when potatoes became the staple diet of the people in Ireland and Scotland. An early Irish tradition has it that Lugh established the festival in honour of his foster-mother, Tailtiu. It was a time of much joy, because the people in the Highlands and Islands were very short of food before the harvest, and it was essentially a joyous feast, with plenty of good things and treats for all.

Once again, we must look to Carmichael for information in the Highlands and Islands about this festival:

The day the people began to reap the corn was a day of commotion and ceremonial in the townland. The whole family repaired to the field dressed in their best attire to hail the God of the harvest. Laying his bonnet on the ground, the father of the family took up his sickle, and facing the sun, he cut a handful of corn. Putting the handful of corn three times sunwise round his head, the man raised the
Iolach Buana
, ‘reaping salutation’. The whole family took up the strain and praised the God of the harvest, who gave them corn and bread, food and flocks, wool and clothing, health and strength, and peace and plenty. When the reaping was finished the people had a trial called
cur nan corran
, casting the sickles, and
deuchainn chorran
, ‘trial of hooks’. This consisted, amongst other things, of throwing the sickles high up in the air, and observing how they came down, how each struck the earth, and how it lay on the ground. From these observations the people augured who was to remain single, and who was to be married, who was to be sick and who was to die, before the next reaping came round.

Carmichael recorded a reaping blessing which contains the memory of the agricultural and pagan aspects of the festival.

On Tuesday of the feast at the rise of the sun,

And the back of the ear of corn to the east,

I will go forth with my sickle under my arm,

And I will reap the cut the first act.

I will let my sickle down,

While the fruitful ear is in my grasp,

I will raise mine eye upwards,

I will turn me on my heel quickly.

Rightway as travels the sun,

From the direction of the east to the west,

From the direction of the north with motion slow,

To the very core of the direction of the south.

I will give thanks to the king of grace,

For the growing crops of the ground,

He will give food to ourselves and to the flocks

According as He disposeth to us.

The Scottish
Lughnasa
tradition differed from the Irish and took place on St Michael’s Day, 29 September; this would seem to strengthen T.C. Lethbridge’s equation of the Christian saint, Michael, with the pagan god, Lugh. This later date is made clear in another incantation recorded by Carmichael:

The Feast Day of Michael, day beneficent,

I will put my sickle round about

The root of my corn as was wont;

I will lift the first cut quickly,

I will put it three times round

My head, saying my rune the while,

My back to the direction of the north,

My face to the fair sun of power.

I will throw the handful far from me

I will close my two eyes twice,

Should it fall in one bunch

My stacks will be productive and lasting,

No Carlin will come with bad times

To ask a palm bannock from us,

What time rough storms come with frowns

Nor stint nor hardship shall be on us.

Là Féill Moire
, ‘Feast of St Mary’

Another important day in the Celtic calendar year which was still celebrated in Carmichael’s time was
Là Féill Moire
. This took place on 15 August, not long after the traditional
Lughnasa
feast, which it may have supplanted. Carmichael describes it as follows:

The Feast Day of Mary the Great is the 15th of August. Early in the morning of this day the people go into their fields and pluck ears of corn, generally bere, to make the ‘
Moilean Moire
’. These ears are laid on a rock exposed to the sun, to dry. When dry, they are husked in the hand, winnowed in a fan, ground in a quern, kneaded on a sheep-skin, and formed into a bannock, which is called ‘
Moilean Moire
’, ‘the fatling of Mary’. The bannock is toasted before a fire of rowans or some other sacred wood. Then the husbandman breaks the bannock and gives a bit to his wife and to each of his children, in order according to their ages, and the family raise the ‘
Iolach Mhoire Mháthair
’ ‘The Paean of Mary Mother’ who promised to shield them, and who did and will shield them from scath [harm] till the day of death. While singing thus, the family walk sunwise round the fire, the father leading, the mother following, and the children following according to age. After going round the fire, the man puts the embers of the fagot-fire, with bits of old iron, into a pot, which he carries sunwise round the outside of his house, sometimes round his steadings and his fields, and his flocks gathered in for the purpose. He is followed without as within by his household, all singing the praise of Mary Mother the while. The scene is striking and picturesque, the family being arrayed in their brightest and singing their best.