The Highland bagpipe : $b its history, literature, and music: with some account of the traditions, superstitions, and anecdotes relating to the instrument and its tunes — John Shaqi
The Highland bagpipe : $b its history, literature, and music: with some account of the traditions, superstitions, and anecdotes relating to the instrument and its tunesManson, W. L. (William Laird)
History
The Highland bagpipe : $b its history, literature, and music: with some account of the traditions, superstitions, and anecdotes relating to the instrument and its tunes
Manson, W. L. (William Laird)
Bagpipe
The dog, the same dog presumably, went into an Argyllshire cave with a
piper. There are many large caves on the Kintyre coast, one of the
biggest being at Keill. This cave was long the resort of smugglers, and
was said to possess a subterranean passage extending six miles from the
mouth of the cave to the hill of Kilellan. It was haunted, and whosoever
would penetrate beyond a certain distance would never again be heard of
(a very convenient tradition for smugglers). A piper, however, made up
his mind to explore its inmost recesses, and, accompanied by his dog, a
little terrier, he set out on the expedition, while his friends watched
and listened at the cavern’s mouth. The piper went in boldly, blowing
his pipes till the cave resounded. His friends heard his music becoming
gradually fainter and fainter until all at once, when, as they supposed,
he had passed the fatal boundary, his pipes were heard to give an
unearthly and tremendous skirl, while an eildrich laugh re-echoed
through the cave. The terrier shortly after came running out, but
without his skin. In process of time he obtained a fresh skin, but he
never tried to bark after that adventure. As for the piper, his fate was
purely a matter of conjecture, but he is supposed to have stumbled in
the subterranean passage, for about five miles from the cavern’s mouth
there was a farm house, and underneath its hearthstone the piper was, in
after years, often heard playing his favourite tune, and occasionally
stopping to ejaculate—
“I doubt, I doubt
I’ll ne’er get out.”
Then there is the tale of the ghostly piper of Dunderave. At certain
times his music was heard issuing from a cavern which faced the sea, and
into the recesses of which the waves swept. On winter nights the sounds
that came from that cavern were wild and unaccountable, and often the
fishermen in the vicinity were startled by fierce, bloodcurdling yells,
especially in the early morning. When the tide went out the children of
the village, unaware of its terrible mystery, strayed near the yawning
cavern, and occasionally sad hearts were made by the disappearance of
the little ones who wandered too far in. The legend of Dunderave was
that the seventh son of the seventh son of a Mac Gregor, who would play
the gathering of his clan in the cavern, would scatter for ever the evil
spirits who frequented it. A piper, who thought he had the necessary
qualifications, was got, and he had the courage to play in the cavern of
Dunderave. Whether he played the gathering of his clan satisfactorily or
not could never be known, but certainly he never came out of the cave,
the mouth of which fell in after him, blocking up the cavern for ever.
No more children were lost, but ever after there could be heard by
anyone standing over the cavern, the faint music of Mac Gregor’s pipes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account