is the oldest known pipe tune. The Lord of the Isles invaded Ross-shire about 1477 with a numerous army, and laid waste the country of the Mac Kenzies, burning a chapel at Contin. The Mac Kenzies took the field to protect their lands and property, and in an endeavour to recover the booty from the Mac Donalds they asked the assistance of the Mac Raes. The Mac Raes joined them, and the Mac Donalds were defeated with great slaughter. In the ranks of the Mac Raes there fought Duncan Mac Rae, an orphan, familiarly known by the name of _Suarachan_, a term of contempt. His prowess on this occasion was remarkable, and fully entitled him to higher consideration. He slew a notable man in the Mac Donald ranks, and then calmly sat down on the body, as if no more was required of him. Mac Kenzie was astonished at the action of this ally of his, and exclaimed:— “Why sit you so, when your help is so much needed?” “If paid like a man, I will fight like a man,” replied Mac Rae. “If everyone does as much as I have done the day is yours.” “Kill your two and you shall have the wages of two,” said the chief. _Suarachan_ obeyed, and again sat down on the corpse. “Kill your three,” shouted the Mac Kenzie; “nay, fight on, and I will reckon with you for the dead.” _Suarachan_ thereupon got up, and dealt fearful destruction among the Mac Donalds, killing sixteen with his own hand, and thus proved his worth. He was ever afterwards held in high esteem, and became a leading man in the clan, acquiring the honourable name of “Duncan of the Axe.” It was an axe he wielded with such dread purpose on the field of battle. The pibroch was composed in his honour and in memory of the conflict, and has always been the march of the clan. The resemblance between the story and that of Hal o’ the Wynd in Scott’s _Fair Maid of Perth_ is too striking to pass unnoticed. Hal, at the battle on the North Inch of Perth, acted exactly as _Suarachan_ did at Contin. Which is the original story, or whether the two are different stories it is hard to determine. It would be interesting to know where Sir Walter got the legend on which he based the Hal o’ the Wynd incident. “THE MAC INTOSH’S LAMENT,” on the authority of The Mac Intosh himself, dates from 1550. Writing in 1885 the chief said:—“The tune is as old as 1550 or thereabout. Angus Mac Kay in his pipe music book gives it 1526, and says it was composed on the death of Lauchlan, the fourteenth laird, but we believe that it was composed by the famous family bard Mac Intyre, on the death of William, who was murdered by the Countess of Huntly in 1550. This bard had seen, within the space of forty years, four captains of the Clan Chattan meet with violent deaths, and his deep feeling found vent in the refrain:— ‘Mac Intosh the excellent They have lifted. They have laid thee Low, they have laid thee.’