Hugh Of The Little Head

Hugh was the only son of Hector the Stubborn (_Eachunn Reuganach_), first chief of Lochbuy, in the fourteenth century, and brother of Lachlan the Wily (_Lachunn Lùbanach_), first chief of Dowart. He got the name of “Hugh of the Little Head” in his lifetime, and from the actions ascribed to him fully bears his own testimony to the truth of the adage, “A big head on a wise man and a hen’s head on a fool” (_Ceann mōr air duine glic ’s ceann circ avi amadan_). Sayings of his, which tradition has preserved, illustrate the curious shrewdness sometimes found in connection with limited intellect. Thus, when his mother was being carried for burial, he thought the pall-bearers were carrying the body too high, and he told them not to raise her so high, “in case she should seek to make a habit of it” (_mu ’m bi i ’g iarraidh a chleachdaidh_), and the phrase has since continued, “to seek to make a habit of anything, like Hugh of the Little Head’s mother.” He was married to a daughter of the house of Macdougall of Lorn; and she proved but a very indifferent wife. Tradition ascribes to her several nicknames, all of them extremely opprobrious, “The Black-bottomed Heron” (_Chorra thòn du_), “Stingy, the Bad Black Heron” (_Gortag, an droch chorra dhu_), “The Macdougall Heron” (_Curra Dhùghaill_), and _Dubhag tòn ri teallaich_. He was a fearless soldier, and altogether a very likely person to have been made a wandering spectre of after his death.

Lochbuy first belonged to the Macfadyens. Maclaine (so the family spell the name) having obtained a grant of the place from the Lord of the Isles, deceitfully asked Macfadyen for a site for a sheep-fold (_crò chaoraich_), and, having obtained a hillock for the purpose, proceeded to build a castle. When the place was sufficiently fortified he shot an arrow from it at Macfadyen, who sat at some distance picking bones (_spioladh chnàmh_) at his dinner. In the end Macfadyen had to leave his own land and go to Garmony (_Gar’moin’ an fhraoich_), where he supported himself by coining gold, gathered in _Beinn an Aoinidh_, Mull, whence his descendants became known as “the Seed of the Goldsmith’s” (_Siòlachadh nan òr-cheard_). After this Lochbuy and Dowart quarrelled. The properties of the two brothers adjoined, and between them lay a piece of ground, the ownership of which they disputed. A ploughman belonging to Lochbuy was ploughing on the debateable ground, when a friend of Dowart, who was out hunting, shot him. Sometime after this Dowart’s two boys were on a visit to Lochbuy, whose wife, being a relative of the murdered ploughman, went a piece of the way home with the children, and at a well, since called “The Well of the Heads” (_Tobar nan ceann_), took off their heads and threw them into the well, leaving the bodies on the bank. For this foul deed a deadly feud sprang up between the two houses, and Hugh’s wife, being a foster-sister (_co-dhalta_) of Dowart’s wife, did not care though her husband and the house of Lochbuy should be worsted.

This feud, joined to the other grievances of the “Crane,” led to there being so little peace at Lochbuy that the old chief gave Hugh a separate establishment, and allotted to him the lands of Morinish. Hugh built himself a castle on an islet in _Loch Sguabain_, a small lake between Lochbuy and Dowart. His wife urged him to go and get the rights (_còiricheaa_), _i.e._ the title deeds, of the lands of Lochbuy, or perhaps to go and get more, from his father, and at last he went. It was explained to him that on his father’s death he would have a right to the whole property, and he went away pacified. His wife, however, urged that it would be a small thing for Lachlan the Wily, his father’s brother, to come and take from him everything he had. He went again, an altercation ensued, and he struck his aged father a violent blow on the side of the head. This came to the ears of the old man’s brother, the chief of Dowart. Glad of an excuse to cut off the heir presumptive and make himself master of Lochbuy, and gratify his desire for revenge, Dowart collected his men and marched to take Hugh to some place of confinement or kill him. Hugh collected his own men and prepared to give battle.

Early on the morning of the fight, others say the evening before, Hugh was out walking, and at the boundary stream (_allt crìche_) saw an Elfin woman rinsing clothes, and singing the “Song of the M’Leans.”[28] Her long breasts, after the manner of her kind (according to the Mull belief regarding these weird women), hung down and interfered with her washing, and she now and then flung them over her shoulders to keep them out of the way. Hugh crept up silently behind her, and catching one of the breasts, as is recommended in such cases, put the nipple in his mouth, saying, “Yourself and I be witness you are my first nursing mother.” She answered, “The hand of your father and grandfather be upon you! You had need that it is so.” He then asked her what she was doing. She said, “Washing the shirts of your mortally-wounded men” (_Nigheadh leintean nam fir ghointe agad-sa_), or (as others say) “the clothes of those who will mount the horses to-morrow and will not return” (_aodach nam fear theid air na h-eich a màireach ’s nach till_). He asked her, “Will I win the fight?” She answered that if he and his men got “butter without asking” (_Im gun iarraidh_) to their breakfast, he would win; if not, he would lose. He asked if he himself would return alive from the battle (_an d’thig mise as beò?_), and she either answered ambiguously or not at all; and when going away left him as her parting gift (_fāgail_) that he should go about to give warning of approaching death to all his race. The same morning he put on a new suit, and a servant woman coming in just as he had donned it, praised it, and said, “May you enjoy and wear it” (_Meal is caith e_). It was deemed unlucky that a woman should be the first to say this, and Hugh replied to the evil omen by saying, “May you not enjoy your health” (_Na na meal thusa do shlàinte_).

For breakfast, “Stingy, the Black Heron,” sent in curds and milk in broad dishes. She did not even give spoons, but told Hugh and his men to put on hen’s bills (_gobun cheare_) and take their food. Hugh waited long to see if any butter would come, rubbing his shoes together impatiently, saying now and then it was time to go, and giving every hint he could that the butter might be sent in. At last he threw his shoe down the house, exclaiming, “Neither shoes nor speech will move a bad housewife” (_Cha ghluais bròg no bruidhinn droch bhean tighe_), and demanding the butter. “Send down the butter, and you may eat it yourself to-morrow” (_cuir anuas an t-ìm, ’s feudaidh tu fhein itheadh a màireach_). She retorted, “The kicker of old shoes will not leave skin upon palm” (_Cha’n fhàg breabadair na seana-bhròig craicionn air dearnaidh_). When the butter came, Hugh said he did not want her curds or cheese to be coming in white masses through his men’s sides (_tighinn na staoigean geala roi’ chliathach nam fear aige_), kicked open the milk-house door and let in the dogs, and went away, leaving the breakfast untouched. The fight took place at _Onoc nan Sgolb_, at the back of Innsri (_cùl na h-Innsribh_), near _Ceann a Chnocain_, and not far from Torness in Glenmore. As might be expected of fasting men, Hugh and his followers lost the fight. The sweep of a broadsword took off the upper part of his head (_copan a chinn_). Instead of falling dead, he jumped on the top of his horse, a small black steed with a white spot on its forehead, and ever since is “dreeing his weird” by going about to give warning when any of his race are about to die.