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Mungan ga chleachdadh airson leigheas.

Fieldworkers
Date November 1964
Track ID 21260
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1964.77.B1

Original Tape ID

SA1964.077

Summary

Pearlwort used as a cure.

Pearlwort was said to be blessed. A man had a fairy sweetheart. He left her for a mortal woman and was afraid to go hunting in case he met her. He went to an island with his dogs one day. She appeared as he reached the shore. He began to row back, but she threw one end of a ball of wool into the boat and began to pull it ashore. He cut the wool with a knife she had given him. She called out: "MacPhee of the black dogs you have left me on the point."

He married and his wife became pregnant, but the child was late. The husband went to look for the fairy. He told her he had a goat which was having problems giving birth. She found this strange, as pearlwort was growing beneath the goat's feet. She realised he meant his wife and gave him a black belt to put around her. He tied it round a stone and it split it in two. He went to the goat pen for pearlwort and put it in his wife's bed. She soon gave birth.

Recording Location

County - Midlothian

Parish - Edinburgh

Village/Place - Edinburgh

Language

Gaelic

Genre

Story

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good