Black Captain MacPherson and his pact with the Devil. Abo...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1962.032
Original Tape ID
Summary
Black Captain Macpherson and his pact with the Devil.
About a hundred years previously, Captain Macpherson, An Caiptean Dubh (the Black Captain) of Ballachroan was said to have a compact with the Devil. In return for the finest herds and crops in the whole district he was supposed to give the Devil certain proportions of the animals and crops at the year's end, but he outwitted the Devil in three successive years. Capt. Macpherson suggests that the story arose from the Black Captain being the first to introduce crop rotation and concentrated folding of the cattle to collect the manure.
The Black Captain went hunting, and was heard talking with a goat. The man who heard him refused to go out hunting the next day, and was the only one to escape death in a snowstorm. The Black Captain was found torn to pieces, and the body couldn't be brought in, until someone suggested that, as he had been taken by the Devil, he should be carried the wrong way round, i.e. head first. Nobody will go near his grave in St Columba's churchyard in Kingussie, or tend it.
Item Subject/Person
Macpherson, Captain [An Caiptean Dubh] [the Black Captain]
Recording Location
County - Inverness-shire
Village/Place - Badenoch
Item Location
County - Inverness-shire
Parish - Kingussie and Insh
Village/Place - Ballachroan
Language
English, Gaelic
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good