Scope and Contents

Deleted vocabulary note which reads 'Munegin, Muileag, Mungeag = Mermaid Maighdean mhara'. The text has been deleted in pencil.

Scope and Contents Notebook belonging to Alexander Carmichael containing songs, poems, tales, names, vocabulary and expressions collected in the Outer Hebrides [Na h-Eileanan an Iar]. The first part of the volume contains transcriptions taken as Carmichael listened to informants in 1877 while the second part appears to be copies of previous transcriptions of material collected by Carmichael and Rev Malcolm MacPhail in 1874 and written into the notebook in 1891. Amongst the material is a version of the lament...

Scope and Contents Note entitled 'Maidean Mhara [Maighdean Mhara or Mermaid] collected from Duncan Maclellan [Duncan MacLellan], Carnan, Iocar S Uist [Ìochdar, Uibhist a Deas/South Uist] on 12 September 1890 describing a mermaid he had seen with 'Hair like the roinneach mhara & skin like the trosg [cod-fish]: all above waist appeared'. He said she appeared for about fifteen minutes and when Carmichael returned to Carnan, the people there said that this was not a rare occurrence. MacLellan had seen the...

Scope and Contents Story about the Banna, a beautiful creature which was like a woman from the waist up and a salmon from the waist down/ She sat 'on a boulder at the junction of the Carron with the Banna' [Abhainn Charrain/River Carron, Ros is Cromba/Ross and Cromarty and Drochaid a' Bhanna/Bonar Bridge, Cataibh/Sutherland] with a 'comb of silver combing her golder hair and a mirror of crystal to reflect her face'. The story tells how she was 'wont to take children with her to her grianan but the 'noise of...

Scope and Contents Story entitled 'A Mhaighdean Mhara' about a mermaid who followed sea-cattle ashore at Siabost [Shawbost, Eilean Leòdhais /Isle of Lewis]. It was customary for them to sprinkle urine between the sea-cattle and the shore, to stop them from returning to the sea. The sea-cattle were taken to a farm nearby and the mermaid followed. On observing the woman of the farm cleanning fish she said, 'Nigh[e] is glan gu math an t-iasg, Is ioma biasd a tha 's a mhuir', [Wash and clean well the fish, there...

Scope and Contents Story entitled 'Airidh Neill' about a water-horse which arrives at Airidh Neill nam Beann [Àirigh Nèill] nam Beann disguised as a woman. The dog senses it is a water-horse and begins to snarl. The water-horse asks Niall to tie up his dogs but Niall refuses. He throws the water-horse some meat, which it eats in one go. Eventually the dog is let out and is unharmed but when the bitch is let out it kills the water-horse and the water-horse turns into a big white mare on the shore. Niall tied...

Scope and Contents Story entitled 'Cro Mara' [Crodh Mara or Sea Cattle] collected from Dun[can] Maclellan (Ban) [Donnachadh Bàn or Duncan MacLellan], Càrnan, Uibhist a Deas/South Uist. In the story, a widow on a remote island sees some strange cattle in her herd. She goes to the big house and asks an old man for advice. The old man tells her to keep watch night and day for a week. She does this and sees cattle coming up from the sea to her corn. She pens in the cattle, the likes of which she has never seen...

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Story entitled 'Maighdean Mhara' about a mermaid in Loch Bhraoin [Loch Broom, Ros is Cromba/Ross and Cromarty] who appeared to a fishing crew and asked the helmsman for his leth-rann (half-stanza). He said, 'Long a thig sa theid an aithghearr, Sin mo leth-rann.' She said it was as well that was his reply and disappeared. A great storm occurred that day and many men were drowned. Consequently it is believed that when a mermaid like this one is seen, someone will drown soon after.

Scope and Contents

Superstition about mermaids that if a man sees a mermaid [maighdean-mhara] he should tell his companions on the boat as it is a bad omen. The text has been scored through as if transcribed elsewhere.