Sea Sorrow
The Charm of Skye. By Seton Gordon. (Cassell. 15s.) To go " over the sea to Skye " with Mr. Seton Gordon is indeed a delightful experience. As we read, Blaven, the blue mountain, rises before our eyes. " On an October day the sun is warm and the air is keen on Blaven. So tame are the grouse that one can approach them closely. Backwards and forwards, across the brow of Blaven, a golden eagle sails ; from time to time the roaring of a distant stag is faintly heard." But the sun is inconstant in the Hebrides in stormy weather the dark over-shadowed lochs look full of despair, and to watch a storm from the coast, or even to remember one, is to know the meaning of " Sea Sorrow."
There is, however, a great deal besides description of scenery in these vivid pages ; for instance, the story of the Mac- Crimmons, the hereditary pipers of Skye. Supposed to be descended from the Druids and to be of a royal Irish line, they were not only pipers but teachers, having their "College" at Boreraig, beside Loch Follart, whither came the best pipers in Scotland, and even " from Erin across the sea." The family is first heard of historically in the fourteenth century, and it is probably as late as the seven- teenth century that the most renowned MacCrimmon com- posers lived. Much of the classical music of the Highland pipe owes its origin to this family. They were great fighters, as well as great musicians, but they owed their prestige to their gift of melody, and were supposed to have derived it originally from the fairies.
The tourist has found out Skye, for him there will soon be no " undiscovered country," but many of the customs are still primitive, and during months of the year, of course, tourists are not known. The only way of signalling to the neighbouring island of Soay is still what it always was.
Should a man of Soay cross to Skye, and want a few days later to return to his native isle, he must light a fire, and by means of a thick smoke-cloud seek to attract the attention of his friends.
The people are crofters and lobster-fishers. There is something of spirituality, something altogether ethereal, in the atmosphere of the Hebrides. Now and then, the often misty atmosphere is so clear that a man may see St. Kilda ninety-six miles off from a hill-top in Skye. Mr. Seton Gordon tells of a day when he saw it :
" The afternoon wore on. The westering sun was now lighting the approaches to that intangible land which was vizualized by the old Celtic dreamers and seers. Tir Nan Og (the Land of Youth), Tir Na Sorcha (the Land of Light), the Land of Peace, Silver Cloud Plain—these are some of the names given to a land wherein there is nought save truth, and there is neither age, nor disin- tegration, nor gloom, nor sadness, nor envy, nor jealousy, nor hatred, nor haughtiness."
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