"The Nine": A Scottish Gaelic Charm in the North Carolina State Archives

North Carolina Office of Archives and History

"The Nine": A Scottish Gaelic Charm in the North Carolina State ArchivesAuthor(s): Ronald BlackSource: The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 84, No. 1 (JANUARY 2007), pp. 37-58Published by: North Carolina Office of Archives and HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23523279 .

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"The Nine": A Scottish Gaelic Charm in the North Carolina State Archives

Ronald Black

My

attention was first drawn to "The Nine" in 1989 by Robert Cain, then head

of the Colonial Records Branch of the Historical Publications Section, North Carolina Office of Archives and History in Raleigh. Pressmarked Vault

Collection V.C. 7, it consists of a piece of brown paper, 5x5 inches, faded and

stained, formerly folded though not excessively so, cracked and torn but now

smoothed out and laminated. A photograph made under ultraviolet light has been

placed in Private Collection 722.1. One side is entirely filled by the text of the

charm; this is mainly in Scottish Gaelic and is presented in full below. Along the

left-hand edge of the verso is the endorsement, "Dugald Mc Farlen / Moore County." This may well be Dugald son of John McFarland of Cumberland County, mentioned in his father's will of 1767.1

All that appears to be known about the provenance of the document is that it

was given by A. P. Johnston of Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Fred A. Olds of the

Hall of History (now the North Carolina Museum of History) in 1914, and

transferred to the State Archives in 1946. Fayetteville (formerly Campbellton) in

Cumberland County was the focal point of a colony of Gaelic-speaking settlers

from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland that was founded in 1739 and

prospered until the Revolution. Moore County was founded in 1784 on the

western border of Cumberland County. The forename Dugald (Gaelic Dùghall) and the surname MacFarlane (MacPhàrlain) were, and are, quite common in

Argyll, the part of Scotland where many of the Highland settlers originated. It is,

of course, quite possible that the endorsement was made long after the charm was

written: the hand is similar, but the ink appears to be different. Gaelic was not

entirely forgotten in Moore County even in the late twentieth century.2

1. Will of John McFarland, January 19, 1767, proved May 1767, Cumberland County Original Wills,

State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History, Raleigh. See also note 26.

2. James Roderick MacDonald, "Cultural Retention and Adaptation among the Highland Scots of

Carolina," Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993, passim; Douglas F. Kelly with Caroline Switzer

Kelly, Carolina Scots: An Historical and Genealogical Study of over 100 Years of Emigration (Dillon, N.C.:

1739 Publications, 1998), 106-114

VOLUME LXXXIV • NUMBER 1 • JANUARY 2007



38 Ronald Black

■ S&. JSsSS'gutire

A>i2p *t~* £**!&? '&

t:'}r.a , ,1 /? . j"y <>/• /. iS/"<i ^'/2> jy ■* -ii „.,,

HHHP /- ^ Excerpt from the will of John McFarland, January 19, 1767, proved May 1767, Cumberland County Original

Wills, State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History, Raleigh.

I appear to be the fourth person to have studied the text. My predecessors were

Rev. James MacKenzie, who served as minister of Elise Presbyterian Church, in

Robbins, North Carolina; Rev. John Mackechnie (1897-1977), of Chatham,

Ontario, Canada, formerly Reader in Celtic at the University of Aberdeen,

Scotland; and Major Calum Iain MacLeod (1913-1977), then chairman of the

Department of Celtic Studies, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, and

Gaelic advisor to the Province of Nova Scotia.3

Background

Charms, whether oral or written, have been used by peoples throughout the world

since prehistoric times for magico-religious purposes. Formulaic in nature, they

may be recited or secreted about the body to give protection, to aid the healing

process, or to bestow success on a particular type of activity, such as grinding corn,

plucking herbs, or entering a lawsuit. Collections of charms exist for innumerable

languages, culled from such written sources as medieval manuscripts or recorded

directly from oral recitation.4 The Scottish Gaelic language is no exception.5 As

yet, however, there is not a single overall collection or listing of Scottish Gaelic

charms. They remain scattered over a number of different sources.6

3. Thanks to Robert Cain, I have had the benefit of being able to study copies of correspondence from

these gentlemen filed with the Preliminary Acquisition Report Form for P.C. 722.1 in the Archives

accession office, and summarized in a finding aid completed by Ellen Z. McGrew on November 2,1977.

4. Internationally, the literature on charms is considerable. Jonathan Roper's English Verbal Charms (FF Communications No. 288, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki,

2005) provides a splendid survey of recent work on the genre in many countries, cultures, and languages,

supported by an excellent bibliography. For an even more recent review of work in German, see Folklore

117, no. 1 (April 2006): 109-110. The principal issue at stake is whether the material should be ordered

according to its inner logic or its purpose.

5. For the Gaelic-speaking colony in North Carolina, see Duane Meyer, The Highland Scots of North

Carolina 1732-1776 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961); Margaret MacDonell, The

Emigrant Experience: Songs of Highland Emigrants in North America (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,

1982), 19-55; William S. Powell, North Carolina through Four Centuries (Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press, 1989), 106-108; MacDonald, "Cultural Retention"; Kelly, Carolina Scots.

6. Most of the principal published sources are referred to in Ronald Black, ed., The Gaelic Otherworld:

John Gregorson Campbell's Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland and Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2005), 450-451.

THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL REVIEW



A Scottish Gaelic Charm in the North Carolina State Archives 39

With respect to origins, the material may be categorized as follows: ( 1 ) oral or

written charms inscribed in medical and religious manuscripts (fourteenth

seventeenth centuries); (2) oral or written charms referred to or recorded in

ecclesiastical and legal records relating to witchcraft (sixteenth-eighteenth

centuries); (3) written charms surviving in their original manuscript form

(eighteenth-nineteenth centuries); (4) oral or written charms noted in manuscript form by collectors (eighteenth-twentieth centuries); (5) oral or written charms

published by collectors (nineteenth-twentieth centuries); (6) oral charms recorded

on tape (twentieth century). Of these, the largest single category is (5). The second-largest is probably (1),

but most of the charms in that group are written in a form of literary Gaelic

common to both Scotland and Ireland, and may not necessarily be Scottish in

origin. The precise extent of categories (2) and (4) remains to be determined

through further research. For example, a charm beginning er brid na bachil duin

referred to as used in the Isle of Bute in 1662 is most likely the well-known Ortha

Brighde nighean Dùghaill Duinn ("Charm of St. Brigid the Daughter of Brown

Haired Dugald").7 The smallest categories are (3) and (6). Charms disappeared with remarkable

speed from the repertoire of Gaelic tradition-bearers during the twentieth century,

and very few were picked up in the course of systematic field-recording carried out

by the School of Scottish Studies from 1951 onwards. One reason for this is the

introduction of universal primary education in English throughout Scotland in

1872. Other reasons were touched on by a director of the school, the late Donald

Archie MacDonald, in his biography of the most successful and celebrated

collector of Gaelic charms, Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912), whose work

appeared in the six volumes of Carmina Gadelica.

It is symptomatic of how well Carmichael related to people that he was able to collect material of this

kind (and indeed of many other kinds) which is full of superstition, of things that the people kept

extremely private due to the ill-will of the churches. There are individuals who believe in black

witchcraft (gonadh) and the evil eye (an droch shùil) to this day. Practically everyone believed in them

in Carmichael's time. However, not only did he find men and women to tell him about customs

connected with charmed thread (an srtàithle) and so on, but he also got from some of those who tied

the threads the very incantations that they muttered while doing it.

Another thing that makes these volumes so precious is that we recognize in them many features

of Gaelic religion and society that now belong to the past. There was no action or event in the lives of

the people from day to day for which they did not have some little spell, charm or incantation with

which to protect or bless it—death, birth, baptism, getting up in the morning, going to bed, the work

of the day or of the night, the cure of illness. All of them are here, and more.

7. The duke of Argyll, "Witchcraft in Bute, 1662," in Highland Papers 111, ed. J. R. N. Macphail

(Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, Second Series, vol. 20, 1920), 2-30, at p. 9; William Mackenzie,

"Gaelic Incantations, Charms, and Blessings of the Hebrides," in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of

Inverness 18:97-183 (1891-1892), at p. 121; Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 6 vols. (Edinburgh:

Oliver & Boyd and Scottish Academic Press, 1900-1971), 1:164, 174, 3:156-162.




40 Ronald Black

It is as well that this collection was made when it was. All categories of folklore have been

gradually disappearing, but none of them appear to have vanished so comprehensively as those which

are represented in Carmina Gadelica. It is very, very seldom that one hears spells, charms or

incantations today, to the extent that it has become a cause for celebration when one comes across

the slightest fragment or echo of this sort of material at all. I believe that there is a great deal in these

volumes that would have been utterly lost were it not for the interest taken by Alexander Carmichael

in the cultural inheritance of his compatriots.8

Despite the contrast illustrated so graphically here by MacDonald between the

riches of type (5) and the poverty of type (6), I believe that type (3) is the scarcest

of all. Other than the example to be described here, I know of no Scottish Gaelic

charms that appear to have survived independently in manuscript form—that is,

written down for the practical benefit of the possessor, as opposed to being jotted down in a book by medieval physicians for the use of their patients, or noted or

transcribed in more recent times by folklore collectors.

The North Carolina item thus stands out strongly beside its closest com

parators. For example, a very curious Gaelic charm called the Glas-Ghairm or

"Lock-Cry," used by thieves, lovers, or other intruders to unlock doors and

prevent dogs barking, was noted on a piece of paper by James MacLagan ( 1728

1805) from Perthshire, Scotland, but as MacLagan was a minister of religion and

a collector of folklore it is more likely that he noted it down for scholarly

purposes than that he intended to use it himself.9 He also noted two charms

against the evil eye, giving the names of the reciters as Nic Aoidh ("a MacKay

woman") and Anna Chaimbeul ("Ann Campbell") respectively.10 Those who

have collected and published Gaelic charms generally make it clear that their

material is noted down from oral recitation, but occasionally mention is made of

an item being "sent" or "received," presumably by post. Examples are: "The

following is a cure for the leamhnud, or stye in the eye, as sent us by a young man

from Sutherlandshire"; "Here is another Kishorn toothache charm, received, as

so many of these have been, from my good friend Mr Don. Kennedy"; "A version I

received from Skye a few years ago seems simple."11 In none of these cases do I

know of the manuscript having survived, but it is reasonable to guess that they were purposely noted down by correspondents from oral recitation or personal

8. Domhnall Eàirdsidh Dômhnallach, "Alasdair Mac Gille Mhtcheil (1832-1912)," in Ainmeil an Eachdraidh, ed. Ruaraidh MacThômais (Glasgow: Gairm, 1997), 51-64, at pp. 57-58, translated by the

present writer.

9. Glasgow University Library, Gen. 1042, MS 64, most recently published in Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 427-428. 10. Glasgow University Library, Gen. 1042, MS 244, most recently published in Derick S. Thomson, "The McLagan MSS in Glasgow University Library: A Survey," Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 58 (1992-1994): 406-424, at p. 420. For Ann Campbell's charm, see also Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 2:60-61.

11. Alexander Macbain, "Gaelic Incantations," Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 17 (1890 1891): 221-266, at pp. 244, 256; Mackenzie, "Gaelic Incantations," 134.





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Photograph of a Gaelic charm attributed to "Dugald Mc Farlen," ca. 1750, Dougald McFarland Paper, State

Archives. (See pages 50-51 for English translation.)

recollection in order to satisfy the interest of the collector. Two "gospels"

(soisgeulan) in letter form for the cure of toothache are preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, one written and sold at Kishorn, Lochcarron,

Ross-shire, Scotland, in 1855 by a professional witch called Kate MacAulay, the

other given in 1869 to a domestic servant in Dingwall, Ross-shire, by the wife of a

gamekeeper in the same county; both of these women would have been Gaelic

speakers, but both chose to write their "letters" in English, no doubt partly because

it was the only language they had ever learned to write, and partly because the

incoming language was believed to possess greater mystery or efficacy.12 In fact,

12. George F. Black, "Scottish Charms and Amulets," Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

27 (1892-1893): 433-526, at p. 492. Mackenzie says of the toothache cure ("Gaelic Incantations," 152):




42 Ronald Black

Mf'

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Donald Archie MacDonald, a director of the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, conducted

extensive fieldwork on Gaelic charms. Photograph (1988) of MacDonald taken in Kintail, Scotland, by Ian

MacKenzie. MacDonald (center) was conducting fieldwork with Duncan Matheson (left) and Tom Burton,

professor at East Tennessee State University. Photograph © School of Scottish Studies Archives, University of

Edinburgh.

one may go so far as to say that in the modern Gaelic world written charms were

usually for toothache, and were not usually written in Gaelic. A specimen in

bad Latin survives in MacLagan's collection.0 The Reverend John Gregorson

Campbell saw and copied an English one in the island of Tiree about 1864, noting that it "probably came originally from the isle of Man," presumably because that is

what he was told.14 Mackenzie prints a Gaelic version of the same charm from

Barra, but fails to clarify in what form it was transmitted. It may have been oral.15

The writing of Gaelic charms is surrounded by ambiguity and easily misunder

stood. During the years 1370-1430, an anonymous annotator wrote in Gaelic on

the flyleaf of a Book of Hours about "a charm that the angel placed against the

head of Jesus Christ, and it should be tied for wounding of the members, for

swelling, for injury, for staunching of blood." Elsewhere on the same page his

"Even in the districts where English is practically unknown to the old people, one gets this charm in

English."

13. Glasgow University Library, Gen. 1042, MS 134, most recently published in Black, Gaelic Otheruiorld, 459.

14. Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 208.

15. Mackenzie, "Gaelic Incantations," 152.





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This flyleaf from a thirteenth-century Latin Book of Hours shows fourteenth-century additions in (1) Gaelic, (2)

Anglo-Norman French, (3) Latin, and (4) Gaelic again. However, the Gaelic is not written in Gaelic script or

orthography. The first Gaelic text is a charm against wounding, swelling, injury, and for the staunching of blood.

The French text is a prayer to the Virgin. The Latin text is a prayer to a guardian angel. The second Gaelic text is a

charm for strength. Manuscript page from the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.




44 Ronald Black

instructions for using another charm appear to suggest that it be placed under the

patient's foot, presumably in the shoe.16 These may well be references to charms

written on vellum, that is, cowhide (paper did not come into use in Scotland until

a century later). This would be particularly appropriate in the case of the shoe, it

being made of that material in the first place. On the other hand, the instruction

that the angel's charm be "tied" suggests the possible use of a phylactery

containing the text in the case of the head or the arm, or, for any other part of the

anatomy and for the less opulent, the tying of a snàithle or colored thread to the

afflicted member during the speaking of the charm. Centuries later, however,

there seems to be little doubt but that a written charm of some kind is seen in

action in the following incident, recorded in connection with certain charges of

witchcraft in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland.

Upon the 21 of February 1662 Jonet Glas deponed that Issobell NcNicoll, coming into her house,

said to her that she was in Walter Stewart's house seeing his bairn, and that Walter's wife seemed to

he displeased with her, but, says she, "Walter put a paper on my face," and thereafter [she said that] he

or his will rue it within five years and less, and that it might [be] best it were long, that he would have

also [as] few children as she had.17

The alleged witch's accusation that Stewart "put a paper on my face" is startlingly reminiscent of the "charm that the angel placed against the head of Jesus Christ."

Even as we move closer toward the atmosphere of the North Carolina charm, we must pick our way carefully through the ambiguity of general accounts of the

practice. One of the best is that of the Reverend John Gregorson Campbell, written ca. 1874:

The seun or sian, Scots "sain," was used for the protection of both man and beast from particular

dangers, such as being taken away by an enemy, being drowned, or struck by sword, or arrow, or bullet

in battle. It consisted of rhymes, or parti-coloured strings, or plants, and in many cases its nature

remained a mystery. It was said over cows and sheep when leaving them for the night; it was put round

the necks of infants; given by the Fairy mistress (leannan sith) to her earthly lover; sewn by the foster

mother (muime) in the clothes of a beloved foster-son (dalta) about to leave her; etc.

After it was once given or said, the two—the giver and the recipient—must not see each other

again. If they did, the charm lost its power. Usually there was some unforeseen danger of the class

which the charm was intended to provide against that proved fatal. Thus, it is said, a young woman

gave a sian to her soldier lover who was leaving for foreign wars, telling him the only thing he had to

guard against was his own arms. He went scatheless through a protracted war, but after his return

scratched his forehead with a pin which he carried in his clothes, and died from the effects.18

16. Ronald Black, "Later Additions in Gaelic," in The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and the Gaelic West, ed. John Higgitt (London and Toronto: The British Library and

University of Toronto Press, 2000), 336-345, at pp. 339-340, 342, 343.

17. Argyll, "Witchcraft in Bute," 29. I have provided punctuation, modernized the spelling, and added some words in brackets for clarification. 1 am grateful to Liv Helene Willumsen, Tromsô, Norway, for

drawing my attention to this text.

18. Black, Gaelic Otheruiorld, 211.





Photograph of rowan crosses tied in red thread as used by witches, courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland,

Edinburgh.

Campbell's reference to "parti-coloured strings" is to the snàithle. This was a three

ply woolen cord of three colors—black for the condemnation of God, red for the

crucifixion of Christ, and white for the purification of the Holy Spirit.19 His

reference to "rhymes" (Gaelic rannan, which Carmichael liked to translate as

"runes") is to charms or incantations that might be either in rhyme or, like the

North Carolina example, in what would nowadays be called poetic prose or free

verse, depending on how it appears in writing. The oral presence of such charms

and incantations may be taken for granted in all the scenarios that he describes,

but their written presence is very difficult to detect with any certainty. When he

says that the seun or sian was "said over cows and sheep" he is obviously referring to

an incantation in oral form. By contrast, when he tells us that it was put round the

necks of infants, he can only be speaking of woolen thread, perhaps bearing an

amulet such as a piece of rowan twisted into the shape of a cross. When given by the fairy mistress to her lover, it could be in any or all of three forms: oral

incantation, thread, or plant. When the sian or sewn is sewn into clothes it seems

likely to consist of more than thread, the thread being merely the means of

enclosing it safely and permanently in the garment. In this case the charm in the

garment might be either a lucky plant or a piece of paper with writing on it. Again, the evidence for this practice that I have at present is unfortunately restricted to

19. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 4:166.




Ronald Black

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This written charm to cure toothache was given in 1869 to a domestic servant in Dingwall by the wife of a

gamekeeper at Garve, Ross-shire. It was given by Dr. William Gemmel in 1883 to the National Museums of

Scotland. Text: "Petter Sate Weapn on a Marabl Stone Christ Came Passn By and asynd watht eleth the Petter

Petter ansered and sayed my Lord my Gode my tothe Christ ansered an sayed those that will carry those lines in my Name shall Be Heald for my Nam Sake. Amen." George F. Black, "Scottish Charms and Amulets," Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 27 (1892-1893): 423-526 (493).





the above-mentioned soisgeul or toothache charm. "The words were written on a

small piece of paper, the paper folded up and handed to the sufferer, who was not

on any account to open it up or see what was written thereon. It was then sewn up in a part of one's under-garments, and worn till it crumbled away. So long as the

paper lasted the person enjoyed immunity from toothache!"20 Alexander Macbain

was sent the following amusing description of what was only too likely to happen

(amusing, that is, for all but the lady concerned):

Some men cure toothache in the following way—They write out a line or two on a small slip of paper,

and then fold it up, and hand it to the sufferer, who must not on any account open it. If he does, the

worse for himself, for the toothache will at once come back. 1 know a young woman who once got this

line. She placed it carefully in the lining of her corset. One day, however, she happened to be

washing, and, having neglected to remove the line, she destroyed it in the process of washing this

particular article of attire. She told me that the toothache came back like a shot, and she had to give

up her washing that day. A second line, she said, would do her no good, and so the toothache ever

since has been paying her an unwelcome visit now and then.21

If our charm is to be regarded as prose rather than free verse, it is unusual in yet another respect. Apart from translations and sermons (and in stark contrast with

poetry, which we have in great abundance), remarkably little original Scottish

Gaelic prose has survived from the eighteenth century. A recent anthology of one

hundred prose passages dating from ca. AD 775 to 1997 offers nothing at all from

between ca. 1710 and 1800.22 Symptomatically, there is very little Gaelic prose in

James MacLagan's collection: the above-mentioned charms, the King's Reg

ulations (for Army purposes), a note about the Forty-Second Regiment, a story

about the son of a bailie of St. Kilda, the "Thieves' Grace," letters between

MacDonald and Argyll chiefs, and some passages transcribed from old manu

scripts.23 If the gap is to be filled in a future anthology, it will have to depend

mainly on these, on the limited quantity of Gaelic prose written by the celebrated

Jacobite poet Alexander MacDonald (Alastair mac Mhaighstir Alastair), and on the

North Carolina charm. It will thus be appreciated just how rare—not to say

unique—-an item our charm, "The Nine," can claim to be.

Text

I should stress first of all that I have not seen the original of "The Nine." I worked

on it in 1989 from a black and white photocopy supplied by Robert Cain, and

again in 2005 from a color printout of a digitized image sent by his wife, Barbara, to

20. Mackenzie, "Gaelic Incantations," 152.

21. Macbain, "Gaelic Incantations," 251.

22. Richard A. V. Cox and Colm Ó Baoill, eds., Ri Linn nan Linn lean: Taghadh de Rosg Gàidhlig (Brig o'

Turk, Perthshire: Clann Tuirc, 2005).

23. Thomson, "The McLagan MSS," 421.




48 Ronald Black

Dr. Alex Murdoch of the Department of Scottish History in the University of

Edinburgh.24 The hand of the text is that of a person educated in the early or middle part of

the eighteenth century. If the North Carolina charm belongs to the same tradition

as the sian or the soisgeul, we would not expect it to be that of Dugald MacFarlane, who is named in the endorsement, but of his foster-mother, mother, wife, or

sweetheart.25 Taken together, these circumstances would seem to imply that text

and endorsement were written at the same time, in or shortly after 1784. It is

possible, however, that MacFarlane wrote the text himself, perhaps for reasons

that could be described as sentimental or antiquarian rather than traditional—in

which case we may date it to anywhere between 1739 and 1784, the endorsement

probably being added later. In this respect, the text presents a potential clue

(albeit a frustratingly inadequate one) in the form of the initials "I D" written

below the end of line 11. If "I D" (Isabel, John, or James Darroch, perhaps?) is to be

understood as the recipient of the charm rather than as Christ (see Commentary below), and if the hand of the text and the endorsement is indeed the same, we

would have to conclude that the charm was written by MacFarlane for Darroch in

or after 1784, eventually passing from Darroch, directly or indirectly, to A. P.

Johnston.26 If speculation is permissible, the most attractive scenario is that the

charm was written and endorsed by Dugald MacFarlane to protect his sweetheart, Isabel Darroch, and sewn by her into the lining of her dress. To the scholar, this

solution contains the attraction of explaining "I D" by a name that consistently

begins with "I" (Gaelic Iseabail, Latin Isabella). "John" is lain, Seon, or Seathan in

eighteenth-century Gaelic, and Johannes or lohannes in Latin, while "James" is Seumas in Gaelic, Jacobus or lacobus in Latin.

24- An early draft of my transcription and translation appears in MacDonald, "Cultural Retention," 136, and Kelly, Carolina Scots, 137.

25.1 give pride of place to the foster-mother in order to reflect the continuing importance of fosterage in Gaelic society down to our period. Individuals, both boys and girls, were frequently fostered out from

infancy in order to cement friendship between families and to provide promising youngsters with an environment not available at home. The resulting attachments are summed up in a proverb: Comhdhaltas gu ceud, càirdeas gu fichead. "Relationships based on fosterage extend to a hundred degrees, those based on

kinship to twenty." See Alexander Nicolson, Gaelic Proverbs (Glasgow: Caledonian Press, 1951), 27,155. Samuel Johnson gives a good account of fosterage in Journey to the Western Islands. See Ronald Black, ed., To the Hebrides: Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands and James Boswell's Journal of a Tour (Edinburgh: Birlinn Publishers, forthcoming in 2007).

26. Very few Highland surnames begin with "D": principally, Darroch, Douglas, Drummond, and Dunbar, of which the last three are essentially Lowland names with modest penetration into the Highlands. The first governor of what ultimately became North Carolina was William Drummond, a Lowlander ( 1664 1667); an Archibald Douglas was among those Highlanders who received grants of land in the state in 1740 (Powell, North Carolina, 55, 564; Meyer, Highland Scots, 72, 82). The Darrochs (Clann M hic Gille Riabhaich) are of Gaelic origin and were one of the leading families in the Isle of Jura, from where fifty emigrants arrived in North Carolina on November 4, 1767; curiously, 1767 was also the date of the death of John McFarland of Cumberland County, North Carolina (Meyer, Highland Scots, 86, 123). See note 1.





The charm is very crudely written in an orthography based on that of English. Unlike that of Gaelic, which is older and more highly developed, the orthography of English is unscientific and unphonetic, so when used for other languages it is a

very blunt instrument indeed, and the meaning of the text has to be teased out

step by step. As it happens, this procedure is wearily familiar to the student of

Scottish Gaelic charms. Even the earliest examples of the genre, dating from

1370-1430, were written in an orthography based not on Early Modern Gaelic but

on Middle Scots, the Germanic dialect, spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, that

superseded Latin as the language of the Scots Parliament in 1398.27

Line-by-line transcript

Square brackets indicate missing text (lines 1,3), partly missing text (line 5), or letters that

are particularly hard to read with certainty (lines 10, 13).

1 in name of the father Son and holy goa[ 2 nia nie ube Soa ar hule mir a

3 a dh ordic Calum Cille is rie[

4 nia dull mir vella niach

5 C]our brie s nea fachel so are

6 in tul vige agus are in tull more

7 are Chrea Chee s nach banich

8 niue bann is are niue

9 gline niue connea Shenge 10 Shee heag S[h]ich un [bm]alle

11 ud hall gaud tog .e. yeatsa I D

12 gach Suie s gach tnue s gach 13 farmid is S Lea Dia s Coach[C]ola

Line-by-line transliteration into regular orthography

Square brackets indicate uncertain readings due to incomplete text. Minimal punctuation

and capitalization are supplied.

1 In name of the father, son and holy ghost, 2 na naoi. Uba seo air a h-uile mir

3 a dh'ordaich Calum Cille is rinnefadh]

4 naoi dùile miorbhaileach, ni a ch

5 cuir brigh sna facail seo air

6 an t-sùil bhig agus air an t-sùil mhóir

7 air a' chridhe a chi's nach beannaich.

8 Naoi beanna is air naoi

27. Black, "Later Additions," 336-338.




50 Ronald Black

9 glinn, naoi cona seanga 10 sithe th' aig sithiche thun a' bhaile

11 ud thall. Gun tog e dhiotsa, I. D.,

12 gach sùil 's gach tnù 's gach 13 farmad is S[ùil]. Le Dia as cumhachdaile.

The same, organized more logically and edited

English is translated into Gaelic. Full punctuation and capitalization are supplied. Each

discrete phrase is placed on a separate line to form a pattern akin to vers libre.

An ainm an Athar, a' Mhic,

'S an Spioraid Naoimh,

"Na Naoi."

Uba seo air a h-uile mir

A dh'ôrdaich Calum Cille,

Is rinneadh naoi dùile miorbhaileach,

Ni a chuir brigh sna facail seo:

Air an t-sùil bhig

Agus air an t-sùil mhóir,

Air a' chridhe a chi's nach beannaich, Naoi beanna is air naoi glinn, Naoi cona seanga sithe a th' aig sithiche

Thun a' bhaile ud thall.

Gun tog e dhiotsa, I. D., Gach sùil 's gach tnù 's gach farmad

Le Dia as cumhachdaile.

Translation

In the name of the Father, of the Son, And of the Holy Ghost, "The Nine."

This is a charm for every part That St Columba ordained, And nine miraculous elements were made, Which is what has put substance in these words:

Upon the little eye And upon the big eye,

Upon the heart which sees and blesses not, Nine mountains and upon nine glens,

May nine slender fairy hounds that a fairy possesses Go to yonder township.




A Scottish Gaelic Charm in the north Carolina State Archives 51

as

illp

41 4'v1

KPpgjli Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912) was the leading collector of Gaelic charms. His work is published in the six

volume Carmina Gadelica (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd and Scottish Academic Press, 1900-1971 ), from which this

portrait is taken.

May he protect you, I. D., From each eye and each jealousy and each envy

Along with God the most powerful.




52 Ronald Black

Commentary

Belief in the evil eye was (indeed is) a world-wide phenomenon.28 The purpose of

this charm, as of many others in Gaelic, was to ward it off. The use of the very

powerful number nine (three times three, the Trinity multiplied by itself) is also

common.29

The structure of the charm, and a good deal of its phraseology, parallels other

examples of the genre. It begins with the Trinity and ends with God. If the

interpretation mir ("part") is correct, the charm is a general one, designed to

protect every part of the body. A religious historióla is offered—as in other

examples, we are told that this charm was made by Columba, the patron saint of

the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. If the interpretation dùile ("elements") is

correct, additional justification is then offered by stating that God made nine

elements (not four, as alleged by Greek philosophers). The summary of dangers facing the immigrant that forms the core of the charm

is organized entirely in threes and nines. There are three types of danger: the evil

of men (little eye, big eye, unkind heart); land and sea (mountains and glens were

regularly used as terms to describe the sea as well as the land, indeed the "ninth

wave" was especially blessed); and the otherworld.30 The little eye and the big eye

may be found elsewhere. In one charm Christ is portrayed in very Highland terms

as a herdsman with His calves and His milk, then:

Air suil bhig, air suil mhoir, Air uachdar cuid Chriosd.

Carmichael's translation is "On small eye, on large eye, / Over Christ's property."31 The analogy, typical of Gaelic charms, is that, just as Christ turned away the evil

eye from His property, so is He now invoked to turn it away from that of the

reciter. Similarly:

Air sùil bhig, air sùil mhóir, Air sùil ban luath lonach,

Air sùil ban luath lunach, Air sùil ban luath lorach.

28. See, for example, Robert Craig Maclagan, Evil Eye in the Western Highlands (London: Alfred Nutt, 1902); Clarence Maloney, ed., The Evil Eye (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976); Alan Dundes, ed., The Evil Eye: A Casebook (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992); and Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 201-205.

29. See, for example, Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 6:157, s.v. "Nine"; Stuart McHardy, The Quest for the Nine Maidens (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2003); and Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 748, s.v. "nines."

30. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 2:90-91, 120-123, 332, 3:8-9, 12-13, 4:290-291; Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 207, 655.

31. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 2:70-71 (collected from Mor Maclellan, a crofter's wife, South Boisdale, Isle of South Uist).





Carmichael translates: "Against small eye, against large eye, / Against the eye of

swift voracious women, / Against the eye of swift rapacious women, / Against the

eye of swift draggling women."32 The beginning of yet another charm helps us

understand it a little better:

Dèanarri'sa duit

Upa ri shùil

A uchd Pheadail, a uchd Phôil, A uchd Bhrighde bhïth mo ruin.

Air sùil fir bhig, Air sùil fir mhóir,

Air sùil fir a ghabhas An rathad mor.

Carmichael translates: "I make for thee / Charms for evil eye / In reliance on Peter

and on Paul / And on quiet Brigit my beloved. / Against eye of little man, / Against

eye of big man, / Against eye of man who travels / The high road."33 In our charm

the evil eye is itself divided into three: sùil "eye," tnù "jealousy "formad "envy"; this

is also found in a charm collected by John Gregorson Campbell:

Math do ni gun robh dhuit,

Gach aon 'na shùil, 'na thnù, 'nafharmad— A shùil san torn chonchas

'S an torn ri theine.

Campbell translates: "The benefit of your herd may you have, / Each for his eye or

malice or envy— / May his eye be in the bush of whins / And the bush be on

fire."341 find this translation hard to understand, and would be inclined to emend

it to: "May the benefit of your cattle be yours; may the evil eye of each person— eaten up by his own eye, his own jealousy, his own envy—be in the bush of whins

with the bush on fire."

The evil eye was believed to be caused by envy, and farmad is a particularly

common word in Gaelic charms.35 The phrases naoi cona seanga sithe ("nine

slender fairy hounds") and am baile ud thall ("yonder township") also occur quite

frequently. The former may vary: naoi conaire sithe ("nine fairy paths"), naoi mnatha

32. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 4:158-159.

33. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 4:180-181 (collected from Isabel MacEachainn, cottar, Bunessan, Isle

of Mull, Argyll).

34. Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 210.

35. Mackenzie, "Gaelic Incantations," 131,134; Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 2:54,56,68,4:158,174.




54 Ronald Black

Painting of Rev. John Gregorson Campbell © by the author's daughter, Catriona Black, frontispiece to Ronald

Black, The Gaelic Otherworld (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2005). The painting is from a photograph of Campbell in John

Gregorson Campbell, Clan Traditions and Popular Tales of the Western Highlands and Islands, in Waifs and Strays of

Celtic Tradition Series, no. 5 (London: David Nutt, 1895).

seanga sïthe ("nine slender fairy women")-36 Am baile ud thall means in effect

"somewhere else," but always in an otherworld context. Fairies were particularly troublesome on Fridays, coming freely into people's houses on that day, so it was

unlucky to speak of Friday—people said latha a' bhaile ud thall ("the day of yonder

township") instead.37 If a person did mention the day's name, Di-Haoine, danger was averted by adding immediately: Air crodh a' bhaile ud thall! ("On the cattle of

yonder township!")38 In the old country, fairies represented an amalgam of many unspoken or

invisible fears, especially those of women and children, such as the fear of

domestic abuse, of rape, or of kidnap by strangers lurking in mountains and forests.

Historian Guion Griffis Johnson notes that superstition was widespread among

36. Mackenzie, "Gaelic Incantations," 135-136; Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 2:332, 4:176; Black, Gaelic Otherworld, lxxxvi, 204.

37. Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 10, 568.

38. Nicolson, Gaelic Proverbs, 7; Black, Gaelic Otherworld, 568.





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This page from a ca. sixteenth-century Gaelic medical manuscript (on vellum, not paper) depicts four concentric

circles as a rota for reckoning golden numbers. A few figures have been entered. Another hand has utilized the

spaces for charms. At left and right, the writer uses the circles as ruling, adding some crude curved lines of his own.

In the center are charms for a successful errand; against menstruation (to be written on a woman's right breast); and against violent death, poisons, and the demons of the air. On the left are charms against menstruation and to

obtain a chief's love. On the right is a charm against fever. Below, extending up the right margin, is a charm

against bone failure. There are Latin words among the Gaelic. This page of writings illustrates how spelling in the

old Gaelic script was full of abbreviations and symbols such as "h" being represented by a dot. Manuscript page from the National Library of Scotland.




56 Ronald Black

North Carolinians, who may have linked malevolent fairies with Indians. John

Brickell, in A History of Carolina (1737), avowed that Indians practiced witchcraft. Some planters, he wrote, swore that Indians "raise great Storms of

Wind and that there are many frightful Apparitions that appear above the Fires

during the time of their Conjuration."39 The function of "I. D." is by no means clear. The possibility that these letters

stand for Isabel (or John, or James) Darroch has been mooted above. It seems

marginally more likely, however, that they stand for Iesus Dominus ("Lord Jesus"), the use of Latin phrases being common in charms. This would relate to the

character which precedes yeatsa—I have transcribed it above as .e., meaning "he"

or "it," but it could equally be .c. This gives us two possible explanations for the

dots, both of which lead in the same semantic direction: ( 1 ) if the letter is e, the

dots are being used in exactly the same way as a colon is used in lines 1,2,5 and 6, i.e. to draw the reader's attention to a word written as an afterthought above (or in

this case below) the line; (2) if the letter is c, this shows familiarity with the use of

.c. as an abbreviation for Criost ("Christ") in the writing of traditional Gaelic

manuscripts, including charms.40 Irrespective of whether this character is a

pronoun or an abbreviation, then, "I. D." may be seen as an explanation of it.

Further support for the interpretation of "I D" as "Iesus Dominus" is provided

by a charm against the evil eye collected by Alexander Carmichael that ends:

Mar a thog Criosd am meas, Thar bharra nam preas, Gun ann a thogas e dhiot-s' a nis

Gach cnid, gach tnu, gachfarmad, O'n la'n diugh gu la deireannach do shaoghail.

Carmichael translates: "As Christ lifted the fruit, / From the branches of the

bushes, / May He now lift off thee / Every ailment, every envy, every jealousy, / From this day forth till the last day of thy life."41 The two penultimate lines

correspond almost exactly to the two penultimate lines of our own charm. I have chosen to translate Gun tog e dhiotsa . . . gach ... as "May he protect you ... from

each . . .," but I might equally have chosen Carmichael's more literal rendering

39. Black, Gaelic Otherworld, xxxiii-lxxviii; Guion Griffis Johnson, Ante-Beilum North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937), 48 (quotation).

40. Another hint that the writer may have been familiar with such manuscripts is the dot above the c of ordic in line 2: a dot was placed above a consonant in this way to indicate h (see page 55).

41. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 2:56-57, 379 (collected from Mairead Mackintosh, a tailor's wife at South Boisdale in the Isle of South Uist).





"May he lift off thee ... every...In fact the same passage occurs twice at the end

of another charm:

Mar a thog Crïosd am meas

Thar bharra nam preas, Gun togadh e dhïots a neis

Gach gios agus glas agus galmachd;

Mar a thog Crïosd an drùb

Thar macan na h-uir,

Gun togadh e dhïots', a rùin,

Gach gnú, gach tnùth, gach farmad.

Carmichael translates: "As Christ raised the fruit / Over the tops of the bushes, /

May He lift from thee now / Each spell and ban and blindness; / As Christ removed

the sleep / From the little son of the grave, / May He remove from thee, dear one, / Each frown, each envy, each malice."42 The subject of this passage in all three of

Carmichael's stanzas is Christ, but it is not entirely clear who is the subject of it in

the North Carolina charm. One would have assumed at first that it referred back

to St. Columba—but then "I D" is added, seemingly as an afterthought. The case

can be made, then, that the writer of our charm understood that his third-last line

referred to Christ, just as in Carmichael's version, and added "I D" to clarify the

point before completing his second-last. Perhaps this unsettled him, for in the

final line he seems to have broken off without completing the words is Sule (is sùil

"and eye") after realizing that he had already mentioned the eye.

MacFarlane, if indeed he wrote the charm, was clearly more comfortable

writing English than Gaelic. He does not write An ainm an A thar, a' M hic, 's an

Spioraid Naoimh in English because these words would have been said in English but because they were already familiar to him in both languages; he therefore

chose to write them in the way that came more easily. If he were born and brought

up in Scotland he would have been educated in a charity or parish school where

Gaelic was the principal medium of communication but where the purpose was to

teach the reading, writing, and speaking of English, along with the Shorter

Catechism and a little arithmetic, bookkeeping, and Latin.

42. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 4:174-175 (collected from Mary Mathieson, 69, a cottar at Malacleit

in the Isle of North Uist, on March 17, 1871).




58 Ronald Black

Conclusion

The text of the North Carolina charm fits snugly into the existing corpus of

Scottish Gaelic charms. There is little in it that is new or unfamiliar to the student

of such charms, and as the Gaelic is very badly spelled, a knowledge of that corpus is the key to understanding it. The purpose of the charm is to protect its possessor or client (in every part of his or her body) from the evil eye, that is, from the

dangerous or covetous intentions of the natural and supernatural forces that

surround him or her in North Carolina. These forces, including "nine slender fairy

hounds," are categorized poetically as dwelling in nine mountains and nine

valleys. This serves as a description of Carolina. The fairies and their hounds seem

to represent Indians or fear of Indians, just as in the old country they represented an amalgam of unspoken fears, including kidnap or rape by lawless and Godless

men, cattle-stealers mostly, who lurked in desolate areas.

Theories regarding the origin and transmission of the North Carolina charm

focus on the letters "I D" and the endorsement "Dugald Mc Farlen / Moore

County." The first theory is that the charm was written by MacFarlane in or after

1784 (the date of the founding of Moore County) to protect his sweetheart, Isabel

Darroch, and sewn by her into the lining of her dress. It is likely, however, that

"I D" stands not for Isabel Darroch but for "Iesus Dominus." The second theory,

therefore, must be that the text was written by and for persons unknown, probably also for "superstitious" purposes, at any time between 1739 (the date of the arrival of

the first Gaelic-speaking settlers in North Carolina) and 1784, being subsequently endorsed by Dugald MacFarlane. The third theory is that text and endorsement

were written for "antiquarian" purposes by Dugald MacFarlane after 1784

Although the text is largely unremarkable, the nature of its survival is of great interest. This is not merely the only Scottish Gaelic charm known to have

survived from the New World. It may well be the only Scottish Gaelic charm to

have survived from the eighteenth century in the form of a functioning artifact

rather than as a scholarly transcript.

Ronald Black is a former Senior Lecturer in Celtic at the University of Edinburgh. Among his

publications are An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, An Lasair: Anthology of 18th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, and Eilein na h-Ôige: The Poems of Fr Allan McDonald. He is the editor of a new edition of To the Hebrides: Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands and James Boswell's foumal of a Tour,

forthcoming from Birlinn Publishers. He is grateful to Dr. Alexander J. Murdoch for his enthusiastic help and encouragement over many years; without it this article would never have been written. He would also like to thank the editor of the Review for researching the State Archives on his behalf, and so assisting in the identification of Dugald son of John McFarland of Cumberland County as the owner (and perhaps writer) of the charm.

the NORTH carolina historical REVIEW



"The Nine": A Scottish Gaelic Charm in the North Carolina State Archives

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Transcript of "The Nine": A Scottish Gaelic Charm in the North Carolina State Archives