HIGHLAND FOLK LORE

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 43

HIGHLAND FOLK LORE

A lecture in aid of medical mission,.funds was given in Burns Hall on Thursday night under the auspices of the Knox Church branch of the P.W.M.U. The Mayor (Mr W Begg) presided. The lecturer was the Bev. Professor Macintyre, of Sydney University whose fame in ecclesiastical and Literary circles filled the hall to the limit of its seating accommodation. His subject was: " Folk Lore and Legends of the (Scottish Highlands." Dr Macintyre is a lecturer with many virtues. He speaks clearly, is not bound to his manuscript, and bright-ens his lecture with little touches of humour and local applications that served to establish cordial relations between himself and the audience early in the evening, and turned the gathering ai once into a meeting of friends. The subject was a big one, for the Highlands, as-, every true Scotsman knows, teem with 'mvstery And legend. It is part of the very land, and lies deep-rooted in the hearts and lives of the simple folk who people Scotland's lonely reaches. Beginning with the history of the Celtic race, the lecturer said they came from a far land around which the mists of time had cast an almost unbroken curtain. Their antiquity was instanced" in the fact that St Paul addressed a letter to them, even though-he did call them "foolish Galatians." As to character," he quoted Dr Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, as saying of tho Celts: "The main points of Celtic character are quickness of apprehension, promptitude in action great impressibility, an eager craving after knowledge. This is the bright side of the Celtic character. Inconstant and quarrelsome, treacherous in their dealing's incapable of sustained effort, easily disheartened by failure—such they appear when viewed on their darker side. With some of this judgment the lecturer, being a native-born Highlander, naturally did not agree While admitting that Highlanders loved' a 'fight, he strongly repudiated the charge of inconstancy, instanc&g the case of the ill-fated Prince Charlie, for whom not even the tempting offer of £30,000 could induce a single man to prove false in his loyaljty. Having discussed history and character, Professor Macintyre passed on to speak of legend and folk lore, telling tales of fairies and other strange beings, and recounting stories of the exercise of second sight, and the reception of death warnings. Before embarking on these interesting stories, he dwelt on -the effect of natural surroundings on the 'minds of the Highlanders, Children of Nature he termed them, and showed how the stern loneliness of the Highlands and the majesty of its mountains had made the Highlander a mystic and one of Nature's own. In this part of his lecture Professor Macintyre warmed to his subject, and attained to a npble piece of literary description, pure English, every word of it, pregnant with life and soft with the music of natural

poetry. To attempt to condense his work would be to spoil it. A bagpipe selection by Pipe-major. Grant, and songs by Misses Anderson, Cowie, Hodge, Messrs A. J. Robertson, J. M. Alexander, and the Knox Church Ghoir lent variety to the evening.