Page 46 - 2 Gaelic Tales: John Dan MacNeil & Mickey MacNeil

ISSUE : Issue 47

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/1/1

the sheep using it, the children used to play around there. They used to climb in the trees and that sort of thing. This day... I don't think he was much more than four or so... my brother was out where "The Sheep's House" was, as they would say, and they heard wailing, crying, and screeching, and him coming on the run. He couldn't tell them anything except that he was a big, black thing, and smoke coming out of it, going by "The Sheep's House." An3rway, two, or three, or maybe four years went by. He took a great fright from the thing. He used to dream about it for nights on end afterward, and he used to give them trouble sleeping and waking with nightmares and dreams. Years after that my mother was at the church in lona. Before that time two of my mother's children had died. They were very young children buried just over beside the church in the old graveyard. She was a while in the church and then came out. She went over to the two little ones' graves and began to pray, and what happened but a train came into the station at lona. As soon as my brother saw it he took a terri? ble fright. He almost went hysterical, cry? ing and wailing, and he said to my mother, "That's what I saw at 'The Sheep's House.'" He remembered. Two or three years had gone by but he remembered. He took such a fright that he remembered the thing he saw out in Barra Glen behind "The Sheep's House." Ddmhnall Dona Mac Na Bantraichi Bha fear ann uair dhe'n t- saoghal ris an canadh iad Ddmhnall Dona Mac Na Ban? traich. Cha robh ann ach ,e fh6in 's a mh&thair; a' fuireach cdmhla. On is e an aon chuideachadh a bh* aice-se, ged a bha e aon fhilte mar a chanadh iad, cha b' urrain dha sion a* chleith. A' bharrachd air a' sin bha e 'na leth-glic. Ach ged a bha, bha ise de6- nach fuireach c6mhla ris. Ach a' lath 'a bha seo, chaidh e dhan bhaile. Sheadh mar bu trice bhiodh peddleran a' tighinn a- staigh dhan bhaile, ach cha robh iad cho pailt sin 'se gun tigeadh iad a-staigh trup 'sa mhios. Ach turus na truagha, d6 thachair ach am fear seo a-staigh a' lath' a bha seo a dh'amais do Dhdmhnall Dona Mac Na Bantraich a bhi 's bhaile. Cha do rinn D6mhnall Dona Mac Na Bantraich nuair a chunnaic e an duine uasal, dha, 's mharbh spot. Michea! MacBean Nilleig Eoin, Ruairi a* Phland Michael R. MacNeil ach a ghabhail direach far a robh e 'sa Thill e dhachaidh 's well dh'fhaighnich a mh'thair dha a robh strainnsearan na duine sam bith eadar a' seo 's am baile. "Cha robh," os esan, "na sion." "Well," OS ise, "feumaidh gu faca tu cuid- eigin. Bha cuideigin air feadh a' bhaile." "Well, bha," os esan. "Mharbh mise," os esan, "a' fear sin," os esan, "a bhios a' tighinn mun cuairt," os esan, "a-staigh do'n bhaile. Mharbh mi an diugh e." "0 Dhia mo thruaighe!" os ise. "Tha 'n gnothuch truagh gu le6r mar a tha ged nach deanadh tu a leithid sin." Well, bha i muladach air t'illeabh seo dh'eirigh dha, 's a bhi faicinn gu rachadh breith air 's gu rachadh a chuir air falbh. PIPER'S TRAILER COURT Featuring: Fully Licensed Dining Room * Guest House * Swimming Pool Ocean-Side Campsites * Laundromat * Mini-Mart Q9Q.OOOO Indian Brook on the Cabot Trail ''' ''OO Halfway Between Baddeck and Ingonish

Cape Breton's Magazine