Page 88 - Stories Told about the Bagpipes

ISSUE : Issue 50

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/1/1

it's a strathspey.... They don't play it fast enough to dance to it, but they play it more or less as a strathspey. Well, there was a story behind that tune. That this young man was out--he was supposed to be tending the herd, watching the herd, and he was supposed to stay with them. And he strolled around and came to this green hillock. It seems that there was a door on the hill, this hillock. And he went in there. And once he got inside, he couldn't get out any more. He was in the fairy land, among the fairies. The only way he could ever get his freedom was, when he'd finish cutting the heath? ers- -there was heather all around. And when he'd go out cutting the heather, well, when he'd cut the heather oh this side--like, finish cutting here, he'd have to go over and cut on the other side. And ''Glace Bay YMCA I Enterprise Centre • TURNING YOUR IDEA INTO BUSINESS" mM A NEW SPIRIT is BORN in GLACE BAY ARE YOU UNEMPLOYED? DO YOU NEED CONSULTATION? DO YOU NEED SUPPORT W 1 -You may be eligible for our free Entrepreneurial Training Program. -We can help you develop and implement your business plan. SERVICES? • We provide rental space, pho? tocopier, computers and printers, typing, answering services, etc., ijelow market cost. P. O. Box 250 G lace Bay YMCA 10O Reserve street Enterprise Centre Q'ace Bay, n. s. 849-1794 then, by the time he'd finish cutting there, the heather was growing (back) here, just like a lawn, he'd have to keep on. And he couldn't get out of there. So he said that he was tired, and alone. He said, "I'm tired and alone, cutting ferns." And he was cutting ferns every day--he told the times he was cutting ferns. "Cutting ferns, cutting ferns, cutting ferns, always." And then he de? scribed the place. He was behind the hil? lock, and at the top of the hillock, at the brae, behind the hillock, on the top of the hillock. And he said that he was there "every day, all day." See, they made up the tune, with that. That tune was made up, and of course, they'd know the words for it. Of course, a lot of people today know the words for that old tune.... See, good to understand--the people in Scotland in those years, they were so used to the pipe music, they understood the words. There's a tune--well now, this is only a story that was made up. Of course, they could understand the music close enough. There's a tune today--they still play it--it's still in collections--you could find anybody that plays it. It's called "Little Donald's Wife." But it was changed from time to time. And there was a peddler, supposed to have been--well, he disappeared. I guess he was never found or anything. They were missing the man, anjrway. And there was a certain piper supposed to be playing a tune, play? ing the tune that is called "Little Don? ald's Wife." But there were so many dif? ferent versions on it. But he played a version of it. And people figured out-- this was it! And of course, the words in Gaelic would say, "I stuck the dagger in the old man. And the old man yelled"--or screeched, or hollered, or whatever. "And then I put him over the cliff. And I took off his pack." You see, it all rhymed out. And they caught the man. He was the only man that played the tune this way. Others were playing it, but he had a different setting of it. People that were keen • uvvfs Funeral Home (In Business Since 1908) Three Generations of Service J. Michael Curry - Mgr. 140 Main Street - Glace Bay Phone 849-7617 AMBULANCE SERVICE 849-2222

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