All this forms the subject of “Caberfae,” which, without having much meaning or poetry, served, like the celebrated “Lillibulero,” to animate armies, and inflame party spirit to a degree that can scarcely be imagined. The repetition of “the Staghead, when rises his cabar on,” which concludes every strophe, is enough at any time to bring a Mackenzie to his feet, or into the forefront of battle,—being a simple allusion to the Mackenzie crest, allegorised into an emblem of the stag at bay, or ready in his ire to push at his assailant. The cabar is the horn, or, rather, the “tine of the first-head,”—no ignoble emblem, certainly, of clannish fury and impetuosity. The difficulty of the measure compels us to the use of certain metrical freedoms, and also of some Gaelic words, for which is craved the reader’s indulgence.
[130] In Stat. Ac. said to be of Lochbroom, vol. xiv., p. 79.
[131] Hugh Macleod.
CABERFAE,
THE STAGHEAD.[132]
A health to Caberfae,
A toast, and a
cheery one,
That soon return he may,
Though long and
far his tarrying.
The death of shame befal me,
Be riven off my
eididh[133] too,
But my fancy hears thy call—we
Should all be
up and ready, O!
’Tis I have seen thy
weapon keen,
Thine arm, inaction
scorning,
Assign their dues to the Munroes,
Their welcome
in the morning.
Nor stood the Catach[134]
to his bratach[135]
For dread of a
belabouring,
When up gets the Staghead,
And raises his
cabar on.
Woe to the man of Folais,[136]
When he to fight
must challenge thee;
Nor better fared the Roses[137]
That lent Monro
their valiancy.
The Granndach[138] and the
Frazer,[139]
They tarried not
the melee in;
Fled Forbes,[140] in dismay,
sir,
Culloden-wards,
undallying.
Away they ran, while firm
remain,
Not one to three,
retiring so,
The earl,[141] the craven,
took to haven,
Scarce a pistol
firing, O!
Mackay[142] of Spoils, his
heart recoils,
He cries in haste
his cabul[143] on,
He flies—as soars
the Staghead,
And raises his
cabar on.
Like feather’d creatures
flying,
That in the hill-mist
shiver,
In haste for refuge hieing,
To the meadow
or the river—
So, port they sought, and
took to boat,
Bewailing what
had happened them,
To trust was rash, the missing
flash
Of the rusty guns
that weapon’d them.
The coracle of many a skull,
The relics of
his neighbour, on,
Monro retreats[144]—for
Staghead
Is raising his
cabar on.