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Mackenzie, Alexander, 1833-1898

"History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the name"

"Such of Macdonald's men as escaped the
battle fled together, and as they were going homeward began to
spulzie Strathconan, which Mackenzie hearing, followed them with
a party, overtakes them at Invercorran, kills shoals of them and
the rest fled divers ways."
That night, as Mackenzie sat at supper, he missed Duncan Mor, and
said to the company - "I am more vexed for the want of my scallag
mar (big servant) this night than any satisfaction I had of this
day." One of those present said, "I thought, (as the people fled)
I perceived him following four or five men that ran up the burn."
He had not well spoken the word when Duncan Mor came in with
four heads "bound on a woody" and threw them before his master,
saying - "Tell me now if I have not deserved my supper," to which,
it is said of him, he fell with great gusto.
This reminds me, continues the chronicler, "of a cheat he once
played on an Irishman, being a traveller, withal a strong, lusty
fellow, well-proportioned, but of an extraordinary stomach. He
resorted into gentlemen's houses, and (was) very oft in Mackenzie's.
Having come on a time to the same Mackenzie's house in Islandonain
two or three years after this battle (of Park), he was cared for
as usual, and when the laird went to dinner, he was set aside,
at a side-table to himself, and a double proportion allowed him,
which this Duncan Mor envying, went on a day and sat side for side
with him, drew his skyn or short dagger and eats with him.


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