"O! ghaolaich," she answered,
"is aon ath an abhuinn; ged tha i dubh, cha 'n eil i domhain," (Oh!
dear, the river is all one ford together; though it looks black,
it is not deep). In their pitiful plight, and on the strength of
this misleading information, they rushed into the water in hundreds,
and were immediately carried away by the stream, many of them
clutching at the shrubs and bushes which overhung the banks of
the river, and crying loudly for assistance. This amazon and a
number of her sex who were near at hand had meanwhile procured
their sickles, and now exerted themselves in cutting away the
bushes to which the wretched Macdonalds clung with a death grasp,
the old woman exclaiming in each case, as she applied her sickle,
"As you have taken so much already which did not belong to you,
my friend, you can take that into the bargain. The instrument
of the old woman's revenge has been for many generations, and
still is by very old people in the district, called "Cailleach na
Maigb," or the Old Wife of Moy.
The Mackenzies then proceeded to ravage the lands of Ardmeanach
and those belonging to William Munro of Fowlis - the former because
the young laird of Kilravock, whose father was governor of that
district, had assisted the Macdonalds; the latter probably because
Munro, who joined neither party, was suspected secretly of favouring
Lochalsh.
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