THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
except by swimming, he decided, while their attention was
diverted in digging above, to escape by swimming across
Kiloran Bay, along with his dogs, a distance of about a
mile. He had not completed a bow-shot's length of this
arduous undertaking, however, when his foes noticed him,
and discharged a flight of arrows at him, one of which
pierced his hip. MacPhee now made for a rock lying a
little ahead, landed thereon, and extracted the arrow. Since
that day the rock has been known by a Gaelic name meaning
the Black Skerry of MacPhee.
Thereafter MacPhee and his dogs completed their swim
across Kiloran Bay. They then wandered along the shore
until they came to Baile na h-Airde. There MacPhee found
a coble with a plank stove in, lying amongst iris-flags above
high-water mark. Cutting a sward with his knife, he
plugged the leak, and launched the coble. And, taking his
dogs aboard with him, he rowed across to Jura. In this wise
he escaped from the cave on Colonsay that to this day is
known as MacPhee's Cave.
Cave of the MacIans.
There is a folk-tale current in Ardnamurchan that recalls
the manner in which the MacLeods of Skye suffocated the
MacDonalds, who had taken refuge in the Cave of St.
Frances, on the Island of Eigg. Tradition has it that the
whereabouts of the MacDonalds were disclosed by the foot-
prints of one of their number who, believing the enemy to
be out of sight, came out of the cave to reconnoitre, and
left his marks upon the snow, thus enabling the enemy to
trace him and his clansmen to their hiding-place.
By the rocky shore of Ardnamurchan there is a cave
known as the cave of the MacIans. At the time of the
story, Ardnamurchan belonged to a sept of the MacDonalds
called the MacIans of Ardnamurchan. Now, about the
year, 1624, the Campbells invaded Ardnamurchan, seized the
Maclan stronghold of Mingary, garrisoned it, and drove
the MacIans into hiding among the wilds of their patrimony.
Some of the fugitives sought refuge in this cave. Here
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