Fairy List
Cughtagh
From the "Second Manx Scrapbook"
The
Cughtagh is not now spoken of by that title, but it seems likely that
some of the numerous and stillremembered bugganes of the coastal caves
were once called Cughtaghs ; for this personage was a dweller in the
caverns under the cliffs. The Cughtagh and the Keymagh are coupled
(both in the plural) in a bloodstopping charm in Manx 5 -a rare honour,
for Manx charms are otherwise consistently Christian in their
invocations. The Cughtagh is easily identifiable with a denizen of the
Scottish Isles called Ciuthach (with many variants), who in current
lore is a nasty personage inhabiting sea-caves, but in the older
stories was a giant of a gentlemanly character with whom the Fianna
enjoyed single combat. He also figures in the Irish romance of Dermat
and Grania, whom he visits after they have taken possession of his cave
during his absence at sea in his canoe. Professor W. J. Watson 6
comments upon him in the following terms:
" In view of the fact that
traces of Ciuthach are found, one may say, from Clyde to the Butt of
Lewis, it is clear that at one time he played a great rőle in the
traditions of the West. Among all the confusion of the traditions as
they have come down to us, there may be, and probably is, an ultimate
historical basis. It may not be unreasonable to surmise that the
Ciuthach was a broch-dweller, who degenerated in the tales, and perhaps
in fact, into a cave-dweller. . . . Throughout the references to him
there runs the feeling that Ciuthach was a hero, or the hero, of a race
different from the Gael . . . The conclusion suggested is that Ciuthach
was a hero of the Picts." Professor Watson suspects the name to mean a
cave-man. The Manx form of the word, as we now have it, appears rather
to allude to its owner's uncleanliness, and the name has probably
suffered in the Island a degeneration corresponding to that of the
tradition. In justice to the Cughtagh, he might be defined as a
Fenoderee who has taken to the sea.
In the next number of the Celtic
Review David MacRitchie, on the strength of a description of the
Ciuthach in a version of " Diarmaid and Grainne " (Dermat and Grania),
claims him as a representative of the " Finn-men " who frequented the
coasts of Scotland in their little skin-canoes. In that event the Manx
Cughtagh, in his earlier and more romantic days, might be recognized in
the strange visitor who haunted the Dalby coast and entertained the
people with his singing, and from whose repertoire has survived the "
Arrane Ghelby," the Dalby Song.
|
