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COINNACH OER
Coinnach Oer, which means Dun Kenneth,
was a
celebrated man in his generation. He has been called the
Isaiah
of the North. The prophecies of this man are very frequently
alluded to and quoted in various parts of the Highlands; although
little is known of the man himself, except in Ross-shire. He
was
a small farmer in Strathpeffer, near Dingwall, and for many years of
his life neither exhibited any talents, nor claimed any intelligence
above his fellows. The manner in which he obtained the
prophetic
gift was told by himself in the following manner:—
As he was one day at work in the hill casting (digging) peats, he heard
a voice which seemed to call to him out of the air. It
commanded
him to dig under a little green knoll which was near, and to gather up
the small white stones which he would discover beneath the
turf.
The voice informed him, at the same time, that while he kept these
stones in his possession, he should be endued with the power of
supernatural foreknowledge.
p. 6Kenneth, though greatly alarmed at this aerial conversation,
followed the directions of his invisible instructor, and turning up the
turf on the hillock, in a little time discovered the
talismans.
From that day forward, the mind of Kenneth was illuminated by gleams of
unearthly light; and he made many predictions, of which the credulity
of the people, and the coincidence of accident, often supplied
confirmation; and he certainly became the most notable of the Highland
prophets. The most remarkable and well known of his
vaticinations
is the following:—“Whenever a M’Lean with
long hands,
a Fraser with a black spot on his face, a M’Gregor with a
black
knee, and a club-footed M’Leod of Raga, shall have existed;
whenever there shall have been successively three M’Donalds
of
the name of John, and three M’Kinnons of the same Christian
name,—oppressors will appear in the country, and the people
will
change their own land for a strange one.” All these
personages have appeared since; and it is the common opinion of the
peasantry, that the consummation of the prophecy was fulfilled, when
the exaction of the exorbitant rents reduced the Highlanders to
poverty, and the introduction of the sheep banished the people to
America.
Whatever might have been the gift of Kenneth Oer, he does not appear to
have used it with an extraordinary degree of discretion; and the last
time he p. 7exercised it, he was very near paying dear for his
divination.
On this occasion he happened to be at some high festival of the
M’Kenzies at Castle Braan. One of the guests was so
exhilarated by the scene of gaiety, that he could not forbear an
eulogium on the gallantry of the feast, and the nobleness of the
guests. Kenneth, it appears, had no regard for the
M’Kenzies, and was so provoked by this sally in their praise,
that he not only broke out into a severe satire against their whole
race, but gave vent to the prophetic denunciation of wrath and
confusion upon their posterity. The guests being informed (or
having overheard a part) of this rhapsody, instantly rose up with one
accord to punish the contumely of the prophet. Kenneth,
though he
foretold the fate of others, did not in any manner look into that of
himself; for this reason, being doubtful of debating the propriety of
his prediction upon such unequal terms, he fled with the greatest
precipitation. The M’Kenzies followed with infinite
zeal;
and more than one ball had whistled over the head of the seer before he
reached Loch Ousie. The consequences of this prediction so
disgusted Kenneth with any further exercise of his prophetic calling,
that, in the anguish of his flight, he solemnly renounced all
communication with its power; and, as he ran along the margin of Loch
Ousie, he took out the wonderful pebbles, and cast them in a fury p.
8into the water. Whether his evil genius had now forsaken
him, or
his condition was better than that of his pursuers, is unknown, but
certain it is, Kenneth, after the sacrifice of the pebbles, outstripped
his enraged enemies, and never, so far as I have heard, made any
attempt at prophecy from the hour of his escape.
Kenneth Oer had a son, who was called Ian Dubh Mac Coinnach (Black
John, the son of Kenneth), and lived in the village of Miltoun, near
Dingwall. His chief occupation was brewing whisky; and he was
killed in a fray at Miltoun, early in the present century.
His
exit would not have formed the catastrophe of an epic poem, and appears
to have been one of those events of which his father had no
intelligence, for it happened in the following manner:—
Having fallen into a dispute with a man with whom he had previously
been on friendly terms, they proceeded to blows; in the scuffle, the
boy, the son of Ian’s adversary, observing the two combatants
locked in a close and firm gripe of eager contention, and being
doubtful of the event, ran into the house and brought out the iron
pot-crook, with which he saluted the head of the unfortunate Ian so
severely, that he not only relinquished his combat, but departed this
life on the ensuing morning.
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