The tune ‘Macleod’s Dog Short Tail’, recorded in the Campbell Canntaireachd, is also called ‘An Ann a Mhire Tha Sibh’, or ‘Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor’ by Angus MacKay.
The former name has a possible explanation, which ties in with the other two.
Around the end of the 16th century, a war between the Macleods and the MacDonalds in Skye broke out, which was known as ‘Cogaidh na Caillich Caim’, or ‘The War of the One-Eyed Woman’. This happened because Donald Gorm Mor, the MacDonald chief living in Duntulm, had married Margaret MacLeod, the sister of Rory Mor, but did not find her adequate and so returned her to Dunvegan. It was a ‘handfast marriage’, a now extinct custom in which a couple were free to separate after a year and a day. Margaret had only one good eye, and Donald Gorm Mor sent her back at the end of that period, mounted on a one-eyed horse, led by a one-eyed man, and with a one-eyed dog. This was taken as an insult by Rory Mor, and a series of destructive incidents ensued, culminating in King James VI demanding a reconciliation take place.
It is the detail of the dog which is significant. It was customary for Norman aristocrats to have a hunting preserve or deer forest in which only they were allowed to hunt; all dogs belonging to persons in that area had to have their tails docked, so if seen they could quickly be identified as intruders; only the dogs of the estate owner went uncurtailed. To have the tail of one’s dog cut off was a mark of inferior status. It is likely Roderick MacLeod, being a knight, had become integrated into the customs of the ruling class in Scotland, and had his own deer forest, with the accompanying restriction on dogs in force. Thus, for his dog to have a short tail would indicate it had been mutilated by someone else as an insult.
As this story was recorded from oral tradition, one might expect some distortion; and possibly the idea of an insulting mutilation shifted from the tail to an eye, in the storyteller’s imagination. A parallel case is the pibroch ‘Black Wedder White Tail’, with its alternative ‘White Wedder Black Tail’, both presumably referring to the same incident in which a sheep with distinctive marking was used as evidence to hang two MacGregors, leading to a decisive battle between the relatives of the hanged men and those who had executed them, the outcome of which was the disastrous outlawing of the entire clan Gregor. The titles of the two tunes are a cryptic or understated allusion to a much larger incident. A similar technique could have ‘MacLeod’s dog short tail’ an ironic understatement for a larger event.
The Gaelic name ‘An Ann Air Mhire Tha Sibh’ does not specifically refer to the birth of Rory Mor, but asks, rhetorically, ‘Are you in a state of excitement?’ This could mean rage; and it is worth asking whether the birth of a child would likely be celebrated in so memorable a fashion, long before he achieved fame. It may be the English version of the title is one of Angus MacKay’s ‘tweaks’ to make his pibroch collection more appealing to the upper class patrons of his day.
It is also worth noting there is another tune in the CC which perhaps refers to rage resulting from an insult: ‘Taviltich’ (gaelic ‘Tamailtaich’).
