“Slow to the sun-shine beach they now draw near, To sounding oars the choral iurrum swells, (13) While echoes join from out their secret cells. “Ho roe i loe! Come poise the sweeping oar! Thus braved our sires the deep, in days of yore!…” “13 To sounding oars the choral iurram swells. –– P. 138. We learn from ancient history that, among the Greeks, the oar-song, called, …. was sung to the lyre by a musician, whose duty it was to cheer the rowers by his powers of song, when by reason of long continued exertion their spirits flagged, and their bodies became weary and faint with labour, and also to direct the rowers to keep the rythmus or time exactly, to which custom the Roman poet thus alludes. “ ––––––Mediæ stat margine puppis, “ Qui voce alternos nautarum temperet ictus, “ Et remis dictet sonitum, pariterque relatis “ Ad numerum plaudat resonantia cærula tonsis. SILIUS ITALICUS, Lib. vi. The iurrams or oar-songs of our Hebridian mariners, however, are always sung by one, who is joined by the rest of the rowers in chorus. In general, when the Gael are weary, or begin to flag at any sort of labour, a lunneag or song and chorus is called for, and it is truly surprising with what animation they renew their employment when the lunneag strikes up. [The Grampians Desolate A Poem, Campbell, 1804] Alexander Campbell (1764-1824) –– musician and writer)
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