A number of places are traditionally associated with the Uamh an Oir ('Cave of Gold') legends in Scotland. In general the story is of a piper, harper, or fiddler who enters a cave looking for treasure. As long as he is able to keep playing music he can remain alive, but when the people outside can no longer hear the tune they assume that the musician is dead, killed by the galla uaine ('green dogs') that inhabit the cave.

Talitha may have got her version from the collection made by Frances Tolmie, who recorded four versions of the song from Skye; see Journal of the Folk-Song Society IV:iii (December 1911), 157-59. All of these seem to be pretty fragmentary, and curiously Miss Tolmie gives translations for some lines that she does not cite in Gaelic.

Here is a version that was given to me by the late Rev. William Matheson, a native of Lewis who taught for many years as a member of the Celtic Department, University of Edinburgh. Willie was a terrific singer, and took pride in preserving very full versions of many old songs. For discussion of this song and related materials, see my article "Traditional and bogus elements in 'MacCrimmon's Lament" in Scottish Studies, vol. 22 (1978), especially pp. 55-7. Here is the text and translation that Willie Matheson gave me:

Nach truagh mi, righ, gun tri lamhan,
Da laimh 's a' phiob, da laimh 's a' phiob,
Nach truagh mi, righ, gun tri lamhan,
Da laimh 's a' phiob s' lamh 's a' chlaidheamh.

CHORUS: Eadarainn a' chruit, a' chruit, a' chruit,
Eadarainn a' chruit, mo chuideachd ar m'fhagail,
Eadarainn a luaidh, a luaidh, a luaidh,
Eadarainn a luaidh 's i ghall' uaine a sharaich mi.

Mo thaobh fodham, m'fheoil air breothadh,
Daol am shuil, daol am shuil,
Da bhior iaruinn 'gan sior shiaradh
Ann am ghluin, ann am ghluin.

Bidh na min bheaga 'nan gobhair chreagach
Man tig mise, man till mis' a Uamh an Oir, Uamh an Oir,
'S na lothan cliathta 'nan eich dhiallta
Man tig mise, man till mis' a Uamh an Oir, Uamh an Oir.

Bidh na laoigh bheaga 'nan crodh eadraidh
Man tig mise, man till mis' a Uamh an Oir, Uamh an Oir,
'S na mic uchda 'nam fir fheachda
Man tig mise, man till mis' a Uamh an Oir, Uamh an Oir.

'S iomadh maighdeann og fo ciadbharr
Theid a null, theid a null,
Man tig mise, man till mis'
A Uamh an Oir, Uamh an Oir.

TRANSLATION

Is it not a pity, oh king, that I have not three hands: two hands for the pipe and one for the sword.

CHORUS: The harp, the harp, the harp between us; my companions leaving me; between us, my love, it was a green bitch that overcame me.

My side beneath me, my flesh decaying, a worm in my eye; two iron pins being constantly thrust into my knee.

The small kids will be goats of the crags, before I return from the Cave of Gold; and creel-bearing colts will be saddled steeds before I return from the Cave of Gold.

the small calves will be milch-cows, before I return from the Cave of Gold; and suckling babes will be men bearing arms, before I return from the Cave of Gold.

Many a young maiden bearing her first head-dress will go over before I return from the Cave of Gold.

Willie Matheson told me that the words "eadaruinn a' chruit" may be translated literally ("between us the harp") -- in which case they suggest the combination of two songs, one about a piper and one about a harper, with the chorus verse about the harper perhaps the older of the two. On the other hand, these words may simply be vocable syllables and not be intended to carry any semantic weight. The word "eadaruinn" means "between us" -- but it also closely resembles the sort of vocable syllables known as canntaireachd which were used to teach bagpiping and to convey pipe tunes in the absence of written notation.