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 LEGEND
OF THE WHITE CALF
The
following is taken from an accounting by Eddis Earl McIntire
of New Martinsville:
Naturally there is a fairy story or folklore tale connected
with the history of each Clan, so this story, be it as it
may, is that a member of the clan MacDonald of Sloat, discovered
a leek in the galley ship of the Clan's Chieftain and he
immediately thrust in his thumb into the hole and then cut
if off with his sword in order to stop the leak and plug
the hole and was thereby credited with saving the ship and
its crew, who managed to sail the ship to safety and earned
for himself the name of SAOR-NA-H-ORDAIG (spelling
in question) meaning the Thumb Carpenter.
(My
note: He was henceforth known as "An t-saoir" and his descendants
Mac an t-saoir. Regardless, the family seems in all stories
to have been established in Glenoe, Argyllshire were connected
the Campbells of Glenorchy.)
Now in due time, this man became the father of a son who grew
to manhood, and like the heroes of sold, set out to earn or
seek his own fortune, and he sailed from Sloat in his galley,
taking with him a snow- white cow, resolving that when he
reached shore the cow would be left to wander as she pleased,
and where the cow lay down to rest there would he make his
home. Now the story says she lay down at Glenmore, Scotland,
and the site is still called "LARACK-NA-BO-FIONN" (spelling
in questions) which means the place of the white cow.
Now between the years 1100 and 1700,
the family is known to have lived on this land, holding it
from the Campbell's of Glenorchy and to whom they delivered
each year in the summertime a snow ball and a white calf.
Now the white crags of Glenoe could yield a snow ball even
in summer, and the McIntires remembering the cow of "Mac-an-t-saoir"
always bred white cows in their herds so that the little white
calf would be in readiness for the rent.
Now all the Clans had their coat of
arms and the McIntires were no exception to the rule.
The Clan's tartan is one of the most beautiful of all Scottish
plaids, being woodland green and soft blue with a little orange
red and some slim white lines that may have been reminiscent
of the snow-white cow that had been to Glenoe.
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