Buill-chluiche m’òige / Toys of my childhood
Leis an t-Ollamh Dòmhnall E Meek
This story was commissioned as part of our Gaelic Development work. Hopefully, you will enjoy it and find it useful for learning – both about language and about toys!
An Coileach Gòthan
Nuair a bha mise nam bhalach beag, bhithinn gu tric nam pheasan, a’ cluich far an robh na daoine mòra ag obair! Uaireannan bhithinn a’ dol mun casan, agus ged a bha iad anabarrach foighidinneach, bhiodh iad a’ fàs sgìth dem chuid chleasan.
Bha deagh chleasan aca fhèin cuideachd. Bha Magaidh, piuthar mo sheanmhar, anabarrach laghach rium, agus bhiodh i a’ lorg dòigh choibhneil air mo chur a-mach às an rathad. Aon de na dòighean a bh’ aice, ’s e ‘coileach gòthan’ a dhèanamh.
Gheibheadh i cnap buntàta à ‘taigh a’ bhuntàta’, agus shlaodadh i itean à badan a bhiodh a’ crochadh air aon de na sailthean. Chuireadh i na h-itean, aon an dèidh a chèile, anns a’ chnap, gus am biodh e coltach ri ball cruinn iteagach.
An sin, thilgeadh i an coileach gòthan a-mach an doras, agus rachainn-sa às a dhèidh. Bhiodh e a’ ruith ’s a’ leum leis a’ ghaoith air feadh an àite, agus bhithinn-sa a’ ruith ’s a’ leum cuideachd, feuch am faighinn grèim air! Agus cha robh sgeul air a’ pheasan a bhiodh a’ cur dragh air na daoine mòra!
The Wind Cock
When I was a little boy, I was often a nuisance, playing where the big folk were working! Sometimes I would get under their feet, and although they were extremely patient, they would become weary of my tricks.
They had their own good tricks too. Maggie, my grandmother’s sister, was extremely nice to me, and she would look for a kind way of getting me out of the road. One of her ways was to make a ‘wind cock’.
She would take a potato from the ‘potato house’, and she would pull feathers from a bunch which was suspended from one of the rafters. She would put the feathers, one after the other, in the potato, until it resembled a round feathery ball.
Then she would throw the wind cock out the door, and I would chase it. It would run and leap all over the place, driven by the wind, and I would run and leap too, to see if I could catch it. And there was no sign of the nuisance who bothered the big folk!
