Dramatic Jigs in Scotland

THE folk dances of Scotland have received comparatively little attention from either the folk-lorist or the student of dancing. Among the few folk dances recorded by folk-lorists, however, there is evident a strong dramatic element which is largely absent from the folk dances of England. We may mention here particularly the famous Cailleach an Diidain ( The Old Woman of the Mill-dust ), recorded by several writers, which is a short dramatic interlude performed to music. A number of such dances are mentioned in early nineteenth century books on Scotland, but none of these have come to the notice of modern writers. Since such dances were clearly once a prominent feature of folk-entertainments in Scotland, it seems worth while to collect such information as we have about them, and this is the principal purpose of this paper. It is well known that it is difficult in unsophisticated societies to draw a precise line between drama and dance. This is very much the case in this field, and we do not attempt to discriminate too precisely. The examples which we give therefore range from dances in which miming plays a very small part to purely dramatic interludes without music or dance.