Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/309

 The Powers of Evil in the Outer Hebrides. 269

It is a rule to keep on the west side of the road at night, and at all times to keep sunwards of unlucky people.

There are of course many ways in which evil may be unconsciously invited, and the avoidance of them involves a whole code of right and wrong.

If a knock comes to a door after midnight, it is not right to say " Come in." Wait till the knock is repeated and then say "Who is there?" Our informant added: "My father being ferryman to Barra, many a person used to come to the door and ask to come in, but my mother always insisted on hearing the name before it was opened. He used to tell her not to be so particular, but she said : ' The wandering ones would be often knocking, and when a person would go to open, there would be nobody there. They would be playing tricks this way on people.' A goblin came thus to a door one night, but failed to get admittance. He then said : ' If it were the red cock of autumn that were in the house, he would open the door for me. It isn't that that is in it,' says he, ' but the black cock of the spring March.' " The special good luck of this kind of cock has already been mentioned.

It is not right that any person should sleep in a house without water in it, especially a young child. In a house thus left without water " the slender one of the green coat was seen washing the infant in a basin of milk."

Sleeping on the bench is always rebuked, and a certain Angus J. testifies that once, when he disobeyed this rule, he awoke to find himself being dragged by the feet by in- visible beings. Moreover, one, Donald MacD., alleges that over and over again he has been rebuked for not going to bed properly, but he persisted in having his own way, until one night he also was dragged across the floor by in- visible hands.

An old woman, Mary McN., of Smerclet, said she did not think sleeping on the bench mattered if you had your feet to the door, so as to be able to rise at once if interfered