Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/311

 The Powers of Evil in the Outer Hebrides. 271

be thrown out on to grass, never on to earth or rocks, because the milk comes from the grass.

In preparing water for boiling cloths, after it has once boiled it is not right to allow it to boil a second time, not for the sake of the clothes, but because it would bring evil to the house. The Rev. A. Macdonald says his informant, an old woman, would not specify the evil, though he thought she knew.

Some people are lucky to meet, in spite of having red hair or other personal peculiarity. A fisherman told us that he had twice met such a woman when on his way to fish saithe, and on both occasions had as much as he could carry home.

Others are just as unlucky to meet, and you would be sure to have disappointment in your errand. If it were only to fetch a spade you had left lying in the field, you would be sure to have to come back without it. A man from North Uist says that he often makes a detour of about a mile when he is going to hunt ("hunting" means shooting in the Islands) because he says : " If I should meet the people from that house, though I would use two pounds of shot, I would kill nothing."

Women do not seem to be a sign of good. If you are making 3. frith ^ and you see a woman, cross yourself. If a woman tells you the new moon is visible, do not look at it.

At one time no male could survive in the Island of Eriskay. Women were less intolerable to the spirits of the place, and on one occasion when by some accident a man got into the island and could not get away, it was suggested that he should dress up as a woman and sit and spin among the rest. Though he showed some skill with the distaff he was soon found out, and the adventure proved fatal.

Good as well as evil must have a start. The people will say to any who complain, that they are " like the sister of Saint Columba." He used to visit her daily in ' I.e. a kind of horoscope much in use.