Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/71

 More Folklore from the Hebrides. 59

The following very ancient charm was given to us by the daughter of the merchant at Balivanich, in Benbecula, one of the few persons living on the spot, familiar with the people and acquainted with their language, who has in- terested herself in any practical way in the customs and beliefs which she has had so excellent an opportunity of noting.

" I have a charm for bruising And for blackening (i.e. livid black marks made by witches) And for enchantment, For illness (that comes) in a known way, And for illness (that comes) without Icnowledge. May there be no injury Among thy four quarters, Thou living creature. That may not be taken away With north wind, And with the swiftness of water A bit and a sup. If you be alive 'tis well And if not you will be let alone."

VI. Death and Drowning.

Some Uist people were watching a cattle-fold at night near a graveyard. The watchman had occasion to go across to the burial ground when he observed that all the graves were open, and he went to tell his friends. When the dawn came they saw troops of people hurrying back to their graves, which, as they went in, closed after them. Long after the rest came one woman, and they stood in her way, and asked her why she came so late. She owned that she had been a weaveress, and that her feet Vv^ere hindered by all the threads she had pilfered when weaving her neighbours' yarn. They let her pass by, and the grave closed over her again.

A second wife is liable to suffer from the Dead maji^s nip, probably a visitation from her predecessor. In the same