Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/414

372 thing made of that metal may do; a wedding ring, for instance. I have often seen people coming to the lady known as Herself in the parish to get the loan of her wedding ring, it being supposed to be of purer gold than any other procurable. But a gold piece of money is preferable to anything else, because the Queen's picture is on it. By divine right kings and queens are, of course, possessed of peculiar virtues as regards the art of healing; and it is but natural to suppose that the real article, being somewhat un-get-at-able, a "counterfeit presentment" of the same is the next best thing. An old shepherd of ours who suffered from scrofula, or king's evil, often bewailed his inability to get within touching distance of Her late Gracious Majesty. He was convinced that by so doing his infirmity would at once be cured. "Ach, no!" he would say mournfully, "I must just be content to try and get to Lochaber instead some day, and get the leighiche (healer) there to cure me." The said leighiche is the seventh son of a seventh son, and as is well-known, such people are credited with being able to cure not only king's evil, but many other specific diseases.

I have lately read that the schoolmaster is abroad in the Highlands, and that consequently, all such old beliefs are being stamped out of the rising generation. Perhaps so; but two summers ago I paid a visit to the schoolhouse of a certain village. To my surprise, I found, although it was not vacation time, that the school was closed and the