Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/420

 37^ Old- World Survivals in Ross-slnre.

be taken until the day of the funeral. His father's house being situated at the furthest end of the village, and in a contrary direction to the churchyard, it was of course out of the question that they should be taken there, and in any case it is unlucky to allow a dead body to be taken into any- body else's house. So it was decided that the body should for the night be deposited in the newly erected church at the bridge on the direct road to the churchyard. That same year my friend had again two family bereavements, each case happening away from home ; and as on the first occasion, and for the same reasons, the remains were put in the church over-night. And thus, having three members of his family " lifted " from the new church, did this seer of wraiths interpret the meaning of his vision at the bridge.

Premonitory omens or manadhs are very common among us, and I have heard many strange stories concerning death warnings and presentiments, both here, and in the Hebrides, where the belief in anything savouring of the occult is more universal than even on the mainland. A carpenter's wife told me that she always knows when her husband is going to make a coffin, because the kettle with which he steams the wood for that purpose always rattles beforehand. So also do the oars in a boat which is to convey a funeral party up the loch. In Uist I was told that before a death happens, ghostly white figures are seen in the twilight flitting across the sands to the lonely little churchyard in the Machar near which we were staying.

" Hurry on with the griddle, and bake some fresh scones," said my hostess one morning : " I saw two strangers in mv cup at breakfast, and as they are men, they are sure to be hunoTv." Living in an isolated place with visitors few and far between, this piece of news caused, as maybe imagined quite a flutter in our feminine household, and the expected arrivals were looked for with interest. They came, and were certainly hungry ; but as they turned out to be only a couple of tramps our interest in them ceased.