Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/380

 348 Collectanea.

Alexander Thomson, schoolmaster of Strathdon, was drowned in the disastrous floods of 1829. His body on being recovered from the river was taken to a cottage belonging to an old woman, who objected to the corpse being brought in unless it was first "carried roond the hoose."' This was done; but the flood, later, rose further and reached and destroyed her house. She attributed this to the fact that the body had only been carried once round the house, and not three times. (From A. H., died 1910, aged 75.)

A local verse on the drowned schoolmaster runs :

" Sandy Thomson has been drooned,

Schoolmaster o' Strathdon, Mony places share the loss

Beside the Dee and Don, Sandy Thomson has been drooned,

Schoolmaster o' Strathdon."

A Resurrectionist Story. — In the parish of Newhills, at the beginning of last century, a funeral had been in progress. The "tyke-wake" had been unduly prolonged for two days in a barn, until the whisky had run low. One of the company was dispatched for more, and, during his absence, the coffin was, as a practical joke, set up on end outside the door to scare him on his return. He duly reappeared with the fresh supplies, but to the surprise of the rest of the company made no remark about the coflin. At last one man said, " Did ye nae see onything as ye cam' in ? " " Na ! " he replied, "Fat wis there to see?" And on going out the assembly duly found there was nothing to see. Some resurrectionists who had happened to pass had seized the opportunity and the cofiin with its contents, which never was seen again.

" Canny Folk.''

In the fishing villages, in the old days, were certain people, men and women, whose advice it was well to take before setting out to sea or on other important occasions. In the village of Newtonhills, Kincardineshire, such a "canny man" was, thirty years ago, called into and kept in the house during the progress of a tedious labour, with the idea that his presence would influence its progress favourably.