Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/233

Rh is still very common throughout the West Highlands. The idea attached to it now seems to be that it is a recognised expression of sympathy with surviving relatives. It originated apparently in the belief that it was necessary to prevent by watching the removal of the body by the powers of evil, and the possible substitution of something in its place. This watching was not necessary after burial, the living at any rate having no responsibility after interment of the body. But the "Faire a Chladh, Watching the burial ground," was undertaken by the spirit of the last buried, who was bound to keep watch until relieved by the next comer. This superstition seems to be a still existing belief in connection with at any rate one Argyllshire burying ground, the Island of St. Munn at Ballachulish, which we can specify; but the Faire a Chladh is a great deal more widespread belief than one might suppose from the mentioning of one place as if it were an exception to the general rule. In Gigha it is said that before a funeral they often hear sounds and see lights in the churchyard. So accustomed have the people grown to this belief that it is not uncommon to find a person, upon being told of a death which has taken place, receive the information as if it had been fully expected, with the remark, "Oh yes, I saw the light in the churchyard." This information is from a reliable native of the island, and points to some supposed activity of the in-dwellers on the expected advent of a "new chum."

Scientifically these lights are generally accounted for as products of decomposition, such as marsh-gas, &c.; but this will not account satisfactorily for the following, so far, at any rate, as the body concerned could yield such products: "In the district of Lorne ghost lights are often seen. A light has frequently been seen at a certain bridge near Melford. The reason given for it is that a stone coffin has been found there, containing a human body in a sitting position. The common impression was that this person