Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/241

Rh It is affirmed that several others had seen lights on different occasions at the same place, one of whom was a constable in the island.

That there is something magical in the "march" line separating properties is a widespread belief, and that it should be noted as the locality of a light is not surprising. "A man and a girl were driving one night, and when at the march between the farms of B. and C, they saw a large light, which they reported. It was believed to have been something supernatural." In this case the light was not identified with any special occurrence.

The noticing of the light, and its identification with the specific fact of which it is a warning, is much complicated by the wide range of possible objects and the length of time that may elapse between the warning and the occurrence predicted. It is usual, as has already been proved, to connect the light with misfortune of some sort.

A native of Tiree relates that "one day a man who professed to have the second-sight came into a shop in Tiree, and, looking at an empty box which was lying at the door, remarked that he was seeing a light about it, and was sure that it was to be used in some way about a death, either in making a coffin or some other way. The shopkeeper replied: 'Indeed, no, it will not,' and taking a hammer broke up the box, throwing the pieces aside. A few days after that, a man in the neighbourhood died, and his coffin was made in a store behind the shop in question. A small piece of wood was required, and the joiner found nothing more suitable than a piece of the broken-up box."

This incident is complicated with the arts of the professed taibhsdear; all the other instances quoted are accounts of their experience by persons who made no claim to any special faculty. That the forego of a lighthouse should be a light, does not perhaps invalidate the saying that supernatural lights portend misfortune. "Long before the lighthouse was constructed in Lochandaal, it is said people sometimes saw