Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/264

240

In this case the Gaelic contains the same idea, lines 138 et seqq.:

Literally, "What cloud is that which is falling on me. which is whirling aloft my braves? I see their inefficient garments as grey mist."

The writer of Ossian did not confine his mighty dead to aerolites, a strip of good Scottish mist served their purpose. In fact the aerolite is so seldom available that in those stirring times there would have been a congestion of traffic, admitting that it is only men of mark who have the advantage of this conveyance. This is undoubtedly the general belief, though, according to one informant, "knights and large farmers" described those eligible for the "dreag." The conversation that follows gives a fair idea of the Highlander's mind on this subject, and is genuine, not invented.

"H. Have you ever seen a corpse-candle or ghost-light?"

"No, mem, but I have seen plenty who did."

"What do you call such lights in Gaelic?"

"Manadh or Taibhse."

"Oh, yes, but that is what you call everything of that kind; what I wish to know is any special name you have for them."

"I never heard any name but solus."

"Do you think they and the dreug are one and the same thing?"

"Oh, no, I saw a dreug myself, it was before the death of Mr. D. The dreug never comes but before the death of a big man."