Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/267

 Ghost Lights of the West Highlands. 243

fell on the place, when she sank trembling to the ground, knowing that the sound was the forerunner of death, although it did not occur to her that it might be the foreshadowing of her own funeral. Eppie went home, but said nothing to Merran, her grandchild, about her experience.

" That night she awoke suddenly, and sat up as usual to ' pree ' her snuff mull. While in this position she was astonished to see a bright light shining in the other end of her house. The light was visible through the open door between the two rooms, and shone directly over a table placed near the wall. Wondering why her granddaughter could have left a candle burning, she rose from her bed to investigate matters, but she had barely reached the door leading into the other room when the light disappeared. She went back to bed, and again saw the light in the same place. Then she awoke Merran and asked her if she could see the light in the ben end. The girl could see nothing, and laughingly told her grandmother she must be dreaming.

''Eppie knew that it was no dream, and next morning she said to her young granddaughter : ' Merran lassie, I must tell you that I am going to die. It will be soon,' she went on, ' for last night I saw my drook. I might have known yestreen, for I heard the feet of the men cairryin' my coffin doon by the brae. Bairn, I've been willin' to dee since many a day, but I thank the Almighty for tellin' me afore the day. An' Merran, watch ye, an' as sure as I'm alive the day, my coffin '11 be laid upon that table in the ben end afore a week's past. Ye needna be feared, lassie, for I'm speaking the truth. God's warnin's are no to be lichtly thocht o'.'

" Before a week elapsed, Eppie's words were fulfilled. Her dead body was laid upon the very table over which the light was seen, and her coffin was carried down the brae, the bier- holders changing places at the identical spot where the old woman had heard the mysterious tread a week before. This story is absolutely true."

R 2