Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/621

 Folk-Lore of the Isle of Skye. 3 1 1

story. The widower, coming out, and apparently not recog- nising his wife in the strange visitor, asked what token she could give. She then told him of a secret hoard, of which no one knew but herself, and directed him where to look for it. She also told him that a number of women, who had helped her in spinning and " waulking " the cloth, were still unpaid. She very clearly told the names of these women, and the amounts due to them. Her husband promised to see that all was made right, and she disappeared from his sight. The hoard, of which the laird knew nothing, was discovered in the place indicated by the dead woman.

(4) This mansion house of Scorybreck, known as the big house with the straight floors — a name which indicates the rough condition of the people's houses — has another story attached to it. The figure of a woman is seen washing in the Scorybreck burn the clothes of any man who has died, and whose friends after his death have neglected to do this for him. This legend may be compared to the very frequent stories of apparitions washing linen before a death. One of these is current near Campbeltown in Argyllshire, where a brownie or spirit with an unspellable name (the nearest I can get is Caan- teuch, but I am sure this is not right) is seen washing some hnen rags in a burn before the death of some person near. The dif- ference is that the Scorybreck spirit is seen ajter a death, and only in the case of neglect mentioned above.

(5) A story current in Skye about the Maclaines of Mull is as follows. Ewen Maclaine was going to the wars, and he wished to know if he w^ould return. Asking the usual wise man (it should be noted that by far the larger number of stories refer to a wise man, not a wise woman, though women have always occupied an important place among the islanders), he was given this token : If his wife offered him food as he was going away he would return in safety ; if she did not, he would be killed. It turned out badly for Ewen, for his wife did not offer him anything, and he had to ask for bread and cheese. He went to the war and was killed in battle. As a headless ghost he haunts the Maclaines.

(6) A man at Woodend, whose first wife had died, married a