Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/622

312 second time. The only child of the first marriage was a delicate little girl. The stepmother was far from kind to this child, giving her tasks to do which were far beyond her strength, and allowing her no rest or peace. One day the poor child was set to work to winnow corn, a task obviously much too hard for her. The stepmother was watching her do it; but it was impossible for the child to get on, for a little bird persisted in following and interrupting the work. The child at length had to abandon the task, and for that time, at least, she got some rest. That night the stepmother had a terrifying vision. A spirit appeared to her, saying she was the child's dead mother. This spirit warned her that if she did not behave better to the little girl the most dreadful consequences would follow. At the same time she said that she was the little bird which had so annoyed the stepmother that day. The woman took the lesson to heart, but too late to save the child's life, for she died soon after.

This belief in souls turning to birds is quite common. People have told me that they have seen a flight of souls rising in the air in the form of birds.

(7) An old woman going along the lonely hill road leading to Glenmore was startled by a monstrous shape which ran across her path. She did not pursue it, but when she got home she compared notes with her neighbours; and they came to the conclusion that it was the spirit of an old woman from the neighbourhood, who had recently died and had been buried in a distant churchyard.

(8) Bella Nicolson, who came from Sconser, told me that she, her sister and two companions were passing late at night the little mission-house in that township. As they came near, she heard the sounds of sweet music. She looked at her companions and saw that they, too, had heard it. There was no light in the windows; there was, of course, no musical instrument in the mission-room, and, at any rate, there were no people in it at that hour of night. It could only have been the music made by spirits.

(9) One spot in the island is obviously haunted by some ghosts invisible to man. No horse can be induced to pass the