Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/697

Rh in making birds out of clay. Having made them the children put them on their hands and pretended to make them fly. Christ's bird did fly.

(2) Near to the present town of Portree, when as yet there were very few houses there, there lived a poor woman, working her little croft. One night a poor beggar woman came asking for help. The crofter woman told her she was very sorry she could not give her shelter for the night, and all she had was a bowlful of meal, which however she could give to the beggar and give it with a good heart. The beggar took the meal, with many blessings on the giver. That night the crofter woman, as she lay in bed, had a dream. She dreamed that she saw God and the devil contending for her soul. Her good and evil deeds were in the scales, and, to her dismay, her evil deeds weighed the heavier. The devil was jubilant, but just then God threw into the scale containing the good deeds the bowlful of meal which she had given to the beggar. The scale fell at once, and the devil retreated discomfited.

(3) A poor woman with her baby was benighted, and was about to lie down at the roadside when she came to a shepherd's house, and there she asked shelter for the night. This was refused, and she lay down as she had at first purposed. (Manners must have changed since these early days, for when the writer knew the island, practically any door would have opened to give a traveller shelter for the night.) During the night the Almighty appeared to the wanderer and told her to go to the shepherd's for shelter. The poor woman told the Almighty that she had already done so, and had been refused. Nevertheless, she was bidden to try again. When she came to the door the shepherd met her and told her that his wife had had a baby through the night, but that she had died and he was all alone. He asked her if God had sent her, for he had had a vision. On her answering yes, he asked her to remain and take care of his child. She did so, and eventually became his wife. Some time after her marriage, a poor old man came asking admittance and a bed. She refused him, and he took shelter under the very same wall where she had lain. In the stormy night the old man died, and once more the Almighty appeared to the