Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/170

 hour of the night, the seeing of an owl or a corncrake, a rainbow having both its ends inside a “toon dyke,” were all looked upon as evil omens.

Hearing certain sounds in old wood, called a shaek, foreboded important events. These sounds are doubtless produced by tiny insects in the wood, but our superstitious forefathers heard them as the voice of Fate. A sound like the ticking of a watch was called a “marriage shaek,” a vibrating sound a “fitting shaek,” and a dropping sound a “dead shaek.”

The following names were applied to diseases of animals:—