Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/232

 few hairs are pulled from the otter's tail and applied to Robbie's wounded member, and slinging his prey by the tail over his shoulder, he marches homeward, well pleased with his success. Now, it appears that the otter had not been dead as was supposed, for all at once he seizes Robbie's hip with a death-grip. Robbie tugs and pulls, but all in vain; and at last, goaded to desperation with pain, he runs to an overhanging brae, against which he places his back, pressing with all his might, while he exclaims: “Noo, bridder, lat be for lat be.”

I said that Robbie took some hair from the otter's tail and applied to his finger. It was believed that the best antidote against the effects of the bite of a dog or otter was a hair from the animal's tail. Hence the saying:

When the snow is in patches, as is the Rh