Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/169

 Rh large head, having neither flesh nor blood, rises, tailor, to you." "I will see that presently, when this is finished," answered the undaunted tailor, sewing away as fast as possible. The skull next said: "My great head, and breast, without flesh or blood, rises, tailor, to thee." "I will see all that when this is done," was the reply; and so it went on, the skeleton rising from the floor, higher and higher, repeating its observation, and the tailor sewing with clammy hands, and giving the same answer. At last the task was completed, and not till then did the tailor venture to look. Lo! the ghastly skeleton stood upright its full length; the damp clay covering only its white and fleshless feet. He started off", the ghost followed, but it did not overtake him till he reached the church-porch, when it slammed the door after his retreating feet with such horrid violence that it caught and lacerated the tailor's heels, leaving him a cripple for life. The spectre had, in closing the door, grasped the posts; its fingers left a mark there, which might be seen any day till the restoration of the cathedral.

[In Inverness-shire the scene of this story is laid at. Beauly. The tailor worked in the ruined abbey, and he had candles, which the ghost blew out.]

ix.—.

When the Holy Family were on their flight into Egypt they passed through a field where some men were sowing corn. The Holy Virgin spoke to the men, and begged them, should any one ask for tidings of the fugitives, to say that a man, a woman, and a child had indeed passed this way, but only when they were sowing their crop. The labourers promised to obey her, and instantly the corn shot up, first the blade and then the ear, and then the full ripe corn in the ear. The husbandmen began to reap it. While they were thus employed the king's soldiers appeared, and asked them if they had seen a man and a woman leading their ass, and carrying a young child? Obedient to the orders they had received, the men replied that such persons had indeed passed through the field, but that it had been when the corn was being sown, which they were now binding into