Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/69

 Schoepperle 53 and garments she washes are of the Norman host; few of them will escape death. 10 The Washer of the Ford also appears in traditional versions of the death of Ossian's son Oscar. Of these I have noted four from the Scottish Highlands. 11 The woman is mentioned as a "Badb. " Oscar and his host meet her on their way to battle. They see it is the garments of Oscar she is washing, and the hue of blood is on the water. They are overcome with horror: one of them ap- proaches and questions her: "O Badbh, that washest the garments, Make us a prophecy in truth. Shall a man of them fall by us, Or shall all of us come to naught? " The woman answers, prophesying. Oscar is wounded hi the battle and meets his death, but according to the Badb's prophecy, nine hundred of his foes are likewise slain. It is clear from the preceding examples that the Washer of the Ford is a figure connected with strife and battle, and that the garments which she washes are the gear of the doomed warriors who meet her. The prophecy implicit in her action is further expounded in a dialogue between her and the man who is to die. The superstition survives in Celtic countries at the present time in a more or less corrupt form. 12 Oral tradition in County Clare still preserves the story of De Clare to which we have alluded, and, according to local belief, calamities are still foretold in a similar way. 13 In Lewis, Uist, and other regions in the Scottish Highlands, the bean nigheachain, a tiny washerwoman with red webbed feet, frequents the fords after dark and in the early morn- 10 Loc. cit. 11 J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands III322-38g,Leabhar, na Feinne, p. 182, p. 191; J. G. Campbell, The Fians, p. 33. 12 Cf. J. M. Mackinlay, Folk Lore of Scottish Lochs, Glasgow, 1893, page 166 J. G. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands III, 346 cites Foyer Breton I, 144 for the Kannerez-noz, night washerwomen, a troop of ghosts who appear on certain nights of November. They wash and dry and sew the shrouds of the dead who yet walk and talk. See also P. S6billot, Traditions de la haute Bretagne 1, 248 and A. Le Braz, La Legende de la Mort I, 52, xlv, II, 214. Cf. Sir Samuel Ferguson, Congall, 3 1907, p. 67-70. 13 Folk Lore XXI, 180, 187-9.