Page:Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry - 1887.djvu/121

Rh And I saw a hand pass, as a hand when it writes, over the coffin again. And I looked, and I saw the name of my son, and his years were numbered nine. And a faintness came into my heart and a dimness into mine eye, and I sought to wash the words out with my tears, when the shadow said: "Woman, woman, take forth thy woe and go thy ways; I have houses seven to visit, and may not tarry for thy tears. Three years have I given for thy weeping, and I may give no more."

I have often wondered at my own strength, though it was all in a dream. "Vision," I said, "if thy commission is from the Evil One, lash thy fiend-steeds and begone." The shadow darkened as I spoke. "Vision," I said, "if thy mission is from Him who sits on the holy hill—'the Lord giveth and taketh away, blessed be His name'—do thy message and depart." And suddenly the coffin was laid at my door, the steeds and chariot fled, the thick clouds followed, and I beheld him no more. I gazed upon the name, and the years nine; and as I looked it vanished from my sight; and I awoke weeping, and found my locks drenched in sweat, and the band of my bosom burst asunder with the leaping of my heart.

And I told my dream, and all the people of the parish wondered; and those who had children waxed sorrowful, and were dismayed. And a woman who dwells by the Rowantree-burn came unto me, and said: "I hear that you have dreamed an evil dream; know ye how ye may eschew it?" And I answered: "I have dreamed an evil dream, and I know not how I may eschew it, save by prayers and humiliation." And the woman said to me: "Marvel not at what I may say: I am old, and the wisdom of ancient times is with me—such wisdom as foolish men formerly accounted evil. Listen to my words. Take the under-garment of thy child, and dip it at midnight in that water called the Ladye's Lowe, and hang it forth to dry in the new moonbeam. Take thy Bible on thy knees, and keep watch beside it; mickle is the courage of a woman when the child that milked her bosom is in danger. And a form, like unto the form of a lady, will arise from the lake, and will seek to turn the garment of thy son; see that ye quail not, but arise and say: 'Spirit, by all the salvation contained between the boards of this book, I order thee to depart and touch not the garment.