Folklore of the Scottish Highlands (10 page)

This is a method of divination which goes back to early Irish tradition, where the priest or seer, wrapped in a bull-hide (
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), would go into a trance state and would see in a vision the answer to whatever question he had been asked. Pennant makes mention of the Brahan Seer, and testifies to his fame. Writing of Sutherland, he says:

Every country has had its prophets: . . . Wales its Robin Ddu and the Highlands their Kenneth Oaur. Kenneth long since predicted these migrations in these terms: ‘Whenever a Mac-cleane with long hands, a Frazier with a black spot on his face, a Mac-gregor with the same on his knee, and a club-footed Mac-cleod of Rasa, should have existed; whenever there should have been successively three Macdonalds of the name of John, and three Mac-innons of the same Christian name; oppressors would appear in the country, and the people change their own land for a strange one.’ The predictions, say the good wives, have been fulfilled, and not a single breach in the oracular effusions of Kenneth Oaur.

Another instance of Second Sight was observed by Pennant, again writing of Sutherland:

In a country where ignorance and poverty prevale it is less wonderful that a tragical affair should happen . . . about three years ago lived in this neighbourhood, a woman of more than common strength of understanding. She was often consulted on the ordinary occurences of life, and obtained a sort of respect which excited the envy of another female in the same district. The last gave out that her neighbour was a witch; that she herself had a good Genius, and could counteract the evils dreaded from the other; at length she so worked on the weak minds of the simple vulgar, that they determined on destroying her rival, and effected their purpose by instigating a parcel of children to strangle her. The murder was enquired into but the inciters so artfully concealed themselves, that they escaped their reward, and no punishment was inflicted, except what was suited to the tender years of the deluded children.

Fortunately, not many seers and people of exceptional powers received such brutal treatment. In much more recent times, at the end of the nineteenth century, long after Pennant recorded that belief in the Second Sight was almost dead in Skye, a strange episode took place in the house of a gentleman. One evening, round about New Year (a popular season for divination in general), a large number of neighbouring gentry and their families had been invited to a
ceilidh
(convivial gathering) at this house; the mistress was away at the time in the south, and her sons and daughters acted in the rôle of their mother. After dinner, the young people went to the drawing-room; a quadrille was arranged but before it began, the figure of a lady glided along the side wall of the room and was seen by several. One of the girls recognised it to be the form of her mother, and fainted. The vision put an end to the party, and it was later discovered that at the very time the vision had manifested itself, the lady had died in a southern city.

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Pictish figures engraved on stone — bulls

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Pictish figures engraved on stone — sow, boar

Another strange instance of foresight is recorded from Skye and allegedly happened towards the middle of the nineteenth century. The tragic event occurred in the parish of Snizort, where a cottar’s wife was delivered of a fine baby. Soon after her birth the mother was visited by the female neighbours, each bringing a gift of fowls, eggs and so on, according to custom. The child was greatly admired, and every good was wished on it. One woman, however, whispered to her neighbour that she was afraid the fine child’s life would be short and it would be the cause of terrible grief to its mother. This gloomy utterance made the neighbour very angry. The woman, however, said that she had had a dreadful vision of the little child mangled and bleeding. In a few months time when the child was sleeping in his cradle, the mother left him alone while she went to the well to fetch water. She met a neighbour and they talked for a while; when she reached the house the baby was lying on the floor, torn to pieces. During her absence a fierce pig had wandered into the house and devoured the sleeping infant (
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).

In spite of Pennant’s comment, there are many other comparatively recent examples of the Sight in Skye. One, which happened in the nineteenth century again, concerns a parish minister. He went to visit a sick brother of his, a Captain MacLeod, who lived near Portree and had been poorly. This man had a large family. When evening came, the minister mounted his horse and set off for home. This was nine miles away, and before he had been very far a severe storm arose. The minister was an elderly man, and he thought he would be wise to spend the night at Scorribreck rather than attempt to continue with his journey. Mrs Nicolson, mistress of the house, welcomed her guest. She was the person who kept the parish mortuary cloth, as her house was close to the burial-ground. She went to the loft to fetch something and those below heard a scream and the noise of something falling on the upper floor. They rushed up the stairs and found Mrs Nicolson in a fainting fit. When she recovered, she told the minister that she had seen a bright light on the mortuary cloth which was spread out on the table, and in the middle of the light she saw the image of his niece’s face, Captain MacLeod’s daughter. Shortly afterwards, the girl took ill and died, and that same cloth was used on her bier.

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Clach-na-buidseach, Stone of Witchcraft, Strathtay, Perthshire

One final example of this strange Highland power of ‘seeing’ the unseen again comes from Skye. Once more a minister is involved, an interesting fact, as the church did not approve of such alleged supernatural powers. Late in the nineteenth century the parish minister visited the miller’s house and found the miller’s wife in the kitchen, in a very distressed state. Quantities of wood frequently found on the shore on that area of the island had drifted in from wrecked vessels. On the day of the minister’s visit, the kitchen was full of driftwood planks, which were drying off there. The woman was extremely glad to see the minister; she said that a well-known seer, Christy MacLeod, had been sitting on one of the planks, by the fire, when she suddenly fainted. She carried her to a bed and laid her on it. The woman begged the minister to go to the seer and ask her about her vision; this he did reluctantly, and without success. However, he persisted and finally she confided in him. She said she had seen a vision while sitting on the plank of wood. She had glanced across at the plank opposite to her and had seen the mangled, bleeding body of a boy, a MacDonald, who, at that time, was in extremely good health. When the minister returned to the miller’s house, the woman demanded to know what Christy had seen and he told her. Some six weeks later there was a wedding in the parish to which the boy in question was invited. On his way home alone late at night, he lost his way and fell over a cliff some 1,000ft high and was dashed to pieces. The body was not found until some days had passed. Men came to the miller’s house for a plank on which to place the remains, and the one chosen was in fact the very one on which the seer had seen the vision.

Finally, related to the gift of Second Sight, but somewhat different from it, are certain death-omens which appear in the form of blue, quivering lights. They are seen moving along the course which the funeral procession would take; they could also be seen near the bed of one about to die.

4 Witchcraft, black and white

Witchcraft, together with the belief in the power of certain people to bring about a desired situation by magic, is not, of course, confined to the Highlands. But it was, at one time, very prevalent there, and numerous examples of such beliefs are still to be collected from people who claim that they have had direct experience of such things, or who actually know someone with such alleged powers. A distinction is made between black and white witchcraft, and many people imbued with powers have, and do, use them for good rather than evil purposes. Amongst these are the ‘charmers’ or ‘healers’, men and women who are able either to cure specific ills, or to perform cures in general. The writer has had direct experience of both forms of this power, and the following examples have either been collected personally in the field, or, when taken from written sources, can he paralleled from actual fieldwork material. It is a subject that people are often unwilling to speak about, but there is no doubt that belief in powers to work good and evil is still fairly widespread. Pennant, writing in the eighteenth century, says (of Breadalbane): ‘In this part of the country the notion of witchcraft is quite lost; it was observed to cease almost immediately on the repeal of the witch act’. The Scottish and English Witch Acts were repealed by the Witchcraft Act of 1736.

But the ancient belief in the malevolent powers of witches was widespread and deep-rooted in the Gaelic-speaking Highlands; and, as we have noted, equal credit was given to the so-called white witches, or ‘charmers’, people whose alleged supernatural powers were used solely for the good of man and beast. How far these beliefs continue actively into the present day is a matter for speculation; they are subjects which are not readily discussed if any true belief-element is present, but the custom of nailing branches of rowan and horseshoes above house doors, outside or inside the dwelling, suggest that a certain uneasy credulity lingers on in parts of the Highlands. One of the great powers with which witches were accredited was that of the Evil Eye; by merely looking at something they could destroy, corrupt or acquire it. Rowan was held to be a potent talisman against the Evil Eye; and even today, there are extant, charms and incantations to counter the effects of the ‘eye’. One, from the Outer Hebrides states:

I make to thee the charm of Mary,

The most perfect charm that is in the world,

Against small eye, against large eye,

Against the eye of swift voracious women,

Against the eye of swift rapacious women,

Against the eye of swift sluttish women.

The witches of Highland tradition are quite distinct from the fairies. Their association with the Devil and the forces of evil was never in doubt; their dark powers could be tapped by those who knew the correct ritual and formulae. Some witches achieved a wide area of fame; others had an essentially local notoriety. Their existence was, however, universally accepted and feared. There are numerous stories of witches and their activities. One of the most typical and famous of these concerns the ruthless Witch of Laggan, in Badenoch. Laggan was one of the three parishes of Badenoch, the other two being Kingussie and Alvie; the district extended from Corryarrick on the west to Craigellachie near Dufftown on the east — some 45 miles of singularly remote and high country. The Witch of Laggan is alleged to have lived two miles from Kingussie, in the seventeenth century. Tales about her can still be heard in the locality. She was famed for her evil deeds and she and her companion witches were both feared and hated. The weird, inhospitable forest of Gaick lies in Badenoch, inhabited only by deer and other wild beasts and birds of prey, and frequented by hunters. Many stories were told of the strange things that happened in this wild tract of country. According to one version of the story of the Witch of Laggan, a local hunter went there one stormy day in search of deer; he was a man of great reputation in the countryside for his hatred of witches and his ruthless persecution of those who practised the Black Art.