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More Folklore from the Hebrides (Folklore History Series)
A. Goodrich-Freer
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More Folklore from the Hebrides (Folklore History Series)
A. Goodrich-Freer
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The Hebrides in western Scotland is a windswept and wild country and this is reflected in the folklore of this awe inspiring place. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
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MORE FOLKLORE FROM THE HEBRIDES.
(Read at Meeting of 6th November, 1901.)
I BELIEVE that I may venture to claim that a good deal of the folklore contained in the following pages has never before been printed, and that even in the case of such traditions and beliefs as are so far widespread as to have been gathered together elsewhere, that, at all events, they are here given for the first time as collected in the islands of South Uist and Eriskay. In the very few cases in which I have presented examples already published by Mr. Carmichael in his Carmina Gadelica, it is because we have both borrowed from a common fount, the Rev. Allan Macdonald, who has long had access to sources of information entirely inaccessible to all others, and to whom I acknowledge the deepest obligation. As priest, and even more as friend, to a people whose hearts can never open fully but to one of their own faith and living in their midst, he has had, and has used to the full, opportunities that are in the most literal sense unique, and without him—his knowledge, sympathy, and erudition—the folklore, songs, hymns, customs, and tales of these islands could never have been collected.
I.—DANGERS AND PRECAUTIONS.
Among the more remote islands of the Outer Hebrides one is constantly confronted with the phrase, “It is not right,” literally, “It is not ordered.” Thus, it is not right to mend clothes while upon the person. It is an interference with the rights of the dead, to whom alone belongs the privilege of having the clothes stitched upon the body. If it should, however, be necessary, it is well to say (as usual, with the idea of dodging the Powers of Evil):1
“I am sewing about the grey stone yonder
And about the carlin of the priest.”
And about the carlin of the priest.”
It is for good fortune, and not merely of good manners, that if you go to a house to ask for anything, you should begin with a little general conversation. If you fail to do this, those around should say:
“Ask it of the ravens,
And of the hoodie-crows,
And of the ridge-beam of your father’s house.”
And of the hoodie-crows,
And of the ridge-beam of your father’s house.”
In the same way, and possibly also with the idea of diverting the attention of the Powers of Evil, if anyone should relate, as news, that a neighbour has lost a cow or a horse, those sitting by should say:
“Pluck the hair out,
Put it into the fire,
And may all be well where this is told.”
Put it into the fire,
And may all be well where this is told.”
If a person makes a very brief call, it is usual to say, “Did you come for fire?” which is sarcastic, and equivalent to, “I suppose you want something.”
It is not right for a woman to comb her hair at night: every hair may become entangled in the feet of a friend who is sailing in a ship. Nor is it right to count the teeth of a comb—that means you are numbering the years of your life; nor to throw a comb to anyone. There is a saying, “Do not throw a comb but at an enemy.”
It is not right for a person to cut his own hair. There is a saying about “raising scissors above one’s breath”—possibly some allusion to cutting the breath of life.
It is not right to put a sieve on the head, as it stunts the growth. Short people are often taunted with having done this If a person were to go out at night with a sieve in his hand, he would require to have a piece of coal in the other hand, to prevent his being carried away by the dead.1
It is not right to use the stem of docken, the most natural switch in these treeless islands, to drive either horses or cows. Children are much impressed with horror of docken. A mother said that if she threatened to beat her children with it “they would fly through the seven worlds.”
It is not right to touch a wound with finger or thumb. They are venomous—one would say, sometimes, for obvious reasons!—but the reason given is that with them Adam took the forbidden fruit.
It is not right for a child to walk backwards, it is shortening his mother’s life.
It is not good to sleep on the back, as the heart and lungs and liver may adhere to the back.
It is not right to press a person to stay late, if contrary to his inclination. The theory is, that he may have what the Society for Psychical Research would call “a subliminal monition,” which others ought not to oppose.
It is not good to recall a person starting on a journey. If it is really necessary, it is always done with the formula, “It is not calling after you I am.” And if the person starting finds he has forgotten something, he must remain a little while when he goes back to the house, before seeking it. I have observed both of these customs many times, the latter at some inconvenience. Fortunately there are no trains or even omnibuses to catch in these islands.
The reeds which grow so abundantly in all the lakes (and the islands are more water than land), must not be used for thatching the houses, though apparently very suitable for the purpose, and freely used for making mats and baskets, horse-collars, and even chairs; but if put on the roof of house or byre, death will certainly follow. Father Allan Macdonald notes on October 16th, 1896, that he was consulted as to the danger of thatching a house with reeds, and if it were really running any risk for man or beast. It was alleged that reeds had been cursed ever since one was used at the Crucifixion of our Lord.
Branches of yew are kept in the house as a preservative against fire—it may be a survival of keeping the Palm Sunday boughs. (In Spain they are placed in balconies against lightning.)
If a child loses a tooth, it should be hidden in the earth that forms the padding of the loose walls, or he will not get another.
If a child’s first tooth comes in the upper jaw he will be a bard. Others say, if he is born with a tooth he will be a bard.
It is not right to take fire out of a house where there is a child who has not got a tooth yet, otherwise it will get no teeth at all. When a child’s first tooth is coming through, something that has life should be apportioned to him, a calf, or a lamb, or a cock.
It is not right to whistle on board a boat, it may call up the wind. The same informant, who is very definite on this score, says also that “no islander would put a knife into the mast for wind, though he would get Uist.” One cannot wonder at the islanders showing fear of any methods of raising the wind, they have too many wild winds in their storm-beaten islands.
“A whistling woman and a crowing hen” are as little tolerated in the Hebrides as elsewhere. The cure for the hen is, to cut off part of the tail.
On seeing the new moon it is right to cross yourself and say:
“He that created you created me
White be thy light to us,
White be thy light to us,
If it be well at thy beginning
May it be sevenfold better at thy end.”
May it be sevenfold better at thy end.”
Here, as elsewhere, it is a good thing, and a sign you will not want, to have something in the hand when you see the new moon.
If two or more marriages take place at the same time, each couple will try to be first for luck. A bride must wear something borrowed for luck. The young wife used to go round the township collecting wool, which was freely given by her neighbours.
It is not right to return the leavings of the meal to the chest after baking.
It is not right for a woman to fan a fire with the skirt of her dress, for when the nails were being prepared for Our Lord’s Crucifixion, the smith’s daughter roused the fire of the smithy in that way.
When the ashes rise and whirl in little eddies, it is a sign of a storm.
When you have singing in the ears, you should pray for the dead; it is a sign that someone is dying at the time. Others say:
“May all be well for us and for our friends,
If it was you that heard, may it not be you that will weep.”
If it was you that heard, may it not be you that will weep.”
To prevent ill consequences from the prick of a needle it should be thrust three times into the earth.
II.—ANIMAL LORE.
The sort of story which, in Æsop’s Fables, is attributed to the fox, is in the Outer Hebrides, where foxes are unknown, related of the cat.
Two old cats went down to the shore one day, and found a large lump of butter. After much quarrelling as to ownership, it was agreed that the oldest should have it. “I am the oldest,” said the one who had made the suggestion, “I am the cat that Adam had.” The other said, “You are undoubtedly elderly, but not so old as I, for I was on the earth before the hempen feet (i.e. the rays) went under the sun. Hand over the butter.” He ate so much that he began to swell, and became so heavy that he could not run, and so when a hungry wolf came down to the shore he fell a victim. “It is not good to be telling lies,” as the cat said when the wolf ate him.
When Lazarus died, nasty creatures (rats and mice) threatened to devour the body. Our Lord came, and baring the breast of His friend, breathed upon the hair, and there appeared a little cat, which is why a cat likes to sit upon a person’s chest.
The first milk of a cow after calving should be drunk by a dog. The cat must certainly not have it first, for the dog has ordered the cow to have milk in four teats, but the cat ordered only three.
The cat does not flourish in damp or draught, and is consequently a very degenerate animal in the Outer Isles, but that it does sometimes reach a mature age is shown by the saying that “his first seven years are passed joyously and pleasantly in the sun, but his last seven years are passed heavy-headed, large-headed, sleepy, by the fire.” The cat’s more ordinary length of life is denoted in the saying, “Three ages of a cat to the age of a dog, three ages of a dog to the age of a man, three ages of a man to the age of a deer, three ages of a deer to the age of an oak-tree,” though what the people in the Hebrides know about oak- trees it would be hard to say.
If a cat goes into a pot, it is a presage of fish coming to the house. If a cat scratches on the ground it is a sign of death, for it is looking for a corpse.
A dog howling by day without sufficient cause is said to be observing a phantom funeral, a warning of a real one to follow.
The last words of the sheep when he left Paradise, where the beasts had the gift of speech, were, “Do not burn my bones.” Since then it has not been considered right to throw any sheep-bones on the fire.1
Where there are nine otters, there is the dobhar chu, the male otter. There is a spot under his breast, and he can only be killed by wounding this. The rest of his body is protected by enchantment. The smoke of him will fell a man sixty yards away.
If the field-mouse (in Gaelic called the grass-mouse) passes in front of a cow or horse, it betokens ill-luck to the creature.
Formerly, if people wished to have she-calves, they buried the matrix at a boundary-stream.
The bee, the corn-crake, and the stone-chat and the cuckoo, are all enchanted creatures—possibly because they disappear in winter, unlike most of the sea-birds, more familiar to the islanders.
A wren is lucky about a house. There is a Gaelic saying, “No house ever dies out that the wren frequents.”
When eggs are set, an odd number should always be placed under the hen, for one will not hatch, it goes into the tithe (deachanch.) The wren never pays tithes, and all her twelve eggs are hatched, but she pays more than the full penalty, for only one will survive, and, moreover, she always has an ooze in her nest.
The crow cannot be put to shame. The lapwing, who, as everybody knows, has a trick of repeating himself, said to the grey crow, “I never saw your like for stealing egg...