Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire Part 21

said Hugh Miller's companion, "that for certain the fairies have not left this part of the country yet."

It was as recently as 1883 that several boys got a great fright when they actually saw (as they narrated) the fairies at the Sitheanan Dubha, at the north end of Isle Ewe. The people at Mellon Charles, on the mainland opposite that end of the island, still a.s.sert, with all the earnestness of conviction, that they often see lights and hear music at the Sitheanan Dubha of Isle Ewe, which they believe can only be accounted for by the supposition that they proceed from the fairies. I give these statements on the authority of Mr William Reid, J.P., the lessee of Isle Ewe.

The towns.h.i.+p of Ormiscaig lies to the east of Mellon Charles, in the heart of this fairy-haunted district. It was at Ormiscaig that William Maclean, a celebrated performer on the bagpipes, was born and brought up. As a boy he was employed in herding cattle on the hill. One evening he returned home with a bagpipe chanter, on which (though he had not previously tried the bagpipes) he could play to perfection. He said he had received the chanter and the power to play it from the fairies. He emigrated some years ago to America, and is now living at Chicago. He has won many prizes for pipe music at compet.i.tions in America. His nephews, the three young Macleans, now at Ormiscaig, are all excellent pipers, and are included in the list of living pipers given further on.

Similar incidents are related in other parts of the north-west Highlands, where pipers have attributed their talents to the powers conferred upon them by fairies, and in every case a chanter was given along with the faculty of performing on it.

The best known Gairloch fairy of modern times went by the name of the Gille Dubh of Loch a Druing. His haunts were in the extensive woods that still cl.u.s.ter round the southern end of that loch and extend far up the side of the high ridge to the west of it. There are gra.s.sy glades, dense thickets, and rocky fastnesses in these woods, that look just the places for fairies. Loch a Druing is on the North Point, about two miles from Rudha Reidh. The Gille Dubh was so named from the black colour of his hair; his dress, if dress it can be called, was of leaves of trees and green moss. He was seen by many people on many occasions during a period of more than forty years in the latter half of the eighteenth century; he was, in fact, well-known to the people, and was generally regarded as a beneficent fairy. He never spoke to any one except to a little girl named Jessie MacRae, whose home was at Loch a Druing. She was lost in the woods one summer night; the Gille Dubh came to her, treated her with great kindness, and took her safely home again next morning. When Jessie grew up she became the wife of John Mackenzie, tenant of the Loch a Druing farm, and grandfather of James Mackenzie of Kirkton. It was after this that Sir Hector Mackenzie of Gairloch invited Sir George S.

Mackenzie of Coul, Mr Mackenzie of Dundonnell, Mr Mackenzie of Letterewe, and Mr Mackenzie of Kernsary, to join him in an expedition to repress the Gille Dubh. These five chieftains together repaired to Loch a Druing, armed with guns, with which they hoped to shoot the unoffending fairy. They wore of course their usual Highland dress, and each had his dirk at his side. They were hospitably entertained by John Mackenzie. An ample supper was served in the house; it included both beef and mutton, and each of the chieftains used the knife and fork from the sheath of his own dirk. Knives and forks were not common in Gairloch in those days. They spent the night at Loch a Druing, and slept in John Mackenzie's barn, where couches of heather were prepared for them. They went through all the woods, but they saw nothing of the Gille Dubh.

There are a large number of notions or fancies common in Gairloch that are plainly tinged with a superst.i.tious character, such as that unaccountable noises and moving lights predict a death; that trees and shrubs planted when the moon is waning must die, whereas if the moon be "growing" at the time of the removal they will live and thrive; that there are several cla.s.ses of undertakings that will succeed if commenced when the moon is growing, but will be failures if it be waning; that a walking-stick cut from the bird-cherry prevents the bearer of it being lost in the mist; that whales attack new boats or boats newly tarred; that the bite of a dog is rendered innocuous if the saliva (literally, "water from the teeth") of the dog be immediately applied; that a pledge to give something to a soft person or an idiot, will enable any one to discover a lost article, or will bring good luck; and that if a stocking be accidentally put on wrong side out it must not be altered, or bad luck will follow. And surely the idea ill.u.s.trated in some of the stories in Part II., chap. xxv., and which is still current in Gairloch, that Sabbath-breaking brings immediate retribution smacks strongly of superst.i.tion.

The existence of water-kelpies in Gairloch, if perhaps not universally credited in the present generation, was accepted as undoubted in the last. The story of the celebrated water-kelpie of the Greenstone Point is very well known in Gairloch. The proceedings for the extermination of this wonderful creature formed a welcome topic for _Punch_ of the period. The creature is spoken of by the natives as the "Beast." He lives, or did live, in the depths of a loch called after him Loch na Beiste, or "the loch of the beast," which is about half way between Udrigil House and the village of Mellon Udrigil. About 1840 Mr Bankes, the then proprietor of the estate on which this loch is situated, was pressed by his tenants to take measures to put an end to the Beast. At first he was deaf to the entreaties of the people, but at length he was prevailed upon to take action. Sandy M'Leod, an elder of the Free Church, was returning to Mellon Udrigil from the Aultbea Church one Sunday in company with two other persons, one of whom was a sister (still living at Mellon Udrigil) of James Mackenzie, when they actually saw the Beast itself. It resembled in appearance a good-sized boat with the keel turned up. Kenneth Cameron, also an elder of the Free Church, saw the same sight another day. A niece of Kenneth Cameron's (some time housemaid at Inveran) told me she had often heard her mother speak of having seen the Beast. It was the positive testimony of the two elders that induced Mr Bankes to take measures for the destruction of the Beast. The proceedings have been much exaggerated; James Mackenzie states that the following is the correct version of them:--Mr Bankes had a yacht or vessel named the _Iris_; James Mackenzie was a sailor in the _Iris_, along with another sailor named Allan Mackenzie. For a long time they and others worked a large pump with two horses with the object of emptying the loch. The pump was placed on the burn which runs from the loch into the not far distant sea; a cut or drain was formed to enable the pump to be worked, and a number of pipes were provided for the purpose of conducting the water away. The pipes are now lying in a house or shed at Laide. James Mackenzie often attended the pump. He and others were employed parts of two years in the attempt to empty the loch, or as James Mackenzie puts it, "to ebb it up." It was after this that the _Iris_ was sent to Broadford in Skye to procure lime. James Mackenzie went with her. They brought from Broadford fourteen barrels of "raw lime." They came with the lime to Udrigil, and it was taken up to the "loch of the beast," and the small boat or dingy of the _Iris_ was also taken up. The ground-officers would not go in the boat on the loch for fear of the Beast, so Mr Bankes sent to the _Iris_ for James and Allan Mackenzie, and they went in the boat over every part of the loch, which had been reduced only by six or seven inches after all the labour that had been spent on it. They plumbed the loch with the oars of the boat; in no part did it exceed a fathom in depth, except in one hole, which at the deepest was but two and a half fathoms. Into this hole they put the fourteen barrels of lime. It is needless to state that the Beast was not discovered, nor has he been further disturbed up to the present time.

The loch contained a few good trout above the average size when I fished it in 1873. There are rumours that the Beast was seen in 1884 in or near another loch on the Greenstone Point.

Here is a story of a mermaid; they say it is quite true:--Roderick Mackenzie, the elderly and much respected boatbuilder at Port Henderson, when a young man, went one day to a rocky part of the sh.o.r.e there.

Whilst gathering bait he suddenly spied a mermaid asleep among the rocks. Rorie "went for" that mermaid, and succeeded in seizing her by the hair. The poor creature, in great embarra.s.sment, cried out that if Rorie would let go she would grant him whatever boon he might ask. He requested a pledge that no one should ever be drowned from any boat he might build. On his releasing her, the mermaid promised that this should be so. The promise has been kept throughout Rorie's long business career; his boats still defy the stormy winds and waves. I am the happy possessor of an admirable example of Rorie's craft. The most ingenious framers of trade advertis.e.m.e.nts might well take a hint from this veracious anecdote.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANTIQUITY NO. 14.--TUYERE, FROM THE FASAGH IRONWORKS.

SCALE--ONE-FOURTH TRUE SIZE.]

Chapter XIV.

WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC.

The name of Rudha Chailleach, the long blue point jutting into Loch Maree to the south of Ardlair, suggests the ancient belief in witchcraft, but there are no stories of witches connected with it now extant. Yet the belief in witchcraft is by no means dead in Gairloch, and to the stranger the very appearance of some withered old women almost proves them to be witches.

Jessie the cripple, an example of whose second-sight is given in the next chapter, was a reputed witch; the story of her being ducked will be found there.

Witchcraft and magic are still said to be exercised by a number of people in Gairloch. Cases actually occurred in 1885 where persons were charged with the practice of these arts in connection with poultry. It seems better not to give details of them here, especially as it is said the poor folk are yet under suspicion.

The following are examples of the use of the arts of witchcraft and magic in Gairloch:--

There is a curious superst.i.tion that the substance, or staple or "fruit," of milk can be taken away by witchcraft, or by the employment of magical arts. In the records of the Presbytery of Lochcarron are minutes relating to a case which occurred at Kenlochewe. On 23d November 1791 the presbytery had examined a candidate for the appointment of catechist for the district of "Ceanlochew," and had been satisfied as to his knowledge, but "in consequence of stories rather detrimental to his private character," had arranged for an inquiry whether such stories had any foundation. On 3d April 1792 a pet.i.tion on the subject was laid before the presbytery. One of the pet.i.tioners, Mr Murdo M'Kenzie, yr. of Letterewe, declared, "that he thought he had heard the candidate use such words as that he wished the devil had the soul of Mr Mackintosh, the parish minister; that he was in the habit of taking back the substance of milk by magical arts, for he himself (the declarant) and his brother were present when the candidate had recourse to certain herbs and an iron key, which were thrown into the declarant's milk in order to restore the fruit of it. Roderick M'Lennan, smith at Ceannlochew, stated that he knew the candidate from his infancy, * * *

that he was much addicted to swearing in common conversation, and that he had heard him say that he had restored the substance of deponent's milk by means of certain arts. The candidate being present, and questioned, admitted that he did actually restore the substance of the milk as stated by Mr M'Kenzie, yr. of Letterewe; all which being considered by the presbytery, they deemed him totally disqualified for the office of catechist, and declined to recommend him for such office to the Committee of the Royal Bounty."

Our next example of this strange superst.i.tion belongs to a more recent date. In the time of the late Sir Francis Mackenzie the parish schoolmaster of Gairloch was one Kenneth Mackenzie, who was a notorious master of witchcraft. He was always called the "maighstair sgoil." In his youth he had been taught many magical arts, and people who had been bewitched resorted to him from far and wide to obtain relief and advice.

He lived in the present schoolmaster's house at Achtercairn, and kept several cows. On one occasion he himself was a sufferer from witchcraft.

The milk of his cows was destroyed; if they gave any at all it was fruitless and useless. By his own skill in magic he discovered the woman who had done him this mischief; she lived at or near Strath, and was reputed to have some knowledge of witchcraft. This is how he punished her. There is a little burn runs by the side of the road at Achtercairn, just in front of the present police-station. One Sunday morning as the people from Strath, including this woman, were going to church, she was obliged, by the occult power of the maighstair sgoil, to remain behind; and as soon as the others were out of sight she tucked up her dress above her knees and fastened it so, then she commenced jumping violently backwards and forwards across this little burn, unwillingly enough, as we may well suppose, and she was compelled by the unseen maighstair sgoil to continue the severe exercise until the people came out of church. After the woman had suffered her well-merited punishment, the fruit returned to the milk of the maighstair sgoil's cows. _Moral_:--You should not meddle with one who possesses magical powers!

Here is a case of injury to milk which occurred within the last ten years. For obvious reasons I suppress the names of the persons concerned, who are all known to me and are now living. The erection of a house was undertaken, and the builders took up their abode in a temporary hut or barrack. Requiring milk to take with their porridge, they applied to a neighbouring farmer, but he was unable at the time to supply them. They fancied that the farmer withheld the milk from some spite he had to them, and they told him he would suffer for it; one of the builders is commonly believed to have some knowledge of witchcraft.

What next occurred is kept secret, but the milk of the farmer's cows immediately afterwards lost its fruit; nothing but a viscous fluid, mingled with a little blood, came from the teats when the cows were milked. The farmer called to his aid the services of a woman living in the northern part of the parish known to be skilled in such matters, and she soon restored the substance to the milk. A still more recent case has come under my notice in the spring of 1886. A cow died at a farm with which I am well acquainted; its death was firmly believed to be the result of witchcraft, exercised by an adversary. Soon afterwards a cow at the same farm lost the substance of its milk; as in the case last described, only blood and water came from the cow; this also was believed to be the consequence of witchcraft. A man from Aultbea was sent for, and by his magical arts soon effected a cure. These latter cases are different from the old Kenlochewe case in one respect, viz., in the older case the substance of the milk was influenced after it had been taken from the cow, whilst in the subsequent cases the "fruit" of the milk was destroyed in the cows.

There are plenty of people in Gairloch in the present day who believe in the magical power of the charm or spell called the "sian" or "seun." By means of an incantation, sometimes coupled with the use of some visible medium, any object which it was desired to conceal could be rendered invisible, either for the time being only or for all time, subject in the latter case to brief periods of visibility recurring either at the end of each year, or more commonly at the end of each succeeding term of seven years. The medium, if any, employed along with the incantation, was usually a piece of vellum or stout skin of some sort, which in process of time became as hard and tough as wrought iron. James Mackenzie says he has seen a specimen preserved as a curiosity at Glamis Castle.

Duncan M'Rae lived in Isle Ewe and had the gift of the sian. We have seen, in Part I., chap. xiv., Duncan's fidelity to the unfortunate Prince Charlie. He accompanied the prince to Edinburgh, and there composed a well-known Gaelic song called Oran na Feannaige, _i.e._ "the song of the hoodie-crow;" it related an imaginary dialogue between himself and the crow, suggested by his seeing one of those birds in the busy capital. After the fatal field of Culloden, Duncan M'Rae a.s.sisted in covering the prince's escape; he hovered around the prince, and used every means in his power to baffle the pursuers. Funds were sent from France to be conveyed by the faithful Highlanders to their beloved Prince Charlie, as circ.u.mstances might admit. A small cask or keg filled with gold pieces was entrusted to the charge of Duncan M'Rae, to be concealed until a chance should occur of delivering it to the prince.

Duncan M'Rae and two other men brought the keg of gold in a boat across Loch Ewe from Mellon Charles to Cove. From Cove they carried the cask up to the Fedan Mor, the large deep corrie or hollow on the hill above Loch a Druing; there they put the cask of gold into the ground, and it is the universal belief in Gairloch that it remains there to this day. Duncan M'Rae made use of the sian to render the cask invisible; he laid his amulet upon the head of the cask while he p.r.o.nounced the magic words he knew; upon this the cask became invisible for all time, with this exception, that at the end of each period of seven years the effect of the spell is suspended during a very brief interval on one day only, when for a few moments the cask of gold becomes again visible to mortal eyes.

It was about 1826, the year that Sir Hector Mackenzie died, that the wife of Rorie Mackenzie, shepherd at Loch a Druing, called the Cibear Mor, or "big shepherd," was herding the cows in the Fedan Mor. She was spinning worsted, when suddenly she saw the head of the cask of gold close to where she sat. She stuck the distaff into it to mark the spot, and then ran down to Loch a Druing for help to remove the long-lost treasure. When the people came to the Fedan Mor to fetch the cask of gold, neither it nor the distaff could after the most diligent search be discovered.

A sian of a similar nature, and with similar effect, is said to have been used many years ago by some persons who hid a large quant.i.ty of arms and weapons of all kinds in a cave at Meallan na Ghamhna. Both the cave and the weapons became invisible, but once in every seven years they may again be seen if any one be lucky enough to be on the spot at the right moment. It is not many years since the wife of Murdo Cameron of Inverasdale, and some other women, were gathering lichens from the rocks at Meallan na Ghamhna, when they suddenly saw the cave and weapons. They ran to tell others, and soon returned with several helpers, intending to remove the arms; but it was too late, no trace could be found of either weapons or cave. They say an exactly similar case of weapons being hid in a cave, or rather rocky fissure, by means of the sian, occurred on the sh.o.r.es of Loch Maree. The spot is at the edge of the loch below the county road on the south-west side of the loch just opposite to Letterewe. In this case also the weapons are visible once in every seven years.

There was a man living in Gairloch named Alastair Mor an 't Sealgair, or "big Alexander of [the race of] the hunter." He had the magic power of the sian. He died since 1850, and his grandsons were lately living at Charleston, and were called Gillean an t' Sealgair, or "the hunter's lads." One of them is still living at Charleston. Alastair was a dealer in illicit whisky, and was constantly employed in running cargoes of it from Gairloch to Skye and the Long Island. He is still remembered in those islands. At that time Captain Oliver was sent by the government to put down this smuggling. In his schooner he cruised up and down the Minch, keeping a sharp look-out; he had a tender, a smaller vessel, of which Robert Clark was master, and which was employed in the sea-lochs, so that Gairloch might well be said to be blockaded. Alastair continually ran the blockade by the use of the sian. Whenever a government vessel hove in sight, he p.r.o.nounced the magic words and applied his unfailing amulet, and his boat became at once invisible under the mysterious spell. One day he had brought several casks of whisky in a boat down Loch Maree. When in the Narrows near the place where Tollie burn falls into the river Ewe, he landed and hid the casks in the wood on the Tollie side of the Narrows. He made some pa.s.ses over them with his hands, and the casks became invisible; the next day he sent over from Gairloch the men who had seen him hide the casks, to bring them away, but they could not be found, and it was not until Alastair went himself that the casks became visible. This was a usual form of the sian, but Alastair had another spell or magical process which was a variation of its ordinary application. Sometimes when a revenue vessel appeared upon the scene he would take a thole-pin from the boat and whittle it with his knife, when each of the chips as it fell into the water would appear to the crew of the preventive vessel to be a fully-manned boat. This wonderful magician was well-known to many people now living, including Mr O. H. Mackenzie. There are many other stories current in Gairloch, showing that Alastair could render his boat, or indeed anything else, invisible, even without the use of any special formula. There were three fishermen, named respectively Macpherson, Watson, and Fraser, all living on the south side of Gairloch, who were partners in a large decked fis.h.i.+ng-boat. At that time Glen Dubh, to the north of Stoir Head in Sutherlands.h.i.+re, was an important herring fis.h.i.+ng-station. The "south side" men were there fis.h.i.+ng. Alastair was also at Glen Dubh, selling whisky amongst the fishermen. His boat was an open undecked craft, and the Gairloch south side men had him to spend the Sabbath in their larger vessel. On Sunday morning Alastair proposed to fill some bottles with whisky out of a small cask that he carried for offering drams to friends. As he and Macpherson were beginning to draw the whisky from the cask, Alastair asked his companion if he saw the revenue cutter. Macpherson said her boat was just coming round a headland near them. Alastair said, "They don't see us." He proceeded with the business on hand; they were on deck. As the cutter's boat approached, Macpherson wished to put the whisky cask out of sight. Alastair said, "Never fear; they cannot see us." The revenue boat then pa.s.sed close to them, and apparently did not see them. Had the preventive men seen Alastair before he saw them, he would have been unable to render the boat invisible. At another time, the same "south side" men had a good take of flounders in the sound between the Island of Longa and Big Sand. They had occasion to take their fish ash.o.r.e at Big Sand, and having piled them in a heap left them for a short time; on returning they could not see their fish anywhere.

Alastair was there, and they concluded he had played a trick upon them.

After keeping up the joke some time, Alastair admitted that he had concealed the fish. He drew a ring on the sand with his stick, and said, "The fish are within this circle." The fishermen could not find them, until Alastair withdrew the spell and the fish became visible.

His father, Ruaridh an t' Sealgair, also had the magical power of the sian. Both Rorie and Alastair were--like their ancestor whose _soubriquet_ they bore--great hunters and poachers. When they wanted venison they would go to the mountains. As soon as they saw a deer they would, by the exercise of magic, cause the animal to stand or to go where they pleased, so that they could easily get within range. If the deer saw the magician first, the spell failed; it was necessary that the hunter should spy his quarry before he was himself observed. Instances of Alastair's exercise of this power are said to have occurred during the time of the late Sir Francis Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch. They say too that Alastair, when sitting at the roadside, could by the sian render himself invisible to persons who pa.s.sed close to him.

Our next and last example is of a different application of magic. Every detail of the case is firmly believed by many natives of Gairloch now living to be absolutely true. In the chapter of James Mackenzie's "Gairloch Stories," given further on, is an account of the death by drowning at the head of Loch Maree of John M'Ryrie. His grandfather was the hero of the following adventure. At the time of its occurrence he had a large open boat, in which he used to carry the mails between Poolewe and Stornoway. He lived at Poolewe. One Donald M'Lean helped to work the boat. It was before the smack was put on this service. On one occasion M'Ryrie was kept several days at Stornoway by a contrary wind.

He was going about the place two or three days grumbling at the delay.

He met a man in the street, who advised him to go to a certain woman and she would make the wind favourable for him. In the morning he went to her, and paid her some money. She gave him a piece of string with three knots on it. She told him to undo the first of the knots, and he would get the wind in his favour; if the wind were not strong enough for him, he was to undo the second knot, but not until he would be near the mainland; the third knot, she said, he must not untie for his life. The wind changed whilst he was talking to her; and he set sail that same morning. He undid the first knot on the voyage, and the breeze continued fair; the second knot he untied when he was near the mouth of Loch Ewe, and the breeze came fresh and strong. When he got to Ploc-ard, at the head of Loch Ewe, he said to M'Lean that no great harm could happen to them if he were to untie the third knot, as they were so near the sh.o.r.e.

So he untied the third knot. Instantly there was such a hurricane that most of the houses in Poolewe and Londubh were stripped of their thatch.

The boat was cast high and dry on the beach at Dal Cruaidh, just below the house of Kirkton; her crew escaped uninjured. It is said that at that time there were several women about Stornoway who had power by their arts to make the wind favourable.

Chapter XV.

VISIONS AND SECOND-SIGHT.

Perhaps the most common cla.s.s of superst.i.tions in Gairloch comprises those represented by or connected with "visions" or the gift of "second-sight." It is often difficult to discriminate between the two; but as a general rule "visions" maybe considered as recalling the past, whilst "second-sight" brings the immediate but unseen present or the near or sometimes the more remote future within the ken of its possessor. The following stories seem to be examples of one or other of these superst.i.tions.

The appearance to Alastair Mac Iain Mhic Earchair, early in the nineteenth century, of the great chief of Gairloch, Hector Roy Mackenzie, with his bodyguard of twelve chosen heroes all wearing kilted plaids of Mackenzie tartan, and their noiseless departure, is narrated in Part I., chap. ix. In addition to the details there given, old Alastair told Ruaridh an Torra, the present repository of the tale, that before the spectral heroes disappeared he handed his snuff-mull to them, and they each in turn helped themselves to its contents. Alastair always expressed his astonishment that they should have been able to enjoy the snuff as they apparently did.

In 1884 I heard of a young man having seen a spirit. He was very reserved on the subject, but when closely questioned he said it was on a pretty dark night in the previous year that the form of a man pa.s.sed him on the road. He spoke to the figure, but there was no reply; and this he considered proof positive of the ghostly nature of the appearance!

Two men, of the utmost credibility and respectability, declare that they saw on separate occasions, by daylight, the figure of a woman dressed in brown sitting or walking within a considerable house in Gairloch parish.

On each occasion the woman mysteriously disappeared, and no trace of her could be discovered. The appearances were supposed to be prophetic of some incident that has since occurred, or will shortly occur, at the house in question.

Seers of visions and possessors of second-sight are always reticent, and every one has a delicacy in speaking of cases that have occurred among persons now living. Thus it is difficult to procure accounts of recent cases, and I have thought it best not to press inquiry in this direction. Here, however, is an instance which came under my own notice within the parish of Gairloch. A shooting party was invited, and a number of beaters engaged for the occasion. Several of those who had been similarly employed before declined to attend, because it had been rumoured that the figure of a strange man dressed in dark blue clothes had been seen walking in the coverts the evening before, and it was thought that the appearance of the supposed spectre portended the death of some one at the shoot. Happily the day pa.s.sed off without casualty.

Second-sight may be (1) a faculty frequently exercised by the individual possessing it, who becomes known as a seer; or (2) it may be manifested on one occasion only, under exceptional circ.u.mstances, by some one not otherwise credited with this supernatural power. Our next story tells of a woman whose second-sight was of the first of these descriptions.

Simon Chisholm, who has long been forester and gardener at Flowerdale to Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, remembers a woman named Seonaid Chrubach, or Jessie the cripple, who was reputed to be a witch, and to have the faculty of second-sight. She lived near Flowerdale, and was a queer bad woman. She wore a short tight-fitting jacket like a man, and a short petticoat resembling a man's kilt. She used to afford much amus.e.m.e.nt to sailors, singing ribald songs to them, and would visit various ports as far north as Ullapool for the purpose. When Simon Chisholm was a young boy a number of lads one day caught Jessie, and, believing in her witchcraft, tied her to the middle of a long piece of rope. They took her to the moat or ditch then remaining below Flowerdale House, in the midst of which the old Tigh Dige had formerly stood, and dragged her many times backwards and forwards through the water of the moat. Jessie survived this ill-treatment many years. It would be about 1835 that Jessie came one day to the house of Simon Chisholm's father at Flowerdale. His family have been there for several generations; they say his ancestor came to Gairloch as attendant to a lady who became the wife of one of the lairds of Gairloch. Simon was still a boy, and was at home when Jessie came to the house. Jessie looked very pale and haggard; she said she felt faint and ill. After resting a while, she told them that on her way she had met a shepherd with his dog, driving a flock of sheep; she minutely described the shepherd and the dog and sheep, and even stated the colour of the dog. At that time there were no sheep at Flowerdale, only black cattle; Sir Francis Mackenzie, the then baronet of Gairloch, had a celebrated strain of them, and bred them in considerable numbers. The following year, at the same time of the year as that at which Jessie had seen the vision, Sir Francis subst.i.tuted sheep for the black cattle, and the shepherd, the dog, and the sheep exactly corresponded with Jessie's description.

Our next narrative is an ill.u.s.tration of the other cla.s.s of manifestations of second-sight. At the date of this story the blacksmith at Poolewe had his house and smithy where the Pool-house stable now stands. It was close by the east side of Poolewe bridge, from which the spectator can look down into the deep gloomy pool in which the River Ewe joins the brackish waters of Loch Ewe. The smith had a son, a boy, almost a young man; he was in sickly health at the time, and died shortly afterwards. The late Rev. William Rose, Free Church minister of Aultbea and Poolewe, who died in April 1876, told me that one day the smith's son had walked over to Gairloch, and returning somewhat exhausted, came into his father's house (the door being open), and instantly sat down on the nearest chair. No sooner was he seated than he fell from the chair in a fainting fit. He presently came round, and on recovering consciousness the first thing he said to his family was, "What are all these people on the bridge for?" They pointed out to him that there was no one on the bridge. He then told them, that as he had approached the bridge he had seen it crowded with people, that he had had to push his way through them, and that he had felt very much frightened. Those members of the smith's household who were at home had seen no one on the bridge; the doors and windows of the house faced the bridge, and were not thirty yards from it, so that no individuals, much less a crowd, could have been on the bridge without the family having noticed them. The following day, the 3d October 1860, was a day that will never be forgotten by those who witnessed its terrible events. A number of open boats with their crews were at the head of Loch Ewe near Boor, Cliff House, and Poolewe, setting nets for herrings, when a storm suddenly came on, far exceeding in violence any other storm before or since, so far as those now living remember. A hurricane sprang up from the west-north-west, of such extraordinary force as actually to lift boats and their crews from the water, and in one or two cases to overturn the boats. Happily most of the men clung to their boats, and were soon washed ash.o.r.e. One boat was carried rapidly past the point called Ploc-ard, by Inverewe House. As she was pa.s.sing close to some big stones one of her crew jumped out on to a rock, but was washed off and drowned. In another boat, opposite Cliff House, there were four men; the boat was capsized and three of the men were drowned; the fourth had tied himself to the boat, which came ash.o.r.e by Cliff House; he was taken to the house, and restoratives being applied soon recovered. About a score of the boats ran into the pool under Poolewe bridge. And thus the vision of the smith's son was fulfilled, for at the very hour at which he had crossed the bridge on the preceding day, a mult.i.tude of the fishermen's friends and relations, breathless with agonising anxiety, crowded the bridge and its approaches watching the arrival of the boats. The tide on this awful evening rose one hundred and fifty yards further up the sh.o.r.e and adjoining lands than on any other occasion remembered in the district. The bodies of the drowned men were recovered, and were buried in the Inverewe churchyard, where the date of this memorable storm is recorded on a gravestone over the remains of two of the men named William Urquhart and Donald Urquhart.

James Mackenzie narrates, that when he was fourteen years of age (about 1822) he lived with his parents at Mellon Charles, but went to the school at Mellon Udrigil. This school was attended by about sixty scholars. He went home to Mellon Charles every Sat.u.r.day night, and returned to Mellon Udrigil each Monday morning. At the time of the following extraordinary occurrence the Rev. Dr Ross was holding sacramental services at Loch Broom, and many of the people had gone from Mellon Udrigil to this sacrament; most of the women had remained at home. It must have been about midsummer; that was always the time of the Loch Broom sacrament. When James Mackenzie returned to Mellon Udrigil on the Monday morning he learned that all the people who were at home on the preceding day had seen a strange sight. The whole sea between the Black island and Priest island, and the mouth of Little Loch Broom had appeared to be filled with s.h.i.+ps innumerable; to use James Mackenzie's precise words, "the sea was choke full of great s.h.i.+ps, men-of-war. It was a great sight." Whilst the people were watching, vast numbers of boats were sent out from the s.h.i.+ps filled with soldiers with scarlet coats. Many of the boats rowed direct for Mellon Udrigil, and the red-coats landed from them on the rocks on the sh.o.r.e. They seemed so near that the people could make out the individual soldiers. Mrs Morrison, the wife of Rorie Morrison of Tanera, who then lived at Mellon Udrigil House, buried the boxes containing her valuables in the sand lest the red-coats should carry them off to the s.h.i.+ps. The girls at the s.h.i.+elings on the hills on the Greenstone Point retreated to the highest tops, so that they might have time to escape if the soldiers should appear to be coming near. But no soldiers came, and the whole thing was a vision.

More than fifty years ago Donnachadh na Fadach (Duncan Macrae) was living at Inveran. He employed Donald Maclean, who was stopping at Londubh at the time, to work in the garden at Inveran, and Donald walked to and from Inveran every day. He told James Mackenzie, Duncan Macrae, and other persons, that he often saw companies of soldiers in red uniforms marching to and fro along the tops of Craig Ruadh, Craig Bhan, and the hills behind and beyond Inveran. These visions of Donald Maclean's are said to have impressed his own mind very deeply at the time, and his earnest accounts of them are well remembered by the older people. It is an actual fact that the visions are now generally understood at Poolewe and Londubh to have been prophetic of the visits to me at Inveran of the Poolewe section of the Gairloch volunteers, who wear scarlet Highland doublets, and have several times come to Inveran in uniform.

The appearance of the great fleet seen from Mellon Udrigil with the boats filled with red-coats, and the visions of the red-coats near Inveran, are closely a.n.a.logous to the strange appearances of troops seen by numbers of people on Saddleback in c.u.mberland on the midsummer eves of 1735, 1743, and 1745, and to the similar appearances elsewhere referred to in the account given of the Saddleback visions in Miss Harriet Martineau's "Guide to the English Lakes," such as the spectral march of troops seen in Leicesters.h.i.+re in 1707, and the tradition of the tramp of armies over Helvellyn on the eve of the battle of Marston Moor.

Hugh Miller, in his "Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland" (page 485), refers to visions of troops near Inverness at the time of the commencement of the war with France. There were similar appearances in England reported in the newspapers when I was a young man, which were supposed to have been mirage-like reflections of the gatherings of troops going to take part in the Crimean war. One theory is, that all the visions of this character have been of the nature of mirages, or reflections on transparent vapour similar to the "Fata Morgana." This is certainly a suggestion that ought to be taken into account, but, as Miss Harriet Martineau says in her book, it "is not much in the way of explanation."