The book Arran; - Cook Clan

CHAPTER XII
FOLK LORE
Ossianic legends—faii-y tales—tales of monsters— foretellings and
signs—the Evil-eye—witchcraft— cures—social customs.
Earnest minds have long been devoted to discrediting and
discouraging the age-old beliefs and magical customs of the
folk, and in this work the enlightenment of modern education
has powerfully helped. Thus tales and practices hoary in
their antiquity, but singularly tenacious in simple minds, are
fast fading into oblivion. Just as rapidly, however, these
relics of a former faith have won the scientific and artistic
interest of those to whom nothing of human origin is without
value, in so far as it reveals the human mind at its work of
explaining things or adapting itself to forces mysterious or
misunderstood or beyond its control.
In recording such material, the first concern is to present
it without amplification or mere literary dressing ; and in
the present case, apart from what has been found to be
mechanically necessary, this course has been adopted and
contributions set down in the actual form and language of
the narrator. For convenience the matter has been arranged
in certain main groups.
I
The little that Arran has to offer as a contribution to
the Finn saga has been given in the first chapter. The
floating stuff still in existence belongs to a very late stage
in the history of the legend, when the vague memories of
gigantic figures are used to account for what is at once great
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