The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

232 The Highland Monthly.
I will not be wounded,
I will not be bewitched ;
Neither will Christ forsake me ;
Satan's fire will not burn me ;
Neither water nor sea shall drown me ;
For I am under the protection of the Virgin Mary,
And my meek and gentle foster-mother, St Bridget.
Some of the phrases in the foregoing have a singular
resemblance to certain lines of St Patrick's Hymn, previously
mentioned. In the Irish hymn we have the following :
Translated
—
Crist dommimdegail indiu arneim
Arloscud arbadud arguin.
— —
Christ to protect me to-day against poison.
Against burning, against drowning, against wound.
The Airiie Moire in Martin's time (circa 1695) ^''^^
worn round children's necks, as an amulet against witchcraft,
&c. The white one, he tells us was particularly prized.
I show you a specimen of the white nut. It is not
so common as the brown one. Martin says that if evil was
intended the nut turned black. That these nuts did change
colour, he says, he found true by his own observation, but he
could not be positive as to the cause. He then goes on :
" Malcolm Campbell, steward of Harris, told me that
some weeks before my arrival there, all his cows gave blood
instead of milk, for several days together. One of the
neighbours told his wife that this must be witchcraft, and
it would be easy to remove it, if she would but take the
white nut, called the Virgin Mary's Nut, and lay it in the
pail into which she was to milk the cows. This advice she
presently followed ; and, having milked one cow into the
pail with the nut in it, the milk was all blood, and the nut
changed its colour into dark brown. She used the nut again,
and all the cows gave pure good milk, which they ascribe
to the virtue of the nut. This very nut Mr Campbell pre-
sented me with, and I keep it still by me." ( Fz