A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDERS. 115
infants are said to have voracious appetites, constantly craving for meat.
In this case it was usual with those who believed that their children
were thus taken away, to dig a grave in the fields upon quarter-day, and
there to lay the fairy skeleton till next morning ; at which time the
parents went to the place, where they doubted not to find their own
child instead of this skeleton. Some of the poorer sort of people in
these islands long retained a custom of performing rounds sun-wise,
about the persons of their benefactors three times, when they blessed them,
and wished good success to all their enterprises. Some were very careful,
U'hen they set out to sea, that the boat should be first rowed about sun-
wise ; and if this was neglected, they were afraid their voyage would prov
unfortunate.' These and many other customs which were peculiar to the
inhabitants of the Western Islands, are, we think, of Scandinavian origin,
and were probably introduced by the Danish Vikingi". The practice of
turning the boat sun-wise is still observed by the fishermen of the
Shetland islands, where none of the Celtic usages were ever introduced.
A prevailing superstition also existed in the Western Islands, and
among the inhabitants of the neighbouring coast, that women, by a cer-
tain charm or by some secret influence, could withdraw and appropriate
to their own use the increase of their neighbour's cow's milk. It was
believed, however, that the milk so charmed did not produce the ordi-
nary quantity of butter usually churned from other milk, and that the
curds made of such milk were so tough that they could not be made so
firm as other cheese, and that it was also much lighter in weight. It
was also believed that the butter produced firom the charmed milk could
be discovered from that yielded from the charmer's own milk, by a
diiFerence in the colour, the former being of a paler hue than the latter.
The woman in whose possession butter so distinguished was found, was
considered to be guilty. To bring back the increase of milk, it was
usual to take a little of the rennet from all the suspected persons, and
put it into an egg shell full of milk, and when the rennet taken from the
charmer was mingled with it, it was said presently to curdle, but not
before. Some women put the root of groundsel among their cream as
an amulet against such charms.
In retaliation for washing dishes, wherein milk was kept, in streams or
ri\ ulets in which trouts were, it was believed that they prevented or took
away an increase of milk, and the damage thus occasioned could only
be repaired by taking a live trout and pouring milk into its mouth. If
the milk curdled immediately, this was a sure sign of its being taken
away by trouts ; if not, the inhabitants ascribed the evil to some other
cause. Some women, it was affirmed, had the art to take away the milk
of nurses.
A similar superstition existed as to malt, the virtues of which were
said to be sometimes imperceptibly filched, by some charm, before being
used, so tliat the drink made of this malt had neither strength nor good
taste, while, on the contrary, the supposed charmer had very good ale all