NETHER LOCHABER: THE NATURAL HISTORY, LEGENDS, AND FOLK-LORE OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS. BY The Rev. ALEXANDER STEWART, F.S.A. Scot.; MINISTER OF THE PARISH OF BALLACHULISH AND ARDGOUR. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM PATERSON. MDCCCLXXXIII. EDINBURGH: BURNESS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY. TO DONALD CAMPBELL, Esq., M.D., OF CRAIGRANNOCH, BALLACHULISH, IN PLEASANT RECOLLECTION OF HAPPY HOURS AT ONICH AND CRAIGRANNOCH, AND OF MANY A DELIGHTFUL MIDSUMMER RAMBLE, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED WITH MUCH AFFECTIONATE REGARD BY HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR. PREFATORY NOTE. The contents of this volume made their first appearance in the shape of a series of papers from "Nether Lochaber" in the Inverness Courier, a well-known Northern Journal, long and ably conducted by the late Dr. Robert Carruthers. They are now presented to the public in book form, in the hope that they may meet with a friendly welcome from a still larger constituency than gave them kindly greeting in their original shape, as from fortnight to fortnight they appeared. At one time it was the Author's intention to rewrite and rearrange all, or almost all, these papers, adding, altering, or expunging as might be considered best. On second thoughts, however--second thoughts, besides, approved of by many literary and scientific friends, in whose judgment and good taste the Author has the utmost confidence--it was resolved to let them retain very much the form in which they first attracted attention, in the belief that any good that could result from a rewriting and reconstructing of them would be dearly purchased if it interfered, as it was almost certain to interfere, with their prima cura directness of phrase and freshness of local colouring. In a volume dealing so largely with the Folk-Lore of the West Highlands and Hebrides, there are necessarily many Gaelic rhymes and phrases which at the first blink may tend to startle and repel the southern reader. These Gaelic quotations, however, the Author has taken care to translate into fairly equivalent English, so that even in this regard it is to be hoped the volume may prove equally acceptable to the Saxon, who is ignorant of the language of the mountains, as to the Celt, who knows and loves it as his mother tongue. Nether Lochaber, June 1883. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE