Note: Images of the original pages are available through HathiTrust Digital Library. See https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t6931dp50 Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND Published by James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow, Publishers to the University. Macmillan and Co., London and New York. London, Simpkin, Hamilton and Co. Cambridge, Macmillan and Bowes. Edinburgh, Douglas and Foulis. MCM. SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND Collected entirely from Oral Sources by JOHN GREGORSON CAMPBELL Minister of Tiree Glasgow James MacLehose and Sons Publishers to the University 1900 Glasgow: Printed at the University Press by Robert Maclehose and Co. EDITOR’S NOTE. This volume is the result of many years’ labour by the late Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, while minister of Tiree during the years 1861—to 1891. Much of the material was already collected before Mr. J. F. Campbell of Islay published his _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_ in 1860, and readers of Lord Archibald Campbell’s volumes on _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_ are already acquainted with the valuable work contributed to that series by the Rev. J. Gregorson Campbell. It is hoped that this volume on the _Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands_, full as it is of racy stories, may throw fresh light on an extremely interesting subject. The MS. of a corresponding work by the same author on _Witchcraft and Second-Sight in the West Highlands_, is in the editor’s hands, and in the event of the present work meeting with the reception which the editor thinks it deserves, the volume on Witchcraft will be published next year. Mrs. Wallace, Hynish, Tiree, the author’s sister, has kindly read the proofs. _August, 1900._ PREFACE. The object aimed at in the following pages is to put before the reader a statement, as complete and accurate as the writer can attain to, of the Superstitions and Antiquities of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. In other words, the writer has endeavoured to gather full materials relating to that subject, and to arrange them in a form that may prove of some scientific value. In pursuit of this object, it has been deemed advisable to derive information solely from oral sources. Books have been purposely avoided as authorities, and a rule has been laid down, and strictly adhered to, not to accept any statement in print regarding a Highland belief, unless also found current among the people. In the few books there are, having any reference to Gaelic lore, the statements have been so frequently found at variance with popular beliefs that this rule has been a necessity. There are a few honourable exceptions, but in general what is to be found in print on this subject is not trustworthy.