See also Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, p. 45. "The vicar of Stranton was standing at the churchyard gate, awaiting the arrival of a funeral party, when to his astonishment the whole group, who had arrived within a few yards of him, suddenly wheeled and made the circuit of the churchyard wall, thus traversing its west, north, and east boundaries, and making the distance some five or six times greater than was necessary. The vicar, astonished at this proceeding, asked the sexton the reason of so extraordinary a movement. The reply was as follows: 'Why, ye wad no hae them carry the dead again the sun; the dead maun aye go with the sun.' This custom is no doubt an ancient British or Celtic custom, and corresponds to the Highland usage of making the deazil or walking three times round a person according to the course of the sun. Old Highlanders will still make the deazil around those to whom they wish well. To go round the person in the opposite direction, or "withershins," is an evil incantation and brings ill-fortune. Hunt in his Romances and Drolls of the West of England, p. 418, says, "If an invalid goes out for the first time, and makes a circuit, the circuit must be with the sun, if against the sun, there will be a relapse. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 322, quotes from the Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. V. p. 88 the following statement of a Scottish minister, with reference to a marriage ceremony: "After leaving the church, the whole company walk round it, keeping the church walls always on the right hand." Thiselton Dyer, in his English Folk-lore, p. 171, mentions a similar custom as existing in the West of England. In Devonshire blackhead or pinsoles are cured by creeping on one's hands and knees under or through a bramble three times with the sun; that is from east to west. See also Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 299. See also the extract from Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland in Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. 1, p. 225; "When a Highlander goes to bathe or to drink water out of a consecrated fountain, he must always approach by going round the place from East to West on the South side, in imitation of the apparent diurnal motion of the sun. This is called in Gaelic going round the right, or the lucky way. The opposite course is the wrong, or the unlucky way. And if a person's meat or drink were to affect the wind-pipe, or come against his breath, they would instantly cry out, "Desheal," which is an ejaculation praying it may go by the right way." Cp. the note in Munro's Lucretius on V, 1199, and Burton's Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland, Vol. I, p. 278. BOOK III. CHAPTER XV. Honour to that conqueror of obstacles whose favour, I ween, even the Creator [199] implored, in order that he might accomplish the creation of the world without let or hindrance.