The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche)Mackenzie, Alexander
History
The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche)
Mackenzie, Alexander
Precognition; Prophecies
We see from the public prints, our correspondent humorously continues,
that the Magistrates and Police Commissioners of Dingwall contemplate
to bring a supply of water for “Baile-’Chail” from Loch Ussie. Might
we humbly suggest with such a view in prospect, as some comfort to the
burdened ratepayers, that there may be, to say the least, a probability
in the course of such an undertaking of recovering the mystic stone,
so long compelled to hide its prophetic light in the depths of Loch
Ussie, and so present the world with the novel sight of having not only
an individual gifted with second-sight, but also a Corporation; and,
further, what would be a greater terror to evil-doers, a magistracy
capable, in the widest sense of the word, of discerning between right and
wrong, good and evil, and thus compelling the lieges in the surrounding
towns and villages to exclaim involuntarily—_O si sic omnes!_ They might
go the length even of lending it out, and giving you the use of it
occasionally in Inverness.
When Coinneach Odhar was being led to the stake, fast bound with cords,
Lady Seaforth exultingly declared that, having had so much unhallowed
intercourse with the unseen world, he would never go to Heaven. But the
seer, looking round upon her with an eye from which his impending fate
had not banished the ray of a joyful hope of rest in a future state,
gravely answered—“_I_ will go to Heaven, but _you_ never shall; and this
will be a sign whereby you can determine whether my condition after
death is one of everlasting happiness or of eternal misery; a raven
and a dove, swiftly flying in opposite directions will meet, and for a
second hover over my ashes, on which they will instantly alight. If the
raven be foremost, you have spoken truly; but if the dove, then my hope
is well-founded.” And, accordingly, tradition relates, that after the
cruel sentence of his hard-hearted enemies had been executed upon the
Brahan Seer, and his ashes lay scattered among the smouldering embers
of the fagot, his last prophecy was most literally fulfilled; for those
messengers, emblematically denoting—the one sorrow, the other joy—came
speeding to the fatal spot, when the dove, with characteristic flight,
closely followed by the raven, darted downwards and was first to alight
on the dust of the departed Coinneach Odhar; thus completely disproving
the positive and uncharitable assertion of the proud and vindictive Lady
of Brahan, to the wonder and consternation of all the beholders.
Mr. Maclennan describes the cause of Coinneach’s doom in almost identical
terms; the only difference being, that while the former has the young
ladies amusing themselves on the green outside, the latter describes them
having a grand dance in the great hall of the Castle. The following is
his account of the prophet’s end:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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