Ian Garve (stout John), laird of Raasa (_Iain Garbh Mac-ille-Challum Ratharsa_), a man celebrated in Highland song and legend for his great personal strength, was drowned by a witch who had this mysterious power of raising storms. The event occurred on Easter Monday (_Di-luain Càisge_), in the great ‘storm of the Borrowing Days,’ of which a contemporary historian says “the like of this tempest was not seen in our time, nor the like of it heard in this country in any age preceding,” A.D. 1625; yet the traditions of the event are still fresh in popular memory. The witch was Ian Garve’s own foster-mother (_muime_), and resided on the islet of Trodda (_Trodaidh_), on the east of Skye. She overheard a friend of hers say he wished Ian Garve, who was known to have gone to the Lewis, was drowned, and took up seriously words spoken only in jest. Others say she was bribed by an enemy to effect the hero’s destruction. He left Loch Sealg in Lewis to proceed home on a calm day. The witch was dairymaid (_banachag_) in Trodda, and, seeing the boat coming, put milk in a large dish, and a small empty dish floating in it. A boy was placed standing in the doorway, where he could see both the milk-pan and Ian Garve’s boat. She herself stood with her foot in the ‘swey’ or chimney crook, and began her unholy incantations. Soon the dish in the milk-pail began to be violently agitated. The boy reported it first as going round sunwise (_deiseal_), then as going round against the sun and striking the sides of the basin, and finally as being capsized and floating bottom upwards (_air a bial foidhpe_). The storm had been all this time increasing, till at last it blew a perfect hurricane. That night the heap of shingle on East-side (_Du-sear_), called _Moll-stabhan_, was washed ashore. Ian Garve’s boat disappeared simultaneously with the capsizing of the bowl, and all on board perished. Three ravens hovered about the boat as the storm was rising, and it became afterwards known that these three were Yellow Claws (_Spòga Buidhe_) from Màiligeir on East-side, Hump-backed Blue-eye (_Gorm-shùil chrotach_) from Cràcaig near Portree, and Doideag from Mull. When the boat was between Bare Skerries (_Sgeire maola_) and Trodda twenty birds flew about, and some of them assumed the shape of frogs (_muileacha màg_) on the deck. All the witches in Scotland were there, but were unable to sink the boat till Ian Garve said to the frogs, “What the brindled one has brought you here?”[8] After that he became distracted from the number of birds and frogs coming upon him. A raven lighted on the gunwale of the boat, and Ian Garve, striking at it with his sword, cleft the boat to the water’s edge. The first news of the drowning was heard on Minigeig Hill (_Monadh mhinigeig_) in Badenoch, and the particulars became known by the telling of other witches. Another account says the hero appeared that night to his wife in her dreams, and said: