The body of a woman was cast ashore by the sea on the North Beach, called the Beach of Fell (_Tràigh Feall_), in the island of Coll, and was buried in the neighbouring sandbanks. After this, the semblance of a woman was seen in the evenings on the beach, close to the tide. Maclean, the then tenant of Caolas, a farm near hand, ridiculed the belief. One evening, however, when going home across the North Beach, at the White Stream (_Sruth Bàn_), he thought of the numerous stories he had heard of the apparition, and, looking seaward, saw a woman sitting by the tide, rocking herself (_ga turruman fhein_), and apparently in the utmost distress. He went where she was, and asked her what she was doing? “Hand of cleverness” (_làmh thapaidh_), she answered, “I have been long here; I try to go home, but I cannot. I was a poor woman belonging to Uist; I was lost on a rock; my body came ashore here, and I try to go home, but cannot; my body keeps me.” Maclean asked what reward she would give, if he took her body home. She promised to be with him in every quarrel or fight, in which he might be involved. This offer he declined, saying his own hand was strong enough to extricate him in any difficulty of that kind. She then offered him the gift of knowing the thief, if anything should be stolen in Coll. This gift he accepted, and the stones that marked the grave being told him, he sent for the woman’s brothers, the body was taken home, and the spectre was no more seen on the North Beach. SPIRITS APPEARING IN DREAMS. A deceased sister’s ghost appeared to a woman in a dream, and told her, their brother had been buried the day before in Ireland. She also told the signs, by which next day the truth of the dream was to be proved. The words of the ghost form in Gaelic a singularly beautiful and plaintive song. Each line is repeated twice in singing, first with one and then another of those meaningless choruses to be found in Gaelic melody, and suiting well with the genius of the language. E ha na hoo-roo Loving sister, are you sleeping? Ho lo va, hoo-roo, E ha na hao-lo-ro hee. Loving sister, are you sleeping? The brother, whom we had in Erin, Went yesterday away on bearers. I was there, but no one saw me. A while on foot, a while on horseback, Another while my hands wringing. I will give proofs of thy vision, The big byre, where the kine are, Will be wrapped in flames to-morrow, And the infant in your bosom, You’ll find dead on your bedside. It is told of a widower, who was unkind to his children, that the ghost of his deceased wife in a similar manner appeared to him, and said: “Man, who hast shut the door upon me, And left me lying here! Before the Christmas comes A greater loss will befall you. Man, who hast the children, Rearing them unpeaceably, If oft your hand be raised, I will not be long at peace with you.”