Scenes and legends of the north of Scotland : $b or, The traditional history of Cromarty — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Scenes and legends of the north of Scotland : $b or, The traditional history of Cromarty
John Stuart Mill · en
The other north country charm, which, of Celtic origin, bears evidently
the impress of the romance and melancholy so predominant in the Celtic
character, is only known and practised (if, indeed, still practised
anywhere) in a few places of the remote Highlands. The person who
intends trying it must steal out unperceived to a field whose furrows
lie due south and north, and, entering at the western side, must
proceed slowly over eleven ridges, and stand in the centre of the
twelfth, when he will hear either low sobs and faint mournful shrieks,
which betoken his early death, or the sounds of music and dancing,
which foretell his marriage. But the charm is accounted dangerous.
About twelve years ago, I spent an autumn in the mid-Highlands of
Ross-shire, where I passed my Halloween, with nearly a dozen young
people, at a farmhouse. We burned nuts and ate apples; and when we
had exhausted our stock of both, some of us proposed setting out for
the steading of a neighbouring farm, and robbing the garden of its
cabbages; but the motion was overruled by the female members of the
party; for the night was pitch dark, and the way rough; and so we had
recourse for amusement to story-telling. Naturally enough most of our
stories were of Halloween rites and predictions; and much was spoken
regarding the charm of the rig. I had never before heard of it; and,
out of a frolic, I stole away to a field whose furrows lay in the
proper direction, and after pacing steadily across the ridges until
I had reached the middle of the twelfth, I stood and listened. But
spirits were not abroad:--I heard only the wind groaning in the woods,
and the deep sullen roar of the Conan. On my return I was greeted with
exclamations of wonder and terror, and it was remarked that I looked
deadly pale, and had certainly heard something very terrible. “But
whatever you may have been threatened with,” said the author of the
remark, “you may congratulate yourself on being among us in your right
mind; for there are instances of people returning from the twelfth rig
raving mad; and of others who went to it as light of heart as you, who
never returned at all.”
[Sidenote: MACCULLOCH’S COURTSHIP.]