Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore
In any account of Gaelic superstition and popular belief, the first and most prominent place is to be assigned to the Fairy or Elfin people, or, as they are called both in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the _sìth_ people, that is, ‘the people of peace,’ the ‘still folk,’ or ‘silen...
This is a tale, diffused in different forms, over the whole West Highlands. Versions of it have been heard from Skye, Ardnamurchan, Lochaber, Craignish, Mull, Tiree, differing b...
1. CHAPTER I.In any account of Gaelic superstition and popular belief, the first and most prominent place is to be assigned to the Fairy or Elfin people, or, as they are called both in Irish...
12. CHAPTER XII.Superstition, in assigning to the devil a bodily shape and presence, endeavoured to make him horrible, and instead made him ridiculous. For this no doubt the monkish ceremonies...
3. CHAPTER III.The Glaistig was a tutelary being in the shape of a thin grey (_tana glas_) little woman, with long yellow hair reaching to her heels, dressed in green, haunting certain sites o...
7. CHAPTER VII._Gisvagun, Eapagun, Upagun._—Of the same class with magical charms and incantations, that is, of no avail to produce the results with which they are credited, were various minor...
5. CHAPTER V.The belief in the existence of the Water-horse is now in the Highlands generally a thing of the past, but in olden times almost every lonely freshwater lake was tenanted by one,...
11. CHAPTER XI.The imprecations, which form so important a part of the vocabulary of thoughtless and profane swearing, are in Gaelic corruptions of English expressions. Thus, one of the common...
9. CHAPTER IX.These are bodily sensations by which future events may be foreknown. An itching in the nose foretells that a letter is coming, and this in olden times was a matter of no small c...
6. CHAPTER VI._Buarach-bhaoi, lamprey._—The _Buarach-bhaoi_ (lit. wild or wizard shackle), called also _Buarach na Baoi_ (the shackle of the furious one), was believed to be a leech or eel-li...
8. CHAPTER VIII.The anxiety of men to know the future, the issue of their labours, and the destinies awaiting them, makes them ready listeners to the suggestions of fancy, and an easy prey to d...
4. CHAPTER IV.The Urisk was a large lubberly supernatural, of solitary habits and harmless character, that haunted lonely and mountainous places. Some identify him with Brownie, but he differ...
10. CHAPTER X.Dreams (_Bruadar_) have everywhere been laid hold of by superstition as indications of what is passing at a distance or of what is to occur, and, considering the vast numbers of...