Scope and Contents

Charm probably collected in Gramasdail/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula for counteracting the stealing of milk profit in which pins are stuck in the bubbles of boiling milk, which has had its profit stolen, and a handful of thatch is placed on the lintel of the door. This was thought to restore the profit to the milk.

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Custom about 'Frìth' probably collected in Gramasdail/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula, in which the 'Frith rinn Moire ga Mac' [augury] is repeated as the person goes out to the door step mentioning the home of the person concerned. It is made on the first Monday of the quarter between sunset and sunrise.

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Note about Nin Aonais ic Dhonil Bhric [Nighean Aonghais Dhòmhnaill Bhric] that she was the last woman 'to be retained for tuireadh [keening] at fun[e]r[a]ls' and a short account of the first time she saw pigs. This was probably collected in Gramasdail/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula.

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Note about rosary beads which reads 'Paidireanan & gri'eagan the Nuns had were get in Kirkibost' [Eilean Chirceboist/Kirkibost Island, Uibhist a Tuath/North Uist]. Probably collected at Gramasdail/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula.

Scope and Contents Story collected at Gramsdall [Gramasdail/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula] about Coinneach Odhar [The Brahan Seer] telling how following a dream he had, he got his powers of prophesy from a stone in a box he had found on the strand. Later he threw the stone into a loch near Loch Ness and it was said that when the stone is recovered all his prophesies will come true. The story also lists several of Coinneach Odhar's prophesies relating to Uist and Barra including the presence of grey...

Scope and Contents Story and song collected from Mrs MacDonald, Gramasdall [Gramasdal/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula] about a water horse. The story tells how a prince was under a spell and by night was a water-horse and by day a fairy. A farmer's daughter bore him a child, which had been conceived while she was asleep when she was tending cattle. She and her kin were very concerned about this and so she went to an old man for advice. He told her to hide the child by the cattle-fold. As she did this she...

Scope and Contents Story entitled 'Mac Righ Eirinn' [Mac Rìgh Èirinn or the Son of the King of Ireland] collected from Lach[lan] Donullach [Lachlan MacDonald], Gramasdale [Gramasdal/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula]. In the story Rìgh Èirinn has remarried and his new wife is evil, so Mac Rìgh Èirinn runs away to his maternal grandfather's and tells him all about it. His grandfather gives him a filly and tells him that if he whispers 'Crath crath a lothag' to a filly, it will provide gold and if he says it...

Scope and Contents

Superstition relating to the fairies probably collected in Gramasdail/Gramsdale, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula which states that the sithichean are said to be about when the fir chlis [aurora borealis] are out and that the only way to keep them at bay is 'to place an eitig live coal in the breast of a traveller!'.