Plants

Common Heather from the Island of Colonsay, 1870s-1930s

Item

Identifier: Coll-1434/1382

Scope and Contents

Photograph of four samples of common heather from the island of Colonsay - two giant specimens from the East side, a stunted specimen from the West side and a walking stick.

Dates: 1870s-1930s

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Roslin Slide Collection

Common Heather Shoots, 1870s-1930s

Item

Identifier: Coll-1434/1394

Scope and Contents

Photograph of common heather shoots of one year's growth on a layered stem after burning showing the charred end and the roots end.

Dates: 1870s-1930s

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Roslin Slide Collection

Cure for flux, August 1909

Item

Identifier: Coll-97/CW117/55

Scope and Contents

Cure for flux collected from Iain Friseal [John Fraser] Lochlait, Aberichan [Obar Itheachan, Siorramachd Inbhir Nis/Inverness-shire], in which braonan nan con [dog-carmillion] is 'taken like tea'. Text has been scored through as if transcribed elsewhere.

Dates: August 1909

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / The Carmichael-Watson Collection / Field notebook of Alexander Carmichael

Cure for syphillis, 1884

Item

Identifier: Coll-97/CW120/303

Scope and Contents

Cure for syphillis given as 'Sugh brist lus-nan-laogh and the Meacal' [the sap from bruised golden saxifrage and its root] 'ordered by' Father MacGregor, Iocar, South Uist [Iochdar, Uibhist a Deas].

Dates: 1884

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / The Carmichael-Watson Collection / Field notebook of Alexander Carmichael

Custom and story relating to 'Càthadh an Fhras Lìn', c1870

Item

Identifier: Coll-97/CW7/32

Scope and Contents

Custom and story relating to 'Càthadh an Fhras Lìn', the custom being that the lint seed was winnowed at dusk. The story tells of a servant girl in Draoineach, Skye [An Droighneach/Drynoch, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach/Isle of Skye] doing this but when asked by the lady of the house whom she saw, the girl replied 'that she had no luck that she only saw her master'. Within a year, the lady of the house had died and the servant girl married her master.

Dates: c1870

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / The Carmichael-Watson Collection / Transcription notebook of Alexander Carmichael

Customs related to fortune-telling, c1870

Item

Identifier: Coll-97/CW7/31

Scope and Contents

Customs related to fortune-telling including putting the white of an egg into a glass of clean water and the drawing out of a stack of a craobh-chorc [oat-tree-stalk] using the teeth. The number of grains remaining indicated the number of children and if the top grain came off, the person died.

Dates: c1870

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / The Carmichael-Watson Collection / Transcription notebook of Alexander Carmichael

Dead Seedling Heather and Moss, 1870s-1930s

Item

Identifier: Coll-1434/1389

Scope and Contents

Photograph of samples of dead seedling heather and moss on decaying Sphagnum, lichen on the heather branch and purple Molina growing through living Sphagnum acutifolium.

Dates: 1870s-1930s

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Roslin Slide Collection