IN THE HIGHLANDS 231 



says he, ' that's extraordinary. Everyone round here 

 knows that Jock Maclean's wife is a witch. My own 

 cow had her milk stopped last winter. One morning 

 at dawn I went to the byre, and on opening the door 

 out sprang a hare and ran through my legs, and away 

 straight down to Jock Maclean's door, which she entered, 

 that being, of course, her home.' Mackenzie, the 

 keeper, was a well-educated man, more intelligent than 

 most of his position, but a firm believer in witchcraft." 



I shall add another superstition, very prevalent in 

 the east country, against pulling down an old house and 

 building a new one. This did not meet me at Gairloch, 

 but it did at Redcastle , on the east coast . When dividing 

 a field into crofts there, I told the crofter he would need 

 to build the house on his own ground, as his present house 

 was on somebody else's. There was so much shrugging 

 of shoulders and humming and hawing about it that a 

 neighbour whispered to me, " It's about the black cock." 

 " The black cock V said I; " what had it to do with 

 his house ?" But seeing that there was something 

 secret about it, I waited a little, and learnt that some 

 years ago one of Colin Macdonald's sons took the " falling 

 sickness " — i.e., epilepsy — the only cure for which, 

 according to the old belief, is burying a jet black cock 

 alive in a grave dug in the clay floor of the family kitchen. 

 I believe the very centre is the proper place. While the 

 cock is undisturbed the epilepsy keeps away, but if it is 

 dug up, as it probably would be if the house were 

 removed, woe to the family of the disturber from the 

 evil spirit of epilepsy ! 



