148 NETHER LOCHABER. 



cutting some green ferns on the hillside, when the old lady 

 in. question, who happened to pass the way at the time, stood 

 to have a crack with us about the weather and crops and 

 things in general, said crack concluding somewhat as follows : 

 " You are cutting ferns, sir," said the old lady, " what are you 

 to make of them if you please, sir ? " " They are for bedding," we 

 replied, " bedding for the cows and pony." " Well, sir," she 

 rejoined, " there is no harm in bedding the pony with them ; they 

 will do him no evil ; but take an old woman's advice, and don't 

 put them under your cows." " Why so," we asked in astonish- 

 ment. " What can be cleaner, fresher, fragranter for bedding, 

 whether for horse or cow, than these nice green ferns 1 Just look 

 how beautiful and soft they are." " Still, sir," she persisted, " you 

 must not place them under your cows, particularly your milch 

 cows ; if you do, their udders will assuredly fester, and they will 

 go wrong in their milk. I have known it happen often, and no 

 sensible person in the country ever does such a thing now-a-days. 

 Ferns cut in autumn when brown and ripe make excellent bedding 

 for milch cows as for all other cattle, but July cut ferns, green, 

 juicy, and unripe, should never be used for bedding milch cows. I 

 do not pretend to tell you why they should produce the evils I 

 have mentioned, but I do know that if I had fifty cows I had 

 rather have them without bedding at all than put such green, fresh 

 ferns as those under them." We stood for the moment aghast at 

 this piece of information, which was perfectly new to us, and 

 from the positive and decided tone of the old lady, a shrewd 

 intelligent woman of her class, we felt that there must be something 

 in it. On inquiry we have since found that the old lady's belief 

 in the evil of ferns green, unripe ferns, that is as bedding for 

 milch cows, is common among the people of this part of the West 

 Highlands. Whether the whole affair is a mere superstition, the 

 fern having always been accounted a sacred plant in the High- 



