TWO MAGPIES, AN EVIL OMEN. 399 



an open glade we got sight of a pair of these beautiful birds 

 perched on the topmost bough of an old ash tree; and so busy 

 were they in the discussion of what must have been a matter of 

 grave and immediate importance, that the usually shy and wary- 

 birds did not notice our approach till we were quite close upon 

 them, when, with a scream of alarm and an indignant flirt of their 

 tails, they glided in graceful curve, rather than flew, over the tree 

 tops and disappeared. So rare has the magpie become in Lochaber 

 and the immediately surrounding districts, that a sight of a pair of 

 these handsome and sagacious birds delighted us exceedingly. 

 We had little difficulty in concluding that their lively chattering on 

 that bright and beautiful morning was about no less important a 

 matter than the propriety of at once putting their house in order 

 and setting about the labours of incubation. If there were any 

 truth in popular superstition, that particular day ought to have 

 afterwards turned out a disagreeable one to us ; for had we not seen 

 two magpies together, and what is more, did we not go out of our 

 way to see them, when we might have easily passed on unseen of 

 them, as they were invisible to us 1 In the south of Scotland the 

 old pyet rhyme is something like this 



" One's joy, 

 Two 's grief, 

 Three a wedding, 

 Four death.' 



In the old sgeulachd the Gaelic rhyme is of similar import 



" Chunnaic mi pioghaid a's dh-e"irich learn ; 

 Chunnaic mi dha 'sgum b'iargain iad ; 

 Chunnaic mi tri a's b'aighearach mi ; 

 Ach ceithir ri'in linn chan iarrainn iad. " 



In our own case, on that particular occasion, the superstition could 

 not have been more completely falsified by the event, for, maugre 

 the magpies, our trip to Oban was in its every circumstance as 

 agreeable and pleasant as it could well be. What a pity it is that 



