IN ASSYNT. l6l 



he did come from. "From Loch Inver," says he. "And so 

 do we," says they (which was singular as he did never set eyes 

 on them before). " Come with us, and we will give you a 

 drink " of beer, or of rum, or of whisky, or of gin, I do not 

 rightly mind which it was whateffer. You must know, sir, that 

 each boat, at the herrin' fishery time, takes a woman on board 

 to cook meat and wash for them ; there will be many women 

 go to sea in this manner. Well, they did ask my son at the 

 tavern, " Did you have good luck with the herrin' to-day ? " 

 " No ; very bad." " Did you yesterday ? " "No ; worse again." 

 "Ah! but," says she, a you will have to-morrow." Well, sure 

 enough, he did fill his boat next day with fery many crans of 

 herrin', and did get ^15 for his share that one day. It was a 

 wonderful thing. But he did tell me that gold did do him no 

 good ; he had no idea how it did get spent whateffer. That 

 day he did go looking about after the man and woman all over, 

 but he did never see them again ; I did not hear of his ever 

 again seeing them. 



" Roderick ! " I said to him when he told me, " Roderick ! 

 I do hope you will never again have anything to do with these 

 witches." " No, father ; I fill never again, so long as I do live." 

 He is away to Fraserburgh this year again. 



" I did hear of another witch in the Lewes fifteen year agone. 

 She lived at Stornoway ; and did sell winds to sailors. One of 

 our Loch Inver boats did not get away that autumn for weeks. 

 The wind was always dead against them. Well ; they did go 

 to her, and what they paid her I did not hear, but she gave 

 them a black string tied with three knots, and said, " Ye'll be 

 getting awa' to-morrow. Now, if the wind is not strong enough, 

 lose one knot ; if even then it is not enough, lose the second ; 

 but, on your life ! on your life ! dinna lose the third ! " Well, 

 they got off sure enough next morning with a fair breeze ; and 

 then the skipper loosed one knot. On the boat sprang, and the 

 wind rose. Soon he loosed the second, and they tore over the 



L 



