10 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



old man devouring its contents without spectacles. He would 

 not have been a true Highlander had he not been a firm be- 

 liever in all their superstitions. Two instances of second-sight 

 he related to me as having happened to himself ; although he 

 was very unwilling to talk upon the subject, and I have often 

 noticed his evasive replies to those who questioned him. I 

 premise my account by saying, that wherever he was known, 

 his word was never doubted, and I would have believed it as 

 implicitly as that of the proudest peer in the realm. One day, 

 when returning very tired from some sporting expedition, he 

 met an acquaintance, accompanied by a young man whom 

 he also perfectly well knew. The first stopped to ask " what 

 sport ? " He gave a short answer over his shoulder, and saw 

 the young man walk on. That afternoon he heard he had 

 been killed by a fall from his cart, at the very time of this 

 rencontre. Upon questioning his companion the next day, he 

 said there was no person with him. The other instance hap- 

 pened one rainy evening when looking over his kennel. He 

 saw a man with a graip cleaning out the gutter, and called to 

 know who had desired him to do so. The gutter-cleaner walked 

 slowly towards him ; but something having arrested his atten- 

 tion in the meantime, he lost sight of him, and could not make 

 out how he had disappeared. Upon inquiring of the overseer, 

 he said this man was unwell and confined to bed. He shortly 

 afterwards recovered, which was sufficient confirmation to the 

 old forester of the truth of his vision ; for in all cases of second- 

 sight, where the object approaches, it is a sure sign of recovery, 

 and when it recedes, of death. Another of his prejudices was 

 the lucky or unlucky " first foot." Half the people of the 

 country were one or the other with him. There was a canty 

 old carle of a herd whose happy cheerful face was enough to 

 banish care from every other brow : but the old forester had 

 unfortunately met him on the morning of some unlucky day. 

 Now, as it happened that this conscientious old herd whose 

 boast it was, " I never did ahint my maister's back what I 



