A SPRING WEEK IN THE WEST HIGHLANDS. 291 



my little boy, who was unfortunately in that predicament. 

 You are sure to fail in whatever you undertake immediately 

 after ; in other words, have " a gowk's errand." Nevertheless 

 the unlucky gowk had brought us a fragrant morning, or more 

 likely the fine morning had tempted the mal-apropos call from 

 the joyous bird. A note from Peter Robertson was handed to 

 me. The sea-eagle had built upon the island of Loch Bah, 

 but was shy and not sitting close yet. " It is all that nasty 

 cuckoo," said my son. Had you heard it in place of seeing 

 the swallows, you would never have hooked the salmon." 



There is often more earnest in these " saws " than grown 

 people would be willing to admit. I have known a deer- 

 stalker * refuse to go out, on a fine morning for the sport, if he 

 saw a mouse on his kitchen floor at early dawn and was unable 

 to kill it. The same man was confident of success should a 

 cat jump out of a bush before him when on his way to the hill. 

 He affirms that he never saw either omen fail. This man, from 

 the braes of Atholl, for some years conducted a flourishing 

 trade in Edinburgh, was a capital clear-headed man of busi- 

 ness, and continued till his death quite as superstitious as 

 when he left the glens. When the victims are ready pre- 

 pared, the victimisers will never be wanting. There was a 

 woman in Morayshire who used to sell, for a guinea, a bottle of 

 spring- water as a charm against all diseases (if her remedy got 

 SL fair trial, it might have done more good than she thought 

 or intended) ; and after my account of the deer-slaying cobbler, 

 no one will be surprised to hear that she had no lack of 

 customers. Respectable people, often from a great distance, 

 paid (to her) very profitable visits. She was proud of being 



1 Like most Highland poachers, he had two strings to his bow, and followed 

 the lawful calling of a shoemaker, to conceal as much as possible his depredations 

 on the hills. He told me he had killed thirteen deer before breakfast-time. 

 When after grouse, he never wasted powder and shot upon ptarmigan, as they 

 only fetched two shillings a brace then, whereas grouse brought three and six- 

 pence. The ptarmigan were so plentiful in the forest, that he assured me a fair 

 shot might have bagged ten brace in a few hours. 



