THROUGH FAVOUR AND SUPERSTITION 239 



upon wanton ruthlessness ? The clever Galloway imitation 

 and interpretation of the song runs 



Stane-chack ! 

 Deevil tak ! 



They wha harry my nest 

 Will never rest, 

 Will meet the pest ! 

 De'il brack their lang back 

 Wha my eggs wad tak, tak ! 



Such creatures as are fortunate enough to be regarded 

 as omens of good fortune, shelter as a whole under the 

 protection of man. As the Stork is welcomed to the chimney 

 tops of Holland, the Swallow and House Martin are welcomed 

 to our eaves; for ever since the days when the swallow kind 

 was under the direct guardianship of the household gods, 

 the destruction of a Swallow's nest has brought ill-fortune, 

 as assuredly as the undisturbed settling of the Swallow 

 has brought good luck to the inhabitants of the house it 

 selects : 



Bid the sacred swallow haunt his eaves 

 To guard his roof from lightening and from thieves. 



Spiders have been spared because the slaying of them 

 was said to bring rain on the succeeding day; and an insect 

 superstition of the Highlands shows how specific maybe the 

 protection or condemnation of a tradition. The boys of the 

 Highlands, says J. G. Campbell in his Superstitions of the 

 Highlands and Islands of Scotland, when they see a Ceardalan 

 or "Dung-beetle" spare it, while they mercilessly kill the 

 Daolagm "Clock" beetle. And the reason, they will tell you, 

 is that when the former was asked by the man who went to 

 seize the Saviour, how long" it was since He had passed, the 

 Dung-beetle answered "twenty years ago yesterday," but 

 the latter said "only yesterday." Hence when boys hammer 

 life out of a "clock" they chant: 



Remember yesterday, yesterday, 

 Remember yesterday, wretch, 

 Remember yesterday, yesterday, 

 That let not the Son of God pass. 



I must not be taken as suggesting that Dung-beetles are 

 more plentiful than "Clocks" in the Highlands owing to the 



