CHAPTEE L. 



Superstition amongst the People — Difficulty of dealing with it — Examples of Superstitions 

 still prevalent in the Highlands — Cock-crowing at untimely hours — Itching of the Nose — 

 Ringing in the Ears— The " Dead-Bell"— Sir Walter Scott— Hogg— Mickle. 



We live in an age of intense literary and intellectual activity ; the 

 tendency of the highest culture of our time [March 1876], however, 

 it is complained, being towards materialism and scepticism, the latter 

 either in the form of indififerentism or absolute negation. The 

 great mass of our people, however — the uneducated or only partially 

 educated — stand at the other extreme ; for whilst it is complained 

 that those of the highest culture believe too little, or don't believe 

 at all, the common people, it is averred, believe too much. And it 

 is perfectly true that the latter are indeed superstitious to an extent 

 of which the mere outsider can have no adequate conception ; and 

 yet, phUosophicaUy pondered, there can be no difi&culty, we think, 

 in arriving at the conclusion that of the two evUs over-belief is 

 better than its opposite; that it is better, upon the whole, to 

 believe too much than too little. A man with any form of creed, 

 even if it be false, may be led in time to believe aright, whereas 

 the case of the utterly creedless man is well-nigh hopeless. For 

 our own part, therefore, we do not look upon the superstitions of 

 our people with such horror and alarm as many weU-meaning 

 persons, clerical or lay, feel or feign when brought in contact with 

 an evil which, let the philosophers say what they will, has its good 

 as well as its bad side. We greatly doubt if, under present circum- 

 stances, and in their present stage of civilisation, the inhabitants 

 of Scotland generally, and of the Highlands, with which we are 



