[Before the death of the Tzar Nicholas a great sea eagle came into St. Petersburg, and sat on the Winter Palace. Crowds collected to look at the bird, which must have come from some distant part of Finland. Its appearance was held to be ominous, and it was often referred to after the illness of the Tzar became known in the city.
The grebes which fly up the Bosphorus in the mornings and return at night are said to be the spirits of the Sultan's wives.]
Spiritual Visitors.
There lived on our property some twenty years ago an old woman named Christy Boss. She was not only the last of her family, who had all lived and died on the croft, but was also so very infirm that Mrs. Dempster was anxious to persuade her to change her house, and to go to another, where there were neighbours able and willing to be of use to her in case of sickness or death. This she steadfastly refused, saying the kindness was well-meant, but that she could not abandon what had been her home and her people's home. "At night," she said, "she heard a man's voice praying by her bedside, and sweet music as of singing." She had no doubt it was her father and brothers, and no doubt but that in a strange house she would miss this happiness, one which she valued above neighbours or help.
Holy Wells.
A well in the black isle of Cromarty (near Rosehaugh) has miraculous healing powers. A countrywoman tells me that about forty years ago she remembers its being surrounded by a crowd of people every first fine day in June, who bathed or drank of it before sunrise. Each patient tied a string on a rag to one of the trees that overhung it before leaving. It was sovereign for headaches.—(Peggy Munro.)
[A well at Skibo Castle, called St. Mary's, used to be visited by patients who hung the trees round with bits of red rags.
A well at Biel, near East Linton, is called the "Rood, or Rude, Well." It has no healing properties but is haunted by a very tiny figure.
St. Anthony's Well, near Edinburgh, is still frequented on May mornings by youths and maidens who wash their faces in the well,
