is a dresser, a table, wooden boxes for receptacles, and a plank supported by large stones for seats. The fire is usually in the middle of the floor, the cooking-pot hangs over it, suspended by a chain from the roof. This chain is mysteriously connected with the Powers of Evil, it is said to be cursed; the Devil is called "Him of the Chain."
Once, when there was a talk of a change of factors in the island, some one remarked of the one who was leaving that his successor might be worse. "No, no," was the reply, "not unless the chain came across entirely," i.e. the Evil One himself.
It is not right to handle the chain; evil may come of it. There was a man whose cows ceased to give milk; and suspecting that a woman near by was the author of the mischief, he went into her house in her absence and found only a little child. "Where does your mother get the milk she gives you to drink?" he asked. "Out of the chain," said the child. "Come, little one, show me how she will be doing it." "Like this," said the child, and drawing the chain the milk flowed from it. The man tore down the chain and carried it off, and the milk returned to his cows.
There is no saying in what unexpected places milk may be found, when subtracted under evil conditions. There was a woman who had always abundance of milk, butter, and cheese, but no cow. A suspicious neighbour entered her house during her absence and found a quantity of black "tangle"[1] hanging up. He took his knife and cut one of them, and milk flowed forth abundantly.
Happily the methods of cure are also numerous. Mrs. A. O'H., Eriskay, tells that her grandmother had lost many cows from no apparent cause, and was sure they had been "overlooked." She consulted a drover, supposing that he might have suffered in the same manner. He told her to have the hide of the next victim laid upon the thatch of the
- ↑ Seaweed used for kelp-making, i.e. the extraction of iodine and other chemical properties.
