Collectanea. 185
when suddenly a NiSagrisur rolled into the circle, and danced about, singing : —
" My mother bears gold, I dance in wool, I dance in Pisli's hose."
(It rhymes in Faroese). Then he ran on all-fours to his mother; but she fainted, and the festivities were at an end. I think this little tale must go back to the days when brides wore at the wedding dresses embroidered with gold thread, as they do still in Iceland.
Your black dog is common here.^ He can be a Nikkiir (a wicked water-spirit) who has taken that shape, or a Troll, or the spirit of a dead enemy who has come to haunt or avenge a wrong. He often carries a light at the end of his tail. Somehow that light seems a very chilling touch.
On "Old Holy Kings' Night" [Old Twelfth Night] black troll-bulls come up from the sea and visit the byres. Dreka was afraid to go to milk that night, and had to ask Joanna to go with her.
If a girl wishes to know the name of her future true-love, she must go out some very dark night quite naked, taking with her her sark^ dip it into running water (there is always a little burn close by), wring it out, and put it, rolled up, under her pillow. Then she will dream of him.
Elizabeth Taylor. ,^ Videreide i Videro (Faroe Islands), January 29th, 1902.
' ["We had an old nurse, who was sixty years in the family, and when any of the nursery party showed signs of temper, she woukl exclaim : ' Lord sake ! there's that black dog again ! Wait till I get hand o' him ! ' After a protracted struggle at the child's back, which usually ended in a laugh, the 'dog" was
flung downstairs and serenity restored. Mrs. tells me that her old
Barbadoes nurse had the same habit : "' writes the Lowland Scottish lady to whom this interesting letter was addressed. " I think you have got the black dog on your back " is, or was, said in rebuke to cross or sulky (rather than passionate) children in some English nurseries also. — Ed.]
