Dreams, ghosts, and second-sight are the subjects chiefly illustrated in these notes. I do not know that there is much that is new in them, but they have the merit of being quite genuine, and from an out-of-the-way district.
I.—The Labourer's Dream.
A labourer (navvy) was working on the road between Rhi-conich and Durness, in Sutherlandshire, about fifty years ago, and dreamed on a Saturday night that if he rose early on Monday morning, so as to be at Carn Glas at sunrise, he would see a crow sitting on a stone. Under that stone he would find the gold which was hid after the murder of a Norwegian prince.
The labourer was in so great a hurry to get the gold that he could not wait till Monday, but set off on Sunday evening, as he had a long way to go. When he reached Carn Glas, there was a crow sitting on a stone, but he did not know which was the right one, for there was a crow on every stone!
People who could interpret dreams said that this happened because he broke the Sabbath; he ought to have waited till the Lord's Day had gone past, and he would have been certain to get the gold.[1]
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Bruadar fear-obrach.
Bha fear-obrach 'g oibear air an rothad eadar Ruidh Chonaich agus Diurinis anns Cataobh, mu leth-cheud blian' air ais, agus bhruadraich e air eidhch' Di Sathuirn', na'n eirich e tráth air muchthra' Di Luain, chum as gum biog e aig Carn Glas mu's eirich a' ghrian gum faiceag e rócais 'n a suidh air clach. Fo 'na chlach sin gheibh e an d-ór 'bha air 'fhalach an deigh bpriu(nn)s Lochlannach 'bhi air a mhort.
Bha leud do chabhaig air an fhear-obrach air son an d-ór fhaotainn 's nach b' urrainn e fanuidh gu Di Luain 's dh'fhalbh e feasgar na Sabaid, oir bha astar fhad aig' ri dhol. Air ruigsinn Carn Glas, bha rócais 'n a suidh air a clach, ach cha robh fhios aig' dé 'chloch cheart, oir bha rocais air a h-uile clach.
Thuirt muinntir b' urrainn bruadair 'leughadh gun do thachair so a chionn gun do bhris e an t-Sabaid; bu chóir da bhi air fantainn gus an deach la an d-Tighearn seachad, agus bhiodh e cinnteach as an d-ór fhaotainn.
quite ignored by Scottish grammarians, appears in a number of cases. This is a feature of many Scottish dialects, but the cases in which it occurs are not quite the same as in Irish: it is found, for example, in the nominative singular (as an d-tarbh, the bull). Some dialects go further than this, and make the eclipsis stand for the article itself (as fear, a man; bh-fear, the man).
