Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/249

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THE FOLK-LORE OF SUTHERLANDSHIRE.
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easy to make much way in the snow, which was a good deal drifted, but in which he now saw, to his horror, the man in front of him had left no foot-marks. He then ran, getting nearly alongside the supposed Murray, and called to him, when the apparition vanished.

[An architect, residing in Glasgow, required to see his friend and partner, Mr. H., who resided at a short distance. Mr. T., the architect, started to walk to the house, and was delighted, in a lane near the dwelling of Mr. H., to see that his friend was coming towards him on foot. The number of yards between them was so few that T. was amazed to perceive that Mr. H., instead of drawing nearer, turned, opened the wicket-gate of the shrubbery of his house, and disappeared. T. was vexed, as the business was pressing, but was almost immediately shown into the library, where, to his amazement, Mr. H. sat in his dressing-gown and slippers. He had not left his house or room that day.

Mrs. G. A., having just parted from a relative who was on his way to India, was amazed to see him seated on the sofa in her room. She never doubted the reality of his presence, as he moved and seemed about to speak. The room was found to be empty, and she fainted.

J. de L., when busy at his desk, saw a friend, whom he believed to be in Oxford, walk past the window. An hour later he was summoned by the mother of this friend, who had just been drowned at Oxford.]


CHAPTER VIII.

SUPERSTITIONS.


i. — The Triple Jewel of Ben Stack.

At midnight, in a stormy season and on a "fearsome" night, Donald Murray saw blazing on the north side of Ben Stack, where three streams fall straight down from the brows of the hill, a triple light, one above the other, the highest being brightest. It has been seen before, and he says it is a diamond, and sacred, probably, to some powers of storm and darkness.