Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 4

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LIST OP STORIES.
Faiey Eggs.
Of these curious beans I have now a large collection. Seven
different kinds are thrown up on the Scotch coasts, of which
four are roughly shewn in the woodcut. The largest and com-
monest sort is very like a bean which grows on the Andaman
Islands. It is curious if worthless nuts thrown up by the sea in
Scotland grow near India. In ] 825 these nuts were mentioned
in letters from the Irish Highlands. " The Irish then laid them
under their pillows to keep away the fairies, and it was supposed
that they drifted from "South America." A Highland woman
has twice refused to part with a gray one, which she " had from
her mother," and which is "good against fire." I have seen
one which was left to a girl by her nurse, and had been silver
mounted. A minister told me that they were blessed by the
priests and worn by Roman Catholics only, but I think this was
a mistake. Protestants keep them, I know. — See Introduction,
vol. i.
There is no reason to believe that the stories now current in
the Highlands are nearly exhausted by this collection ; whole
districts are as yet untried, and whole classes of stories, such
as popular history and robber stories, have scarcely been touched ;
and yet new stories come in regularly. Mac Lean, Urquhart,
Carmichael, Dewar, and others, have many more written down,
but not copied fairly out. 791 is the number now reached, and
the manuscripts would fill a wheelbarrow. Three more volumes
would hardly contain the collection ; all taken down from the
mouths of the people within the last three years ; and yet it is
commonly said that there are "no current popnlar traditions.''
One half of the world seems to know very little about the other ;
but here ends the list of what came out of
Faiey Eggs.
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