Ossian Collection > Peat-fire flame

ANIMAL LORE
than seven of its kind; and the only part of its exterior
believed to be vulnerable is the white spot under its chin.
no larger than a sixpence.
The killing- of a king otter, they say, presages the death
either of a human being or of a dog. To fire at this
creature without hitting the vital spot was followed by fatal
consequences. And so immune to the weapons of men was
its skin that, even when one was killed, its skin became a
precious heirloom. It was firmly believed that a fragment
of the skin retained in the house not only protected both the
house and its inhabitants from misfortune, but also
' charmed ' soldiers who, in going off to the wars, were in
danger from arrow, sword, or bullet.
Tradition has it that many who followed Charlie to
Culloden carried with them a tiny piece of the king otter's
skin, and that this is how they escaped injury or death when
swords were clashing everywhere around them, and bullets
falling upon them as thickly as hailstones in time of storm.
The Legend of the Beetle.
Both in Uist and in Sutherland legend has it that the
sacred beetle and the beetle one finds about a graveyard
had an experience not unlike that of the hen and the duck,
which I have related in the previous chapter. When the
Jews were searching for Christ, they chanced to meet a
sacred beetle and a graveyard beetle, both on the prowl for
food. When asked by the Jews whether they had seen the
Christ pass by, the graveyard beetle, more talkative than his
companion, immediately retorted : " Yes, I have. He
passed this way but yesterday evening, when the folks of
the township were digging a grave."
" False ! false ! " cried the sacred beetle, eager to baffle
the pursuers, even at the cost of perpetrating a falsehood.
" It is a year and a day since Christ, the Son of Mary,
passed this way, for I and my children were out foraging
by the roadside as He went by."
So the graveyard beetle, because he was so ready to
betray Christ into the hands of his enemies, was always
killed when found, whereas the life of the sacred beetle
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