J. F. Campbell Collection > Prophecies of the Brahan seer (Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche)

THE PROPHECIES OP THE BRAHAN SEER. 7l
foot of the next boy's bed, and, after a moment,
stealthily moved up to the head, and taking- from her
wallet a mallet and pe^, drove the peg into his forehead.
Young ISeaforth said he heard the crash of the bones,
though the boy never stirred. She then proceeded
round the room, looking at some boys longer than at
others. VV^hen she came to him, his suspense was
awful. He felt he could not resist or even cry out, and
he never could forget, in after years, that moment's
agony, when he saw her hand reaching down for a nail,
and feeling his ears. At last, after a look, she slunk
off, and slowly completing the circuit of the room, dis-
appeared noiselessly through the same door by which
she had entered. Then he felt the spell seemed to be
taken off, and uttered the cry which had alarmed
the nurse. The latter laughed at the lad's story, and
told him to go to sleep. When the doctor came, an
hour later, to make his rounds, he observed that the
boy was feverish and excited, and asked the nurse after-
wards if she knew the cause, upon which she reported
what had occurred. The doctor, struck with the story,
returned to the boy's bedside and made him repeat his
dream. He took it down in writing at the moment.
The following day nothing eventful happened, but, in
course of time, some got worse, a few indeed died,
others suffered but slightly, while some, though they
recovered, bore some evil trace and consequence of the
fever for the rest of their lives. The doctor, to his
horror, found that those whom Lord Seaforth had de-
scribed as having a peg driven into their foreheads,
were those who died from the fever ; those whom tlie
old hag passed by, recovered, and were none the worse ]