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

THE Prophecies of the brahan seer. 79
was then taken to Chanonry Point, where the stern arm
of ecclesiastical authority, with unrelenting severity,
burnt him to death in a tar-barrel for witchcraft.
It is currently reported that a person answering .to
the foregoing description was actually born in the
neighbourhood of Conon, near Loch Ussie, and is still
living. Of this I have been credibly informed by a
person who several times saw him at the Muir of Ord
markets.
We see from the public prints, our correspondent
humorously continues, that the Magistrates and Police
Commissioners of Dingwall contemplate to bring a
supply of water for " Baile-'Chail " from Loch Ussie.
Might we humbly suggest with such view in prospect,
as some comfort to the burdened ratepayers, that there
may be, to say the least, a probability in the course of
such an undertaking of recovering the mystic stone, so
long compelled to hide its prophetic light in the depths
of Loch Ussie, and so present the world with the novel
sight of having not only an individual gifted with
second-sight, but also a Corporation; and, further, what
would be a greater terror to evil-doers, a magistracy
capable, in the widest sense of the word, of discerning
between right and wrong, good and evil, and thus com-
pelling the lieges in the surrounding towns and villages
to exclaim involuntarily — " si sic omnes /" They might
go the length even of lending it out, and giving you
the use of it occasionally in Inverness.
When Coinneach Odhar was being led to the stake
fast bound with cords. Lady Seaforth exultingly de-
clared that, having had so much unhallowed intercourse
with the unseen world, he would never go to Heaven.