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

SECOND-SIGHT. 121
a lady glided along the side-wall of the room, from end
to end, and was seen by several of those opposite to it.
" My mother! my mother!" screamed one of the young
ladies of the family, and fainted. The vision put a
sudden termination to the hilarities of the evening ;
but the most surprising fact was, that at the very time
the vision appeared, the lady of the house had died
in a city m the south.
Besides the many instances of second-sight given
by Martin, Theophilus insulanus, and several others,
a great additional variety might be stated of rather re-
markable cases. Jn the village of Earlish, parish of
iSnizort, in iSkye, about fifty years ago, a cottar's wife
was delivered of a nice bab^i . ISoon after the birth, the
happy mother was visited by the wives of her neigh-
bours, who came, according to the custom of the place
on such occasions, each with a giit of fowls, eggs, and
such like. The baby was admired as a nice infant, and
the usual hopes were expressed that it might be long
spared to the parents. One female in a corner of the
apartment whispered in her neighbour's ear, that she
was afraid the infant would not be long spared, and
that it would some day be the cause of excessive grief
to the poor mother. On being questioned for the rea-
son of such a statement, she said that she had a vision
of the child all mangled, torn up, and bleeding. Her
neighbour upbraided her for expressing a thing so ridi-
culous in itself, and so very improbable. In the course
of a month or two, when the infant had progressed in
health and strength to the desire of his parents' heart, he
was laid to sleep in the cradle, and the mother, being
alone at the time, embraced the opportunity of going to