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

122 HIGHLAND SUPERSTITION.
the well for a pitcher of water. After having talked for
a few minutes with a neighbour who had met her at the
well, she returned to her house, when, to her unspeak-
able horror, she found her baby on the floor dead,
mangled, torn to pieces, with the arms and face eaten
away. During the distracted mother's absence, a large
brute of a pig had been roaming about. It entered the
deserted apartment, seized upon the innocent sleeping
babe, and partially devoured it.
About sixty years ago, one of the annual fairs was
to be held at Portree, the Capital of iSkye, to which the
natives were in the habit of resorting in hundreds from
all quarters of the Island. In the East-side district of
Kilmuir, about eighteen miles north of Portree, there
lived at that time a female advanced in years, who was
reported to be possessed of the faculty of second-sight.
Some time previous to the date of the market, this wo-
man was day after day sitting, sighing, and lamenting
the catastrophe, which she said was sure to take place,
as she had seen a boat sinking in a storm, and so many
people drowned. Few, however, paid but little atten-
tion to the cause of her grief at the time, but had rea-
son afterwards to do so. A large boat left Portree on
the market-day evening for the East-side, which was
literally crammed with people of all ages, anxious to
get home. A storm got up, and all were consigned to
a watery grave.
Here is another remarkable instance. A worthy
parish minister m Skye, about seventy years ago, went
to visit a brother of his, a Captain Macleod, who had
been ailing, and lived near Portree. Captain Macleod
had a numerous family of sous and daughters. In the