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

SECOND-SIGHT, 123
evening, the minister mounted his horse to return home,
a distance of about nine miles. The weather became
so boisterous and stormy, that the good old gentleman
deemed it prudent to pass the night at iScorribreck,
where Widow Nicolson and her family resided. iShe
was a sister of the late Adjutant-General Sir John
Macdonald. Mrs Islicolson welcomed her reverend
guest, and was delighted at his unexpected appearance.
At that remote period most of the large farmers' dwel-
lings in JSkye, were couitortable thatched houses, with
trap-stairs to the upper flats, where they deposited all
kinds of lumber. In a certain corner up-stairs in this
domicile, the parish mort-cloth was kept for safety, as
the burying-place was near by. Mrs ISficolson ascended
the stairs on some business in the dark, and left the
reverend gentleman with her family for a few minutes
in the parlour. Immediately thereafter a scream was
heard, instantly followed by the noise of a fall on the
upper floor. Two or three rushed up with a light, and
found Mrs iSicolson in a fainting fit, quite insensible.
On her recovering, and at a subsequent hour of the
evening, she reluctantly told her reverend friend that
she beheld a very brilliant light on the mort-cloth,
which was spread on a table, and in the middle of the
light she saw the distinct image of his niece's face, a
daughter of the said Captain Macleod. The cu'cum-
stance, no doubt, created some concern in the minds of
the family circle, but ere bedtime, the conversation
turned on something else. (Shortly thereafter, however,
the young lady alluded to took ill, and died, and her
bier was the fii'st to require the use of the mort-cloth
in question after that eventful evening.