Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/319

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PART OF SCOTLAND.
301

nothing to his consequence in his own part of the country, where titles of ceremony were neither understood nor relished.

The present chief has a rock-crystal globe, about two inches and a quarter in diameter, which descends from chief to chief. The legend attributes great virtues to it; and the Robertsons' preserve it with care. It is said to have the virtue of curing diseases in the human frame, and in cattle, particularly when elf shot; and at this day, it is sometimes requested, by the superstitious Highland men, to be permitted to dip this globe in water; alledging, that water thus charmed, cures the diseases of their cattle. This stone was found in a very singular manner. The beforementioned Duncan, styled of Atholl, a son of Angus, Lord of the Isles, who was at all times a steady adherent to King Robert Bruce, having gone in pursuit of Macdougal of Lorn, who had made his escape from his confinement on one of the islands (belonging to Duncan) in Loch Rannoch, was obliged to halt, with his followers, at a place near Loch Ericht, and to pass the night there. Next morning, when the standard bearer drew out the staff from the spot where it had been fixed in the ground, it brought up a great