from shore, but he would not stay an hour alone in the dark on land.
A priest told me that one day he was crossing the dangerous Minch,[1] which lies between Uist and Eriskay, on a dark night to visit some sick person. He asked the man who had fetched him where his companion, who was awaiting them, would shelter on the shore. "He won't be on the shore at all, by the Book! it is in the boat itself he will be. The sea is holier to live on than the shore."
After the home-spun cloth has been "waulked" or "fulled," that is, cleansed of the oil and grease with which it has been dressed, there is a curious ceremonial of blessing by the Head of the fulling-women. All present stand, while, with hands laid upon the bale, she says:
"Let not be afflicted by the Evil Eye,
Let not be mangled,
The man about whom thou goest, for ever.
When he goes into battle or combat
The protection of the Lord be with him."
When the door is opened in the morning one should say on first looking out: "May God bless what my eye may see and what my hand may touch."
An old inhabitant told us that there is not a glen in Eriskay in which mass has not been said on account of the fuathas or bocain. Father John used to say mass at Creag Shiant, a fairy or enchanted rock in Baile, Eriskay. She herself had never felt anything there.
It is customary to recite the genealogy of S. Bride, who is a very important saint in these islands, and among the concluding lines are these:
"Each day and each night that I recall the genealogy of Brigid,
I shall not be killed,
I shall not be wounded,
I shall not be struck by the Evil Eye."
- ↑ I.e. strait; cf. La Manche, the English Channel.
