The following are variants, the first as used in South Uist, the second in Benbecula:
"Poor herd-boys
In the shelter of knowes,
A dog at their knees,
And a staff at their breast,
And a pin on their chest,[1]
Asking God
To put sun and drying in it."
In Benbecula they say:
"Shower-bow! Shower-bow!
Passing shower! passing shower!
Many a poor herd-boy
Out at the shelter of a knowe
Asking the great God
To put the great rain away."
The Will o' the Wisp (called in Gaelic Teine biorach = sharp fire) is said to be of quite modern appearance, at least in South Uist. It was first seen, it is said, in 1812, and is the haunting spirit of a young girl from Benbecula, who frequented the machair, or sandy plain beside the sea, in search of the galium verum, used in the dyeing of the local cloth or tweed. Her sin was that of seeking to get an undue share of a product which should have been equally divided for the common good, and which has at all times to be husbanded as one of the plants which bind the sandy soil together where it has been redeemed from the sea. There is, however, another story as to the origin of the Jack o' lantern. The haunting spirit is that of a blacksmith, who could get no admittance even into hell. He was very cold, and begged for a single ember to warm himself, and at last one was given him, and he has gone shivering about with it ever since.[2]
A special interest of this story is that it tells against the common Hebridean tradition of a cold hell, a tradition one
