Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland

No part of the United Kingdom has of late years attracted a greater portion of public attention than the Highlands of Scotland. Formerly isolated as the inhabitants were from their fellow subjects, by a different language and separate interests, their character was but little known and less admired. Devoted to their chiefs and feudal institutions, they entertained a sovereign contempt for their neighbours; and, in their occasional intercourse with them, displayed feelings and manners little calculated to gain confidence or secure esteem. However, when the Rebellion in 1745, and its consequences, nearly annihilated feudal power, and broke down the wall of partition a new light was reflected upon his manners and habits. The great defect, which especially exists in the delineation of the Highlander’s superstitions, becomes peculiarly apparent to one, who has an opportunity of investigating those relics of the less polished ages of the world, as they are still exhibited in the habits of the people of whom we are writing. The want of a complete and systematic account of the Highland and Scottish Superstitions, is a desideratum in our national literature, which the philosophic mind will readily regret; and this regret will be the more sincere on reflecting, that, from the fading aspects those interesting relics have now assumed, it is a desideratum which, in the course of a few years, cannot be supplied.