This woman still lives, and firmly believes in the
prophetic gift of _dummy_. Another woman, a stranger also, asked him
some questions relative to herself; he shook his head, and for a long
time refused to answer, desiring her not to insist. This made her the
more anxious, and at last he drew upon the slate the figure of a coffin.
This was all the length he would go. In less than twelve months the
woman was in her grave. During one of his visits the husband of one of
the women who attended him was seriously ill, and the wife, a stout
healthy woman, was anxious to hear from _dummy_ the result of her
husband's illness. He wrote that the husband would recover, and that she
would die before him; and she did die not long after. In short, this
_dummy_ was a regular prophet, and his predictions were implicitly
believed by all who attended upon him. In his case there was no
pretension to visions, the form which he allowed his gift to assume was
that of intuition. Some few men in the village suspected the _dummy's_
honesty, and thought that he heard and assiduously and cunningly picked
up knowledge of the parties; but such doubts were regarded as bordering
upon blasphemy by the believers in _dummy_. I was never present at any
of these gatherings, but my information is gathered from those who were
present. Some months ago I was talking to an ordinarily intelligent
person on this subject, and he gave it as his opinion that dumb persons
had their loss of the faculties of hearing and speech recompensed to
them in the gift of supernatural knowledge, and he related how a certain
widow lady of his acquaintance had been informed of the death of her
son. This son was abroad, and she had with her in the house a mute, who
one day made signs to her that she would never see her son again, and a
few weeks after she received word of his death.

There was another phase of supernatural power, different from
witchcraft, and which the devil granted to certain parties: this was
called the _Black Airt_. The possession of this power was mostly
confined to Highlanders, and probably at this present day there are
still those who believe in it. The effects produced by this power did
not, however, differ much from those produced by witchcraft. A farmer in
the north-west of Glasgow engaged a Highland lad as herd, and my
informant also served with this farmer at the time. It was observed by
the family that, after the lad came to them, everything went well wi