the
neighbourhood, from whom I had obtained much insight into the manners
and customs of that district. He informed me that there is a distemper
occasioned by want of water, which cattle are subject to, called in the
Gaelic language _shag dubh_, which in English signifies 'black haunch.'
It is a very infectious disease, and, if not taken in time, would carry
off most of the cattle in the country." The method taken by the
Highlanders to prevent its destructive ravages is thus: "All fires are
extinguished between the two nearest rivers, and all the people within
that boundary convene in a convenient place, where they erect a machine,
as above described; and, after they have commenced, they continue night
and day until they have forced fire by the friction of the two sticks.
Every person must perform a portion of this labour, or touch the machine
in order not to break the charm.

"During the continuance of the ceremony they appear melancholy and
dejected, but when the fire, which they say is brought from heaven by an
angel, blazes in the tow, they resume their wonted gaiety; and while one
part of the company is employed feeding the flame, the others drive all
the cattle in the neighbourhood over it. When this ceremony is ended,
they consider the cure complete; after which they drink whiskey, and
dance to the bagpipe or fiddle round the celestial fire till the last
spark is extinguished."

Here, within our own day, is evidently an act of fire-worship: a direct
worship of Baal by a Christian community in the nineteenth century.
There were other means of preventing disease spreading among cattle
practised within this century. When murrain broke out in a herd, it was
believed that, if the first one taken ill were buried alive, it would
stop the spread of the disease, and that the other animals affected
would then soon recover. Were a cow to cast her calf: if the calf were
to be buried at the byre door, and a short prayer or a verse of
Scripture said over it, it would prevent the same misfortune from
happening with the rest of the herd. If a sheep dropped a dead lamb, the
proper precaution to take was to place the lamb upon a rowan tree, and
this would prevent the whole flock from a repetition of the mishap.

It was an old superstition that the body of a murdered person would
bleed on the presence or touch of the murderer. We find this belief
mentioned as far back as the eleventh century. In an old ballad of that
period occ