The Popular Superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland
9781465676603
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Of whatever country, station, or character the reader may be, we presume it will be unnecessary for us, on this our outset, to intrude upon his time by entering into a logical definition of the term Ghost. There is perhaps no nation or clime, from California to Japan, where that very ancient and fantastic race of beings called Ghosts is not, under different terms and different characters, more or less familiar to the inhabitants. We do not mean, however, to follow this fleeting race of patriarchs throughout their wide course of wandering and colonisation from the beginning of time to the present day—as, in all likelihood, our research would turn out equally arduous and unprofitable; we confine our lucubrations to the colony of the tribe which, from time immemorial, have settled themselves among the inhabitants of the Highland Mountains. Be it known then to the reader, that, so early as the days of Ossian, the son of Fingal, and ever since, ghosts have been at all times a plentiful commodity among the hills of Caledonia. Every native Highlander has allied to him, from his birth, one of those airy beings in the character of an auxiliary or helpmate, who continues his companion, not only during all the days of the Highlander’s life, but also for an indefinite period of time after his decease. It will be readily believed that this ancient class of our mountaineers cannot have descended through so many changeful ages of the world without sharing, in some measure, those revolutions of manners and habits to which all classes and communities of people are equally liable. Accordingly the ghost has suffered as great a degeneracy from that majesty of person and chivalry of habits which anciently distinguished the primitive inhabitants of Caledonia, as his mortal contemporary, man. Unlike the present puny, green, worm-eaten effigies that now-a-days stalk about our premises, and, like the cameleon, feed upon the air, the ancient race of Highland ghosts were a set of stout, lusty, sociable ghosts, “as tall as a pine, and as broad as a house.” Differing widely in his habits from those of his posterity, the ghost of antiquity would enter the habitation of man, descant a lee-long night upon the news of the times, until the long-wished-for supper was once prepared, when this pattern of frankness and good living would invite himself to the table, and do as much justice to a bicker of Highland crowdie as his earthly contemporaries. Indeed, if all tales be true, many centuries are not elapsed since those social practices of the ghosts of the day proved an eminent pest to society. With voracious appetites, those greedy gormandizers were in the habit of visiting the humble hamlets, where superabundance of store seldom resided, and of ravishing from the grasp of a starving progeny the meagre fare allotted to their support. Beyond their personal attractions, however, it is believed they displayed few enviable qualities; for, besides their continual depredations on the goods and chattels of the adjacent hamlets, they were ill-natured and cruel, and cared not a spittle for woman or child. The truth of this remark is well exemplified in the history of two celebrated ghosts, who “once upon a time” lived, or rather existed, in the Wilds of Craig-Aulnaic, a romantic place in the district of Strathdown, Banffshire. The one was a male, and the other a female. The male was called Fhua Mhoir Bein Baynac, after one of the mountains of Glenavon, where at one time he resided; and the female was calledClashnichd Aulnaic, from her having had her abode in Craig-Aulnaic. But, although the great ghost of Ben-Baynacwas bound, by the common ties of nature and of honour, to protect and cherish his weaker companion, Clashnichd Aulnaic, yet he often treated her in the most cruel and unfeeling manner. In the dead of night, when the surrounding hamlets were buried in deep repose, and when nothing else disturbed the solemn stillness of the midnight scene, “oft,” says our narrator, “would the shrill shrieks of poor Clashnichd burst upon the slumberer’s ears, and awake him to any thing but pleasant reflections.”
