Dede-Nip
‘It is described as a blue mark which appears on the body of a person about to die and without the physical explanation of a blow.’ [Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the South-Western District...
Category: Folklore
Dede-Chack or Dead-Watch
Can woodworms predict forthcoming deaths? According to ‘Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the South-Western District of Scotland’ (1911) by J Maxwell Wood,’significant terms associated with the premonition of death are the “dead-watch,” or “dede-chack,”...
Licht Before Death, Glencairn
There are many folk customs that are said to foretell a death. The following descriptions of a prophetic light in the communities around Glencairn are extracted from [Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the South-Western...
A Case Of Turning The Key Divination (1697)
At the end of the 17th century, John Fergusson of Cummertrees was found guilty of using divination to identify a thief who had stolen a sack containing some cheese and herrings. The technique he...
The Loch Light of Rannoch
In his book ‘The Peat-fire Flame’ (1937), Alasdair Alpin MacGregor refers to a strange experience around Loch Rannoch. ‘A phenomenon…..is associated with Loch Rannoch, where a light in the form of a ball sometimes...
The Chagford Pixies
According to Sarah Hewett in her ‘Nummits and Crummits’ published in (1900), ‘As a gentleman, late at night, was driving across the moor to Chagford, a village in mid-Devon, he was startled by the...
The Great Paw
A common story in the Highlands is recounted here by John Gregorson Campbell in his 1902 book ‘Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands’. ‘In the big church of Beauly (Eaglais mhor...
The Apparition In A Dornoch Kirkyard
Dating from the13th century, the parish church in Dornoch is a Cathedral in name only and was historically the seat for the Bishop of Caithness until the 17th century. In his book The Peat-fire...
The Battle of Gabhra
Now, with one thing and another, the High King of Ireland had got to be someway bitter against Finn and the Fianna; and one time that he had a gathering of his people he...
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