by Bob Curran
“Have you heard your father or mother mention a man called Edward Derrihy or his son Michael?”
“It’s often I’ve heard tell of them” said the girl.
“Well, Edward Derrihy was my father, I am Michael. That blackthorn stick that you came for to night, to this graveyard was the lucky stick for you, but if you had any thought of the danger that was before you, you wouldn’t be here. Settle me carefully and close the door of the tomb well behind you.”
She closed him in the coffin carefully, closed the door behind her, took the blackthorn stick, and away home with Kate. The night was far spent when she came. She was tired and it’s good reason the girl had. She thrust the stick into the thatch above the door of the house and rapped. Her sister rose up and opened the door.
“Where did you spend the night?” asked the sister. “Mother will kill you in the morning for spending the whole night from home”
“Go to bed” said Kate, “and never mind me”
They went to bed and Kate fell asleep the minute she touched the bed, she was that tired after the night.
When the father and mother of the three young men rose the next morning and there was no sign of their sons, the mother went to the room to call them, and there she found the three dead. She began to screech and wring her hands. She ran to the road, screaming and wailing. All the neighbours crowded round to see what trouble was on her. She told them her three sons were lying dead in their beds after the night. Very soon the report spread in every direction. When Kate’s father and mother heard it they hurried off to the house of the dead men. When they came home Kate was still in bed, the mother took a stick and began to beat the girl for being out all the night and in bed all the day.
“Get up now, you lazy stump of a girl,” said she, “and go to the wake house, your neighbour’s three sons are dead”
Kate took no notice of this. “I am very tired and sick,” said she. “You’d better spare me and give me a drink”
The mother gave her a drink of milk and a bite to eat, and in the middle of the day she rose up.
“‘Tis a shame for you not to be at the wake house yet”, said the mother, “hurry over now”
When Kate reached the house, there was a great crowd of people before her and great wailing. She did not cry but was looking on. The father was as if wild, going up and down the house, wringing his hands.
“Be quiet”, said Kate. “Control yourself”
“How can I do that, my dear girl, and my three fine sons lying dead in the house?”
“What would you give” asked Kate “to the person who would bring them back to life again?”
“Don’t be vexing me” said the father.
“It’s neither vexing you I am or trifling,” said Kate. “I can put life in them again”
“If it was true that you could do that, I would give you all that I have inside the house and outside as well”
“All that I want” said Kate “is the eldest son to marry and Gort na Leachtan [Editor’s Note: the field of the stone heaps] as fortune”
“My dear you will have that from me with the greatest blessing”
“Give me in writing from yourself, whether the son will marry me or not”
He gave her the field in his handwriting. She told all who were inside in the wake house to go outside the door, every man and woman of them. Some were laughing at her and some were crying, thinking it was mad she was. She bolted the door inside, and went to the place where she left the handkerchief, found it and put three bites of the oatmeal and the blood in the mouth of each young man, and as soon as she did that the three got their natural colour and they looked like men sleeping. She opened the door, then called on all to come inside, and told the father to go and wake his sons.
He called each one by name, and as they woke they seemed very tired after their night’s rest; they put on their clothes, and were greatly surprised to see all the people around. “How is this?” asked the eldest brother
“Don’t you know of anything that came over you in the night?” asked the father.
“We do not,” said the sons. “We remember nothing at all since we fell asleep last evening”
The father then told them everything but they could not believe it. Kate went away home and told her father and mother of her night’s journey to and from the graveyard, and said that she would soon tell them more.
That day she met John.
“Did you bring the stick?” asked he
“Find your own stick,” said she, “and never speak to me again in your life”
In a week’s time, she went to the house of the three young men and said to the father, “I have come for what you promised me.”
“You’ll get that with my blessing” said the father. He called the eldest son aside and asked would he marry Kate, their neighbours’ daughter. “I will,” said the son. Three days after that, the two were married and had a fine wedding. For three weeks they enjoyed a pleasant life without toil or trouble, then Kate said, “This will not do for us; we must be working. Come with me tomorrow and I’ll give yourself and your brothers plenty to do, and my own father and brothers as well.”
She took them next day to one of the stone heaps in Gort na Leachtan. “Throw these stones to one side,” said she.
They thought that she was losing her senses, but she told them that they’d soon see for themselves what she was doing. They went to work and kept at it until they had six feet deep of a hole dug, and then they met with a flat stone three feet square and an iron hook in the middle of it.
“Sure there must be something underneath this” said the men. They lifted the flag and under it was a pot of gold. All were happy then. “There is more gold yet in the place”, said Kate “Come now, to the other heap”. They moved that heap, dug down and found another pot of gold. They moved the third pile and found a third pot of gold. On the side of the third pot was an inscription and they could not make out what it was. After emptying it they placed the pot by the side of the door.
About a month later, a poor scholar walked the way, and as he was going in at the door, he saw the old pot and the letters on the side of it. He began to study the letters.
“You must be a good scholar if you can read what’s on that pot,” said the young man.
“I can,” said the poor scholar, “and here it is for you. ‘There is a deal more at the south side of each pot’”
The young man said nothing, but putting his hand in his pocket, he gave the poor scholar a good day’s hire. When he was gone they went to work and found a deal more gold at the south side of each stone heap. They were very happy then and very rich, and bought several farms and built fine houses, and it was supposed by all of them in the latter end that it was Derrihy’s money that was buried under the leachtans, but they could give no correct account of that, and sure why would they care? When they died they left property to make their children rich to the seventh generation.
The Second Sight or the Taish
Amongst the Celts, the idea of prognostication—the foretelling of the future—was highly important. Warriors wished to know whether or not they would return from battle; young men and young women wanted to know whom they would marry; others simply wished to know what the future might hold in store for them. The gift of foretelling the future resided with the druids (the pagan Celtic priests) who could determine what lay in store by the movements of birds or clouds, from the way in which certain engraved sticks might fall after being thrown in the air, from the entrails of certain animals. There were those too who were deemed to possess a certain power—to actually “see” the future. This was said to have been given as a gift either from the gods themselves or from other supernatural beings such as the Good Folk (fairies). The tradition of “seeing” another future world or deriving interpretations from visions that no one else could see continued long after the druids were gone. In certain communities, there were individuals who were deemed to have the gift of what became known
as “the second sight” (the ability to “see” things that were either to come or that lay beyond the sight of ordinary mortals). Many people who possessed this ability actually considered it to be a curse, as the visions were often involuntary and liable to come upon them without warning. In many instances they were the harbingers of doom, placing a dreadful knowledge and responsibility upon the seer.
Nowhere was this ability more prevalent than in the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland. The Highland Seers—men and women with the gift of the “second sight”—were famous the length and breadth of the Celtic world. These ranged from the celebrated Brahan Seer (Kenneth MacKenzie) of Ross-shire to the local “spae-wives” of the Hebrides. The Irish referred to the “gift” as the taish and declared it to be infallible. They paid homage to their Scottish cousins in whom “the greatest gift” resided.
The following account concerning the second sight is taken from Martin Martin’s almost indispensable book A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (first published about 1695).
Excerpt From A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland
by Martin Martin
The second-sight is a singular faculty of seeing an otherwise invisible object, without any previous means used by the person who sees it for that end: the vision makes a lively impression upon the seers that they neither see nor think of anything else except the vision as long as it continues—and then they appear pensive or jovial, according to the object which was represented to them.
At the sight of a vision, the eye-lids of the person are erected; the eyes continue staring until the object vanishes. This is obvious to others who are by, when the person happens to see a vision, and occurred more than once to my own observation, and to others that were with me.
There is one in Skye, of whom his acquaintance observed, that when he sees a vision, the inner part of his eye-lids turn so far upwards, that after the object disappears, he must draw them down with his fingers, and sometimes employs others to draw them down, which he finds to be much the easier way.
The faculty of the second sight does not lineally descend in a family, as some imagine, for I know several parents who are endowed with it and their children are not, and vice versa. Neither is it acquired by any previous compact. And, after a strict enquiry, I could never learn from any among them, that this faculty was communicable in any way whatsoever.
The seer knows neither the object, time nor the place of a vision before it appears: and the same object is often seen by different persons, living at a considerable distance from one another. The true way of judging as to the time and circumstance of an object is by observation; for several persons of judgement, without this faculty, are more capable to judge of the design of a vision, than the novice that is a seer. If an object appear in the day or night, it will come to pass sooner or later accordingly.
If an object is seen early in the morning (which is not frequent) it will be accomplished in a few hours afterwards. If at noon it will commonly be accomplished that very day. If in the evening, perhaps that night; if after the candles be lighted, it will be accomplished that night: the latter always in accomplishment by weeks, months and sometimes years, according to the time of night the vision is seen.
When a shroud is perceived about one, it is a sure prognostic of death. The time is judged according to the height of it about the person; for if it is not seen above the middle, death is not to be expected for the space of a year, and perhaps some months longer; and as it is frequently seen to ascend higher towards the head, death is concluded to be at hand within a few days, if not hours, as daily experience confirms. Examples of this kind were shown me; when persons of whom the observations then made enjoyed perfect health.
One instance was lately foretold by a seer that was a novice, concerning the death of one of my acquaintance; this was communicated to a few only and with great confidence; I being one of the number, did not in the least regard it, until the death of the person about the time foretold, did confirm me of the certainty of the prediction. The novice mentioned above is now a skilful seer, as appears from many late instances; he lives in the parish of St. Mary’s, the most northern in Skye.
If a woman is seen standing at a man’s left hand, it is a presage that she will be his wife, whether they be married to others, or unmarried at the time of the apparition.
If two or three women are seen at once standing near a man’s left hand, she that is next to him will undoubtedly be his wife first, and so on, whether all three or the man be single or married at the time of the vision; of which there are several late instances among those of my acquaintance. It is an ordinary thing for them to see a man that is to come to the house shortly after; and if he is not of the seer’s acquaintance, yet he gives such a lively description of his stature, complexion, habit etc. that upon arrival he answers the character given him in all respects.
If the person so appearing be one of the seer’s acquaintance, he will tell his name as well as other particulars; and he can tell by his countenance whether he comes in good or bad humour.
I have been seen thus myself by seers of both sexes at some hundred miles distance; some that saw me in this manner had never seen me personally, and it happened according to their visions, without any previous design of mine to go to these places, any coming there being purely accidental.
It is ordinary with them to see houses, gardens and trees, in places void of all three; and this in process of time used to be accomplished; as at Mogstot in the Isle of Skye, where there are but a few sorry cow-houses thatched with straw, yet in a few years after, the vision which appeared often was accomplished, by the building of several good houses on the very spot represented to the seers, and by the planting of orchards there.
To see a spark of fire fall upon ones arm or breast is a forerunner of a dead child to be seen in the arms of those persons; of which there are several fresh instances.
To see a seat empty at the time of ones sitting in it, is a presage of that person’s death quickly after.
When a novice, or one that has lately obtained the second-sight, sees a vision in the night-time without doors, and comes near a fire, he presently falls into a swoon.
Some find themselves as it were in a crowd of people, having a corpse, which they carry along with them; and after such visions, the seers come in sweating and describe the people that appeared: if there be any of their acquaintance among them, they give an account of their names, as also of the bearers, but they know nothing concerning the corpse.
All those who have the second-sight do not always see these visions at once, though they be together at the time. But if one who has this faculty designedly touch his fellow-seer at the instant of a vision’s appearing, then the second sees it as well as the first; and this is sometimes discerned by those that are near them on such occasions.
There is a way of foretelling death by a cry that they call taisk, which some call a wraith in the Lowlands.
They hear a loud cry without doors, exactly resembling the voice of some particular person, whose death is foretold by it. Last instance was given to me of this kind was in the village Rigg, in the isle of Skye.
Five women were sitting together in the same room, and all of them heard a loud cry passing by the window; they thought it plainly to be the voice of a maid who was one of the number; she blushed at the time, though not sensible of her so doing, contracted a fever next day, and died that week.
Dark forces seek to lure away a child.
Things also are foretold by smelling, sometimes as follows. Fish or flesh is frequently smelled in a fire, when at the same time neither of the two are in the house, or in all probability likely to be hand in it for some weeks or months; for they seldom eat flesh and though the sea be near them, yet they catch fish but seldom in the winter and spring. This smell several persons have, who are not endued with the second-sight, and it is always accomplished soon after.
Children, horses and cows see the second-sight,
as well as men and women advanced in years.
That children see it is plain from their crying aloud at the very instant that a corpse or any other vision appears to an ordinary seer. I was present in a house where a child cried out of a sudden and being asked the reason of it, he answered that he had seen a great white thing lying on the board which was in the corner: but he was not believed, until a seer present told them that the child was in right; for said he, I saw a corpse and the shroud about it, and the board will be used as part of a coffin or some way employed about a corpse; and accordingly it was made into a coffin for one who was in perfect health at the time of the vision.
That horses see it is likewise plain from their violent and sudden starting when the rider or seer in company with him sees a vision of any kind, night or day. It is observable of the horse that he will not go forward that way, until he be led about at some distance from the common road, and then he is in a sweat.
A horse fastened by the common road on the side of Loch Skeriness in Skye, did break his rope at noon-day and run up and down without the least visible cause. But two of the neighbourhood that happened to be at a little distance and in view of the horse, did at the same time see a considerable number of men about a corpse directing their course to the church of Snizort; and this was accomplished within a few days after by the death of a gentlewoman who lived thirteen miles from that church and came from another parish from whence very few came to Snizort to be buried.
That cows see the second-sight appears from this; that when a woman is milking a cow and then happens to see the second-sight the cow runs away in great fright at the same time and will not be pacified for some time after.
Before I mention more particulars discovered by the second-sight, it may not be amiss to answer the objections that have lately been made against the reality of it.
Object 1. These seers are visionary and melancholy people and fancy they see things that do not appear to them or anybody else.
