Tobar an Dualchais - Kist O Riches

Title - A field damaged by a profit-taking witch; a tradition of red...
Contributors - Jnr. Peter Leith
Reporters - Alan J. Bruford

Summary - A field damaged by a profit-taking witch; a tradition of red stubble on Eynhallow.

Peter Leith's father told him a story he'd heard from Benjy Gray about a witch taking the profit from a field of corn over a hundred years previously. The charm was a piece cut out from the corner of the field in the shape of the three toes of a pot, and the stubble was as black as ink. Although the man who'd seen it only described the charm, it is assumed that the corn in the field was no good. Mr Leith then tells of seeing the corn blacken in a particularly wet season so that the crop was probably short when the stubble was black.

The story is told in 'British Calendar Customs'.

There is a tradition of red stubble bleeding after sunset in Eynhallow or some other of the 'fairy' islands in the North [of Orkney]. Mr Leith rationalises this as bacterial action in the sugar sap.


Track Duration (h:m:s) - 00:01:54
Date Recorded - 1967.09
Language - English, Scots
Genre - Information
Collection - School of Scottish Studies

Track ID - 59263
Original Tape ID - SA1967.108
Original Track ID - SA1967.108.A2
Audio Quality - Good
Audio Format - R2R



Recording Location:
  County - Orkney
  Parish - Stenness
  Island - Orkney Mainland


Item Location:
  County - Orkney

Item Notes - Eynhallow was once thought to be the ancestral home of the Finn Folk (who could change into seals) before their eviction by a farmer. The island's powers of enchantment were said to remain after the disappearance of the Finns.
'British Calendar Customs' was a series published by the Folk-Lore Society.

Permanent Link - http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/59263/1


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