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A crippled tailor was able to walk after being chased by a g...

Fieldworkers
Date 26 March 1979
Track ID 65864
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1979.36

Original Tape ID

SA1979.036

Summary

A crippled tailor was able to walk after being chased by a ghost.

A wee tailor, who lived near Inveraray, was paralysed in both legs and sat in a barrow. In the pub one night, he wagered that he could sit in the haunted graveyard all night and sew three pairs of hose, for a pound and a bottle of whisky. He was left there. A body came out of the ground bit by bit, and with each bit a voice asked him if he saw it, without flesh or blood? He said yes, but he would sew in the meantime, and he broke the steek [stitch] with his teeth. In the end the whole skeleton made a lunge at him. He got such a fright that he leapt up and jumped the wall. He was able to walk after that. The skeleton's hand left a mark on the wall. John Stewart has put his hand in the mark.

John is asked about others who tell similar stories, and says that many Travellers have seen ghosts, and also burkers.

Item Notes

Told to an audience of folklorists. In other versions of the story, it is clearer that the mark is of an unusually big hand.

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good