The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
was spared. But, for his having told a falsehood, he was
always put on his back. Indeed, it was considered remiss
in the Hebrides to pass a sacred beetle without turning him
on his back. If, however, he succeeded in getting on to his
feet again (which upturned beetles often experience some
difficulty in doing!), it was regarded as highly improper to
subject him to any further interference.
The version of this legend that is current in Sutherland
runs as follows.
When Mary and her family were on their flight into
Egypt, they passed through a field, in which men were
sowing the grain. Mary spoke to the men, and implored of
them that, .should they be asked whether a fugitive family
had passed their way, they were to reply that such a family
had, but as long ago as when they were sowing their fields.
The sowers promised to obey her. In meet season the green
shoots began to appear, then the ears, and then the full ears.
In the ripeness of harvest-time, the sowers of the spring
were the reapers of the autumn. As they reaped, the king's
soldiers came upon them, and inquired of them whether they
had seen a man and a woman passing through the land,
leading an ass, and carrying a child. Faithful to their
promise, they replied that they had, but that this was when
they were sowing the grain.
As it happened, a grave-digger beetle and a sacred beetle
were on a foraging expedition near by. And, when the
king's soldiers were on the point of abandoning their search
for Mary and her Child, the grave-digger beetle lifted up his
voice in officious mood, and said :
'' An dc! an dc! chaidJi
Mac Dhe seachad!: Yesterday ! Yesterday ! the
"
God passed by !
" False ! false " ! interjected the sacred beetle.
Son of
" A full
you
year it was yestreen, since the Son of God passed by !
Ever since that day the grave-digger, or grave-yard beetle,
has been killed at sight in the Highlands and Islands ; and
I, myself, have known people to kill any unsuspecting
member of this species that came into view, and in killing it
to repeat an old Gaelic saying, of which the English
equivalent would be : " Beetle I beetle !
tell any more tales !
"
134
will not live to