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

WITCH TALES AND THE EVIL EYE
rant of drinking uppon the shoare, went aboord oif his
birling and sailed away with a strong north gale off wind
and whither by giving too much saile and no ballast, or the
unskillfulness of the seamen, or that they could not mannage
the strong Dut(ch) canvas saile, the boat whelmd, and all
the men dround in view of the cost. The Laird and 16 of
his kinsmen, the prime, perished ; non of them ever found
a grewhound or two cast ashoare dead ; and pieces of the
birling. One Alexander Mackleod of Lewes the night before
had voice warning him thrice not to goe at (all) with
Rarsay, for all would drown in there return ; yet he went
with him, being infatuat, and dround (with) the rest. This
account I had from Alexander his brother the summer after.
Drunkness did the (mischeife)."
The story is told in the Isles that a raven flew ominously
round Iain's boat while he was returning across the Minch
from Stomoway. The raven eventually settled on the
gunwale ; and Iain Garbh drew his dirk in an attempt to
kill it. But he missed the mark; and so colossal was his
strength that the point of the dirk clove the timbers instead,
with the result that the boat rapidly sank with all hands.
The raven, they say, was a witch in disguise, who had
been hired by Iain's stepmother. She was inimical toward
him, as stepmothers often are toward stepchildren who have
inherited what they coveted for their own children.
But Donald Gorm of Sleat is said to have had a hand in
the drowning of Iain Garbh MacLeod of Raasay to the
extent that he promised the witch a profitable stretch of land
in Trotternish, if she carried out his directions.
In the folk-lore of Skye, the witch's name is given as
Morag. When Donald Gorm made his offer to her, she
retired to the seclusion of her peat-fire, and sat over it for
several hours in deep meditation. Then she summoned her
daughter, and directed her to bring a large tub from the
byre, and to fetch water from the well. The tub was duly
filled to the brim. Thereafter Morag set an egg-shell afloat
in the tub. Then she betook herself to a high hill in the
neighbourhood, overlooking the sea, where for three days
and three nights she watched for the coming of Iain Garbh's
birlinn. About noon on the fourth dav, she recognised the
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