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

WITCH TALES AND THE EVIL EYE
The mothan had occult powers not unHke those vested in
St. John's wort. It ensured to its possessor protection
against fire, and against the risk of being carried away
either by witches or by the Little Folk. In olden times one
of the commonest means of seeking protection against
witchcraft and faery influence was to consume a bit of
cheese made from the milk of a
some mothan to eat.
cow that had been given
Faeries were believed to be most prone to commit
nefarious acts on the nights immediately preceding Beltane,
the first day of summer according to the ancient method of
reckoning, and also on the nights preceding Hallowmass.
So it was usual about this time to give the cows a little
mothan to eat, if such were procurable.
And there is an old saying in the Isles that, when a man
makes a miraculous escape from death, he must have drunk
of the milk of a cow that ate the mothan. The Isleswomen
used to sew a fragment of it in their bodices ; and the Islesmen
often carried a spring of it in the left pocket of a vest.
And they say in the Isles, too, that when Red Roderic,
son of Ranald of the Lewis, was on his way to be tried
before the sherifif at Lochmaddy, an old woman in Benbecula
gave him a sprig of " the blessed mothan " that grew in
South Uist. Consequently, Red Roderic was acquitted,
" although he
sinner."
was as guilty of the guilt as the son of a
This instance
Gadelica—
is referred to by Carmichael in Carmina
" But, Christina, why did you give the mothan to the man,
when you knew that he was guilty? I think myself it was
not right of you to go and do it."
And thus replied Christina " : O food and clothing ! thou
dear one of my heart, and thou loved one of my people, I
could not myself go and refuse him. He beseeched to me,
and he swelled to me, and he vowed to me, and he placed a
thing in my hand. And, oh ! King of the Moon and of the
Sun and of the beautiful, sublime Stars ! what
could I
myself say or do, and the bad man in his black trouble, in
his red difficulty, and in his hard plight? "
The belief that a sprig of the mothan acted as a charm
s 273