[81] This stone is about ten ft. high, and is one of the three fragments into which a larger stone, used by an old woman of former days as a hammer to knock limpets off the rocks (òrd bhàirneach), was broken. Of the other two, one is in Uigh an du tuath, and one in Tarnsa Islet. At a spot from which these three fragments can be seen, there is hidden an urn of silver and an urn of gold (croggan òir ’s cr. airgid). It is easy to find a place whence one can see two, but when about to see the third, one of the first two disappears. Five or six yards make all the difference. A herdsman once found the spot, but when digging for the treasure he happened to see a heifer that had fallen on its back in a stream. He ran to its rescue, and never could find the place again.
[82] Càth, prob. a step path in a rock.
“Bi muilionn air gach sruthan,
Crann an laìmh gach giullain,
Da thaobh Loch Tatha na ghàracha-càil,
Cuiridh claigionn na caorach an crann o fheum,
‘S cuiridh ite gèoidh an cuimhn’ a duine.”
[84] Does this refer to excommunication? A candle was then extinguished in water.
[85] Perhaps this means burial with the face downwards. The mother of an illegitimate child, which died in infancy, and the paternity of which was denied, declared if she had known that would be the case, she would have buried the child with its face downward. This was said to be in Tiree, but all the writer’s inquiries failed to find any one who had ever heard of such a thing being done. It is a saying “a down mouth to women if they are not to be found everywhere” (Beul sìos air na mnathan, mar faighear ’s gach àit iad).