Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland / Tales and Traditions Collected Entirely from Oral Sources

by John Gregorson Campbell

FUATH.

This word means literally aversion, hatred, but in Ross-shire is a common word to denote an apparition, ghost, spectre. In this latter sense, it is rare in Argyleshire. In the poem of the Muireartach or Muileartach, which may be translated, “Western Sea,” foster-mother of Manus, King of Lochlin, describing her attack upon Fin MacCoul and his men, it is said:

“The name of the daring spectre (fuath)

Was the bold, red, white-maned Westlin Sea;

Her face was dusky, of the hue of coal,

The teeth of her jaws crooked red;

In her head there glared a single eye,

That swifter moved than bait-pursuing mackerel;

And on her head there bristled dark-grey hair,

Like brushwood covered with hoar-frost.”[33]