Query 7.
What way they pretend to have it ? I am informed, that in the Isle of
Sky, especially before the gospel came thither, several families had
it by succession, descending from parents to children, and as yet
there be many there that have it in that way; and the only way to be
freed from it is, when a woman hath it herself, and is married to a
man that hath it also; if in the very act of delivery, upon the first
sight of the child's head, it be baptized, the same is free from it;
if not, he hath it all his life; by which, it seems, it is a thing
troublesome and uneasy to them that have it, and such as they would
fain be rid of. And may satisfy your ninth query. And for your farther
contentment in this query, I heard of my father, that there was one
John du beg Mac Grigor, a Reanach man born, very expert in this
knowledge, and my father coming one day from Inverness, said by the
way, that he would go into an ale-house on the road, which then would
be about five miles off. This John Mac Grigor being in his company,
and taken up a slate stone at his foot, and looking to it, replied;
nay, said he, you will not go in there, for there is but a matter of a
gallon of ale in it even now, and ere we come to it, it will be all
near drunken, and those who are drinking there, are strangers to us,
and ere we be hardly past the house, they will discord among
themselves: which fell out so; ere we were two pair of butts past the
house, those that were drinking there went by the ears, wounded and
mischieved one another.
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