Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Introductory Notes on the Texts
- 1 Robert Boyle’s notes on his interview with Lord Tarbat, 3 October 1678
- 2 ‘A Collection of Highland Rites and Customs’
- 3 Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth and his ‘A Short Treatise of the Scotish-Irish Charms and Spells’
- 4 James Garden’s letters to John Aubrey
- 5 Samuel Pepys’s collection of letters on second sight
- 6 John Fraser’s ∆ϵυτϵϱοσϰoπια
- 7 Edward Lhuyd’s and Robert Wodrow’s questionnaires and the responses of John Fraser and John MacLean
- Textual Notes
- Appendix: Quotations of biblical passages cited in the texts above
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
2 - ‘A Collection of Highland Rites and Customs’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Introductory Notes on the Texts
- 1 Robert Boyle’s notes on his interview with Lord Tarbat, 3 October 1678
- 2 ‘A Collection of Highland Rites and Customs’
- 3 Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth and his ‘A Short Treatise of the Scotish-Irish Charms and Spells’
- 4 James Garden’s letters to John Aubrey
- 5 Samuel Pepys’s collection of letters on second sight
- 6 John Fraser’s ∆ϵυτϵϱοσϰoπια
- 7 Edward Lhuyd’s and Robert Wodrow’s questionnaires and the responses of John Fraser and John MacLean
- Textual Notes
- Appendix: Quotations of biblical passages cited in the texts above
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Fol. 2/
Ex Adversarijs V.C.D.R.S.
Excerpta de libro Domini Kirkwood
manuscripto dicto A Collection of
Highland Rites & Customes.
OBSERVATIONS UPON THEIR COMPUTATION OF TYME
They borrow the names of Feasts moveable & immovable from the Christian Account; onely they have mercat days held in Saints names unknown in other Languages as Feil Seirbh (thought to be St. Serf or Serbanus) Feil Domhingart, makessag, haden, moden &c.
They reckon not by moneths of 30 or 31 days but by four weeks, computing by the Moon, which they much observe almost in all maters.
They have no proper names to any month except April which they call Diblin; onely, they reckon them by certain Seasons as the most cold Season fourteen days before Candlmasse & 14 days after they terme by an irony Faoldach, the loving Season: The 8 days after that, they /fol. 2v/ call Feadag id est the whistling week of cold winds. 8 days after that Gear[rlshion i.e. curt, unconstant tempests. 14 days before Beltan or May & 14 days after they call Ceothom i.e. the soft misty moneth: 14 days before Lammas [,] Eochar i.e. the Key of Harvest. They have an other Key called Feil Hethan thereafter.
The Number Three is sacred with them (hence in any hard work we say thrice of all things) next to that Nine. When any thing succeeds not for three times they try it nine times & then give it over ordinarily.
THEIR LANGUAGE
Of their Language there are several Dialects, which make them to one another partly unintelligible, partly ridiculous. The purest Dialect is thought to be in Cantyre, Argyle & the Western Isles. Where they confine with the Lowlands they speak most corrupt. They can discern the countrey one is of by /fol. 3/ his Dialect.
Their Language is both copious & significant. The new Testament is translated it [sic] in an Irish Print. the Psalms lately by Mr Kirk in an ordinary character. The old Testament was translated by Bishop Bedel & is lately printed in the Saxon character. Knoxes’s Liturgy too, is translated into it.
Their Language is near akin to the Latin & next to the French; somewhat also to the Hebrew & Greek.
They pronounce as the French write.
They abound with Proverbs.
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- Information
- The Occult LaboratoryMagic, Science and Second Sight in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland, pp. 54 - 76Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2001