Second-Sight

The second-sight is a singular faculty of seeing an otherwise invisible object, without any previous means used by the person that uses it for that end; the vision makes such a lively impression upon the seers, that they neither see, nor think of anything else, except the vision, as long as it coutinues ; and then they appear pensive or jovial, according to the object which was represented to them.

At the sight of a vision, the eyelids of the person are erected, and the eyes continue staring until the object vanish. This is obvious to others who are by, when the persons happen to see a vision, and occurred more than once to my own observation, and to others who were
with me.

There is one in Skye, of whom his acquaintance observed, that when he sees a vision, the inner part of his eyelids turns so far upwards, that after the object disappears he must draw them down with his fingers, and sometimes employs others to draw them down, which he finds to be the much easier way.

This faculty of the second-sight does not lineally descend in a family, as some imagine, for I know several parents who are endowed with it, but their children
not, and vice versa: neither is it acquired by any previous compact. And, after a strict inquiry, I could never leam that this faculty was communicable any
way whatsoever. The seer knows neither the object,
time, nor place of a vision, before it appears; and the same object is often seen by different persons, living at a
considerable distance from one another. The true way of judging as to the time and circumstance of an object is by observation; for several persons of judgment, without this faculty, are more capable to judge of the design
of a vision than a novice that is a seer.

If an object appear in tbe day or night it will come to pass sooner or later accordingly. If an object is seen early in a morning (which is not freqnent), it will be
accomplished in a few hours afterwards. If at noon, it will commonly be accomplished that very day. If in the evening, perhaps that night; if after candles be lighted, it will be accomplished that night: the later always in accomplishment, by weeks, months, and sometimes years, according to the time of night the vision is seen.

When a shrond is perceived about one, it is a sure prognostic of death, the time is judged according to the
height of it about the person; for if it is seen above the middle, death is not to be expected for the space of a
year, and perhaps some months longer; and as it is frequently eeen to ascend Isigher towards the head, death is concluded to be at hand within a few days,
if not hours, as daily experience confirms.

Examples of this kind were shown me, when the persons of whom the observations were then made enjoyed perfect health. One instance was lately foretold by a
seer that was a novice, concerning the death of one of my acquaintance; this was communicated to a few only, and with great confidence: I being one of the number, did not in the least regard it, until the death of the person, about the time foretold, did confirm me of the certainty of the prediction. The novice mentioned above is now a skilful see; as appears from many late instances; he lives iss the parish of St Mary, the most northern in Skye. If a woman is seen standing at a man’s left hand, it is a presage that she will be his wife, whether they be
married to others, or unmarried, at the time of the apparition.

If two or three women are seen at once, near a man’s left hand, she that is next him will undoubtedly be his wife first, and so on, whethçr all three, or the man, he single or married at the time of the vision or not; of which there are several late instances among those of my acquaintance. It is an ordinary thing for them to see a man that is to come to the house shortly after; and if he is not of the seer’s acquaintance, yet he gives such a lively description of his stature, complexion, habit, etc., that upon his arrival he answers the character given him in all respects. If the person so appearing be one of the seer’s acquaintance, he will tell his name, as well as other particulars and he can tell by his countenance
whether he comes in a good or bad humour.

I have been seen thus myself by seers of both sexes, at some hundred miles’ distance ; some that saw me in this
manner had never seen me personally, and it happened according to their visions, without any previous design of
mine to go to those places, my coming there being pnrely accidental. It is ordinary with them to see houses, gardens, and trees in places void of all three; and this in progress of time comes to be accomplished: as at Mogshot, in the isle of Skye, where there were but a few sorry cow-houses, thatched with straw, yet in a very few years after, the vision, which appeared often, was
accomplished, by the building of several good honses on the very spot represented by the seers, and by the planting of orchards there.

To see a spark of fire fall npon one’s arm or breast, is a forerunner of a dead child to be seen in the arms of those persons ; of which there are several fresh instances.

To see a seat empty at the time of one’s sitting in it, is a presage of that person’s death soon after. When a novice, or one that has lately obtained the second-sight, sees a vision in the night-time without doors, and comes near a fire, he presently falls into a swoon,

Some find themselves as it were in a crowd of people, having a corpse, which they carry along with them ; and after such visions the seers come in sweating, and describe the people that appeared: if there be any of their acquaintance among them, they give an account of
their names, as also of the hearers, but they know nothing concerning the corpse.

All those who have the second-sight do not always see these visions at once, though they be together at the time. But if one who has this faculty designedly touch his fellow-seer at the instant of a vision’s appearing, then
the second sees it as well as the first and this is sometimes discerned by those that are near them on such occasions.

Return To Scots Folklore