"'They are well,' said the stranger; 'but how came you to know that I
was here?'
"'Because, sir, I saw, and do see you,' replied the unsuspecting
gossip.
"'With which eye?'
"'With both, to be sure,' said she.
"'I rather think not,' rejoined the gentleman--'try.'
"Upon making the experiment, the poor woman discovered, to her
infinite surprise, that she could only see the stranger with that eye
which she had accidently rubbed with the unguent;--upon which the
enraged fairy--for such he was--spitting into it, deprived it of the
faculty of sight for ever!"
Of this story we have reason to believe that there are various
readings, besides those of the Scotch and Welsh, and that it may be
met with in England and Ireland, with slight variations and
interpolations, if in no other countries.
Have our readers ever heard any fearful story of a spirit attesting
the reality of its apparition, by leaving a burnt impress of fingers
upon whatever it hath touched? We have heard such a tale, or rather
such tales (for literally they are "legion") from many lips, the
circumstances of each being varied, but the main fact always the same:
and, what is most extraordinary, always vouched for as being a portion
of family history, attached to families who have not the slightest
connexion with each other!--If our memory is not extremely
treacherous, we believe that Sir Walter Scott, in one of his works (of
which we have not the good fortune to possess a copy)--probably his
"Ballads and Lyrical Pieces"--gives such a tale as a German tradition.
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