A LUCKY PURSE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1515, 15 January 1886, Page 4

A LUCKY PURSE.

Crossing Ballachulish Ferry a short tame ago, a respectable man from a neighbouring district took out his purse in order to pay his fare. We were sitting beside and speaking to him at the moment, and the purse from which he abstracted the necessary coin at once attracted our notice, it was none other thon a iceatel skin, with head, feet, and tail still attached, just as if it bad been a cabinet specimen of the fierce little Mmttela, ready for 14 setting up" As our vu-avit placed it for a moment on bis knee, with its glass-bead eyes, and the lips shrivelled and slightly drawn back so as to show the sharp t«eth, ivory unite at their tips and yellow towards their roots, as in all the order, as if in act to spring at you, it bad a sufficiently life-like appearance to make any one unacquainted with the real state of the case slightly nervous and uncomfortable. In answer to our inquiries—cautiously entered upon, and only when quite alone with our friend—the owner of the weasel skin make no secret of the fact that he carried it, tnd had long carried it, ai a " focky" I

pane! and reminded as (hat there wis an old Gaelic ryhme, which, however, we had not heard before, in which the virtue of a weasel-skiD parse as a money-getter and a money-keeper is is very pointedly referred to. The ryhme, which we took down at the moment, was as nearly as he could recollect it as follows. In English literally thus:

Little, yellow, hole-frequenting weasel, From gold is derived the colour of thy coat of fur. Get it for a purse, to be tied with a thong, And thou sHalt not be without a coin, white, yellow, or brown, From Christmas till Rood Day till the feast of St Brian. Feill-Bbid or FeilUan-Rbkl\ Rood Day, is the autumnal equinox ; noUaig is, as we have rendered it, Christmastide; b"' "•' ,f exact date isineantby the t\...-i ■. Brian or St Brian, we are unable to say, not having at the moment a proper book of reference on the subject beside us. The meaning, however, is obvious—that the man who carries a weasel-skin purse shall always have more or less money therein from Christmas to the ensuing autumnal equinax, and from that date to the feast of Brian, that is, all the vear round. The owner of the weaselskin purse in this instance told us that he had inherited it from his father, who died miny years ago, and when we remarked that it was in excellent condition still, with a close, silken pile, sn.l that his own might inherit it in his turn, he nodded approvingly, and added that he meant it to be so. "My father," he went on, " nerer wanted money in it, uor have I, and I have had my share of losses and bad times too: nor shall my son after me." " Are weasel-skin purses common ? " we inquired, adding that we had never seen one before. " Well, no, not common exactly," was the reply, " but 1 think I kno«v half-a-dozen, or more, among my acquaintances in Appin, Lismore, and Morven. There are other lucky purses," he continued, '• besides weasel-skins, but none, 1 think, so good. A sealskin purse is a good and lucky one, and so is one woven of thread made from lint that, in the process of manufacture, has been 'steeped' in a loch or pool in which a human being has been drowned ! ) " — Xether Lochaber.