Note 59 — Chapter VI · SOME RURAL FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES.
Reading edition
In the Highlands, on New Year’s Day, a discreet person is sent to draw a pitcher of water from the ford, which is drunk next day as a charm against the spell of witchcraft, the malignity of Evil Eyes, and the activity of all infernal agency. So the baker who makes the bannocks on Shrove Tuesday must be mute as a stone; the cake on St. Mark’s Eve must be made in silence, and the same is the rule on St. Faith’s Day.59