Crepuscular rays

Taken through a bus window, hence the irritating reflections.

I am still going on about Waverley. This time to mention some of the Fortean aspects of the book. The thing I find interesting is that the Highlanders (Waverley is a sceptic) just take it all very matter of factly. Scott just drops this stuff in as if it were just as much a part of life as getting dressed and eating meals.

There is an incidence of second sight, entered quite casually as one man is prevented from attacking another as it is not yet his time. Only by a day but patience revealed he was correct. There is also a Bodach Glas (grey spirit) belonging to a chieftain's family. The spirit is that of a man cut down in a quarrel with one of his ancestors over how to divide the loot they had gathered from wasting Northumberland. It appears to family members in times of great peril, including impending death. Finally there is an accusation of witchcraft although there is little to incriminate the woman in question apart from being old, living in a creepy shack in the woods and having a propensity to wander about with a heather broom and muttering to herself. Strangely, this is the only one that threatens our hero's scepticism!