Second Sight
The faculty of foreseeing future events which is supposed to belong to certain individuals in the Scottish Highlands. The belief in second sight dates back to a very early period in the history of these regions, and is still very far from being extinct, even in the more accessible parts. Saving the name, there is but little in second sight that is peculiar to the Celts of Scotland, for it is allied to the clairvoyance, prophetic vision, soothsaying, and so on, which have existed from time immemorial in practically every part of the world. Yet the second sight has certain distinctive features of its own. It may, for instance, be either congenital or acquired. In the former case it generally falls to the seventh son of a seventh son, by reason, probably, of the potency of the mystic number seven. Sometimes Highlander may find himself suddenly endowed with the mysterious faculty. A person gifted with second sight is said to be " fey." Generally there is no apparent departure from the normal consciousness during the vision, though sometimes a seer may complain of a feeling of disquiet or uneasiness. A vision may be communicated from one person to another, usually by contact, but the secondary vision is dimmer than that of the original seer. A frequent vision is that of a funeral, indicating that a death will shortly take place in the community. This is an instance of the second sight taking a symbolical turn, and perhaps this is its usual form. a 7 Secret Commonwealth
Occasionally the apparition of the doomed man will be seen-his wraith, or double-while he himself is far distant.
Another form frequently taken by the second sight is that of "seeing lights.' The lights, too, may indicate death, but they may likewise predict lesser happenings, or have no significance at all. Thus a light is seen by two persons to hover above the "Big House," then to travel swiftly in the direction of the gamekeeper's cottage, where it remains stationary for a while. On the morrow the gamekeeper is dead. Again a farmer returning from the market is preceded the whole of the way by a ball of fire, rolling along the road ahead of him. This time, however, the light portends no alarming occurrence, and the excitement of the glen quickly subsides. The lower animals also are said to possess second sight, which is especially frequent among dogs and horses. Two men were travelling from Easdale to Oban on a stormy night. In traversing a short cut through a wood one of them died from fatigue and exposure. That night more than one horse had to be carefully led past the spot by his driver, who as yet knew nothing of the tragedy. Indeed most Highlanders believe that the faculty is common to all the lower animals, else why should they whine and bristle when there is nothing visible to human eyes, nothing audible to human ears? Notwithstanding that the march of civilisation has caused the Highlander partly to conceal his occult beliefs, at least from the unbelieving Sassenach, the writer can vouch for the fact that in certain districts second sight is almost a commonplace, believed in even by those who avow that they are not in the least "superstitious."
M. J.