The Woman Washing Clothes by the Shallows: She's Washing Your Shroud

In old Scottish tales, by the riverside at night, you sometimes meet a woman washing clothes. She squats on the shallows, bent double, scrubbing again and again.

She is called the Washerwoman. She looks a bit strange, with red feet, one nostril, one tooth, and very long breasts that hang down to her knees. The clothes she washes belong to those who are about to die, and they are covered in blood.

Some stories say she is a woman who died on the road in childbirth, punished to wash by the riverside until the day she was meant to live to.

If you go closer and recognize that the garment is yours, it means you will die soon. If you recognize it as belonging to your family, it means they are about to die.

There is a way to escape: while she doesn't notice, creep around behind her, grab her breast, and suck on it, then you become her "foster son," she will grant you one wish, and tell you many things.

This belief exists in many parts of Scotland, and like the Irish banshee, it is an omen of death.

But the elders' advice is much more practical: don't go to the riverside alone at night.

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