He also taught that every person had a tutelary saint in heaven whose anniversary must be marked with a feast at which Roderick was principal guest. He taught the women a hymn said to come from the Virgin Mary which, he claimed, protected any woman who could say it by heart from miscarriage, and each woman paid him a sheep for it.
When the minister Campbell and Martin arrived on St Kilda, Roderick publicly recanted. He was taken to Harris and then Skye, where he made public confession in several churches of his dealings with the devil and not with the Baptist, and was to stay in Skye for good. Martin says his neighbours were glad to be rid of him. The account is from a Protestant visitor, and the details of the man's teaching come only from that viewpoint.
Comments