The dish was laid softly on the surface of the water. If it turned round sunwise they concluded the patient would recover, and if otherwise, that he would die. Martin lists it with wells nearby: one at Loch Carloway that never whitens linen, and the well at St Cowsten's church whose water never boils meat even if kept on the fire a whole day. He does not say whether he saw the dish test and gives no dates.
The sunwise turn is the lucky direction in Hebridean custom, and the same belief shows in the sunwise circuits Martin describes elsewhere.
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