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diff --git a/17071-h/17071-h.htm b/17071-h/17071-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56f2fcf --- /dev/null +++ b/17071-h/17071-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4417 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Folk-Lore and Legends</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Folk-Lore and Legends, by Anonymous</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Folk-Lore and Legends, by Anonymous + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Folk-Lore and Legends + Scotland + + +Author: Anonymous + + + +Release Date: November 15, 2005 [eBook #17071] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLK-LORE AND LEGENDS*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1889 W. W. Gibbings edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>FOLK-LORE AND LEGENDS<br /> +SCOTLAND</h1> +<p>W. W. GIBBINGS<br /> +18 BURY ST., LONDON, W.C.<br /> +1889</p> +<p>Contents:</p> +<p> Prefatory Note<br /> + Canobie Dick and Thomas of Ercildoun.<br /> + Coinnach Oer.<br /> + Elphin Irving.<br /> + The Ghosts of Craig-Aulnaic.<br /> + The Doomed Rider.<br /> + Whippety Stourie.<br /> + The Weird of the Three Arrows.<br /> + The Laird of Balmachie’s Wife.<br /> + Michael Scott.<br /> + The Minister and the Fairy.<br /> + The Fisherman and the Merman.<br /> + The Laird O’ Co’.<br /> + Ewen of the Little Head.<br /> + Jock and his Mother.<br /> + Saint Columba.<br /> + The Mermaid Wife.<br /> + The Fiddler and the Bogle of Bogandoran.<br /> + Thomas the Rhymer.<br /> + Fairy Friends.<br /> + The Seal-Catcher’s Adventure.<br /> + The Fairies of Merlin’s Craig.<br /> + Rory Macgillivray.<br /> + The Haunted Ships.<br /> + The Brownie.<br /> + Mauns’ Stane.<br /> + “Horse and Hattock.”<br /> + Secret Commonwealth.<br /> + The Fairy Boy of Leith.<br /> + The Dracæ.<br /> + Lord Tarbat’s Relations.<br /> + The Bogle.<br /> + Daoine Shie, or the Men of Peace.<br /> + The Death “Bree.”</p> +<h2><!-- page v--><span class="pagenum">p. v</span>PREFATORY NOTE</h2> +<p>The distinctive features of Scotch Folk-lore are such as might have +been expected from a consideration of the characteristics of Scotch +scenery. The rugged grandeur of the mountain, the solemn influence +of the widespreading moor, the dark face of the deep mountain loch, +the babbling of the little stream, seem all to be reflected in the popular +tales and superstitions. The acquaintance with nature in a severe, +grand, and somewhat terrible form must necessarily have its effect on +the human mind, and the Scotch mind and character bear the impress of +their natural surroundings. The fairies, the brownies, the bogles +of Scotland are the same beings as those with whom the Irish have peopled +the hills, the nooks, and the streams of their land, yet how different, +how distinguished from their counterparts, how clothed, as it were, +in the national dress!</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>CANOBIE DICK AND +THOMAS OF ERCILDOUN.</h2> +<p>Now it chanced many years since that there lived on the Borders a +jolly rattling horse-cowper, who was remarkable for a reckless and fearless +temper, which made him much admired and a little dreaded amongst his +neighbours. One moonlight night, as he rode over Bowden Moor, +on the west side of the Eildon Hills, the scene of Thomas the Rhymer’s +prophecies, and often mentioned in his history, having a brace of horses +along with him, which he had not been able to dispose of, he met a man +of venerable appearance and singularly antique dress, who, to his great +surprise, asked the price of his horses, and began to chaffer with him +on the subject. To Canobie Dick, for so shall we call our Border +dealer, a chap was a chap, and he would have sold a horse to the devil +himself, without minding his cloven hoof, and would have probably cheated +Old Nick into the bargain. The stranger paid the price they agreed +on, and all that puzzled Dick in the transaction was, that the gold +which he received was <!-- page 2--><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>in +unicorns, bonnet-pieces, and other ancient coins, which would have been +invaluable to collectors, but were rather troublesome in modern currency. +It was gold, however, and therefore Dick contrived to get better value +for the coin than he perhaps gave to his customer. By the command +of so good a merchant, he brought horses to the same spot more than +once; the purchaser only stipulating that he should always come by night +and alone. I do not know whether it was from mere curiosity, or +whether some hope of gain mixed with it, but after Dick had sold several +horses in this way, he began to complain that dry bargains were unlucky, +and to hint, that since his chap must live in the neighbourhood, he +ought, in the courtesy of dealing, to treat him to half a mutchkin.</p> +<p>“You may see my dwelling if you will,” said the stranger; +“but if you lose courage at what you see there, you will rue it +all your life.”</p> +<p>Dickon, however, laughed the warning to scorn, and having alighted +to secure his horse, he followed the stranger up a narrow footpath, +which led them up the hills to the singular eminence stuck betwixt the +most southern and the centre peaks, and called, from its resemblance +to such an animal in its form, the Lucken Hare. At the foot of +this eminence, which is almost as famous for witch-meetings as the neighbouring +windmill of Kippilaw, Dick was somewhat startled to observe that his +conductor entered <!-- page 3--><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>the +hillside by a passage or cavern, of which he himself, though well acquainted +with the spot, had never seen nor heard.</p> +<p>“You may still return,” said his guide, looking ominously +back upon him; but Dick scorned to show the white feather, and on they +went. They entered a very long range of stables; in every stall +stood a coal-black horse; by every horse lay a knight in coal-black +armour, with a drawn sword in his hand; but all were as silent, hoof +and limb, as if they had been cut out of marble. A great number +of torches lent a gloomy lustre to the hall, which, like those of the +Caliph Vathek, was of large dimensions. At the upper end, however, +they at length arrived, where a sword and horn lay on an antique table.</p> +<p>“He that shall sound that horn and draw that sword,” +said the stranger, who now intimated that he was the famous Thomas of +Ercildoun, “shall, if his heart fail him not, be king over all +broad Britain. So speaks the tongue that cannot lie. But +all depends on courage, and much on your taking the sword or horn first.”</p> +<p>Dick was much disposed to take the sword, but his bold spirit was +quailed by the supernatural terrors of the hall, and he thought to unsheathe +the sword first might be construed into defiance, and give offence to +the powers of the mountain. He took the bugle with a trembling +hand, and blew a <!-- page 4--><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>feeble +note, but loud enough to produce a terrible answer. Thunder rolled +in stunning peals through the immense hall; horses and men started to +life; the steeds snorted, stamped, ground their bits, and tossed their +heads; the warriors sprang to their feet, clashed their armour, and +brandished their swords. Dick’s terror was extreme at seeing +the whole army, which had been so lately silent as the grave, in uproar, +and about to rush on him. He dropped the horn, and made a feeble +attempt to seize the enchanted sword; but at the same moment a voice +pronounced aloud the mysterious words—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Woe to the coward, that ever he was born,<br /> +Who did not draw the sword before he blew the horn!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>At the same time a whirlwind of irresistible fury howled through +the long hall, bore the unfortunate horse-jockey clear out of the mouth +of the cavern, and precipitated him over a steep bank of loose stones, +where the shepherds found him the next morning, with just breath sufficient +to tell his fearful tale, after concluding which he expired.</p> +<h2><!-- page 5--><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>COINNACH OER.</h2> +<p>Coinnach Oer, which means Dun Kenneth, was a celebrated man in his +generation. He has been called the Isaiah of the North. +The prophecies of this man are very frequently alluded to and quoted +in various parts of the Highlands; although little is known of the man +himself, except in Ross-shire. He was a small farmer in Strathpeffer, +near Dingwall, and for many years of his life neither exhibited any +talents, nor claimed any intelligence above his fellows. The manner +in which he obtained the prophetic gift was told by himself in the following +manner:—</p> +<p>As he was one day at work in the hill casting (digging) peats, he +heard a voice which seemed to call to him out of the air. It commanded +him to dig under a little green knoll which was near, and to gather +up the small white stones which he would discover beneath the turf. +The voice informed him, at the same time, that while he kept these stones +in his possession, he should be endued with the power of supernatural +foreknowledge.</p> +<p><!-- page 6--><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>Kenneth, though greatly +alarmed at this aerial conversation, followed the directions of his +invisible instructor, and turning up the turf on the hillock, in a little +time discovered the talismans. From that day forward, the mind +of Kenneth was illuminated by gleams of unearthly light; and he made +many predictions, of which the credulity of the people, and the coincidence +of accident, often supplied confirmation; and he certainly became the +most notable of the Highland prophets. The most remarkable and +well known of his vaticinations is the following:—“Whenever +a M’Lean with long hands, a Fraser with a black spot on his face, +a M’Gregor with a black knee, and a club-footed M’Leod of +Raga, shall have existed; whenever there shall have been successively +three M’Donalds of the name of John, and three M’Kinnons +of the same Christian name,—oppressors will appear in the country, +and the people will change their own land for a strange one.” +All these personages have appeared since; and it is the common opinion +of the peasantry, that the consummation of the prophecy was fulfilled, +when the exaction of the exorbitant rents reduced the Highlanders to +poverty, and the introduction of the sheep banished the people to America.</p> +<p>Whatever might have been the gift of Kenneth Oer, he does not appear +to have used it with an extraordinary degree of discretion; and the +last time he <!-- page 7--><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>exercised +it, he was very near paying dear for his divination.</p> +<p>On this occasion he happened to be at some high festival of the M’Kenzies +at Castle Braan. One of the guests was so exhilarated by the scene +of gaiety, that he could not forbear an eulogium on the gallantry of +the feast, and the nobleness of the guests. Kenneth, it appears, +had no regard for the M’Kenzies, and was so provoked by this sally +in their praise, that he not only broke out into a severe satire against +their whole race, but gave vent to the prophetic denunciation of wrath +and confusion upon their posterity. The guests being informed +(or having overheard a part) of this rhapsody, instantly rose up with +one accord to punish the contumely of the prophet. Kenneth, though +he foretold the fate of others, did not in any manner look into that +of himself; for this reason, being doubtful of debating the propriety +of his prediction upon such unequal terms, he fled with the greatest +precipitation. The M’Kenzies followed with infinite zeal; +and more than one ball had whistled over the head of the seer before +he reached Loch Ousie. The consequences of this prediction so +disgusted Kenneth with any further exercise of his prophetic calling, +that, in the anguish of his flight, he solemnly renounced all communication +with its power; and, as he ran along the margin of Loch Ousie, he took +out the wonderful pebbles, and cast them in a fury <!-- page 8--><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>into +the water. Whether his evil genius had now forsaken him, or his +condition was better than that of his pursuers, is unknown, but certain +it is, Kenneth, after the sacrifice of the pebbles, outstripped his +enraged enemies, and never, so far as I have heard, made any attempt +at prophecy from the hour of his escape.</p> +<p>Kenneth Oer had a son, who was called Ian Dubh Mac Coinnach (Black +John, the son of Kenneth), and lived in the village of Miltoun, near +Dingwall. His chief occupation was brewing whisky; and he was +killed in a fray at Miltoun, early in the present century. His +exit would not have formed the catastrophe of an epic poem, and appears +to have been one of those events of which his father had no intelligence, +for it happened in the following manner:—</p> +<p>Having fallen into a dispute with a man with whom he had previously +been on friendly terms, they proceeded to blows; in the scuffle, the +boy, the son of Ian’s adversary, observing the two combatants +locked in a close and firm gripe of eager contention, and being doubtful +of the event, ran into the house and brought out the iron pot-crook, +with which he saluted the head of the unfortunate Ian so severely, that +he not only relinquished his combat, but departed this life on the ensuing +morning.</p> +<h2><!-- page 9--><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>ELPHIN IRVING.</h2> +<blockquote><p>THE FAIRIES’ CUPBEARER.</p> +<p>“The lady kilted her kirtle green<br /> + A little aboon her knee,<br /> +The lady snooded her yellow hair<br /> + A little aboon her bree,<br /> +And she’s gane to the good greenwood<br /> + As fast as she could hie.</p> +<p>And first she let the black steed pass,<br /> + And syne she let the brown,<br /> +And then she flew to the milk-white steed,<br /> + And pulled the rider down:<br /> +Syne out then sang the queen o’ the fairies,<br /> + Frae midst a bank of broom,<br /> +She that has won him, young Tamlane,<br /> + Has gotten a gallant groom.”</p> +<p><i>Old Ballad</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“The romantic vale of Corriewater, in Annandale, is regarded +by the inhabitants, a pastoral and unmingled people, as the last border +refuge of those beautiful and capricious beings, the fairies. +Many old people yet living imagine they have had intercourse of good +words and good deeds with the ‘good folk’; and continue +to tell that in the ancient <!-- page 10--><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>days +the fairies danced on the hill, and revelled in the glen, and showed +themselves, like the mysterious children of the deity of old, among +the sons and daughters of men. Their visits to the earth were +periods of joy and mirth to mankind, rather than of sorrow and apprehension. +They played on musical instruments of wonderful sweetness and variety +of note, spread unexpected feasts, the supernatural flavour of which +overpowered on many occasions the religious scruples of the Presbyterian +shepherds, performed wonderful deeds of horsemanship, and marched in +midnight processions, when the sound of their elfin minstrelsy charmed +youths and maidens into love for their persons and pursuits; and more +than one family of Corriewater have the fame of augmenting the numbers +of the elfin chivalry. Faces of friends and relatives, long since +doomed to the battle-trench or the deep sea, have been recognised by +those who dared to gaze on the fairy march. The maid has seen +her lost lover, and the mother her stolen child; and the courage to +plan and achieve their deliverance has been possessed by, at least, +one border maiden. In the legends of the people of Corrievale, +there is a singular mixture of elfin and human adventure, and the traditional +story of the Cupbearer to the Queen of the Fairies appeals alike to +our domestic feelings and imagination.</p> +<p>“In one of the little green loops or bends on the banks of +Corriewater, mouldered walls, and a few <!-- page 11--><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>stunted +wild plum-trees and vagrant roses, still point out the site of a cottage +and garden. A well of pure spring-water leaps out from an old +tree-root before the door; and here the shepherds, shading themselves +in summer from the influence of the sun, tell to their children the +wild tale of Elphin Irving and his sister Phemie; and, singular as the +story seems, it has gained full credence among the people where the +scene is laid.”</p> +<p>“I ken the tale and the place weel,” interrupted an old +Scottish woman, who, from the predominance of scarlet in her apparel, +seemed to have been a follower of the camp,—“I ken them +weel, and the tale’s as true as a bullet to its aim and a spark +to powder. O bonnie Corriewater, a thousand times have I pulled +gowans on its banks wi’ ane that lies stiff and stark on a foreign +shore in a bloody grave;” and, sobbing audibly, she drew the remains +of a military cloak over her face, and allowed the story to proceed.</p> +<p>“When Elphin Irving and his sister Phemie were in their sixteenth +year, for tradition says they were twins, their father was drowned in +Corriewater, attempting to save his sheep from a sudden swell, to which +all mountain streams are liable; and their mother, on the day of her +husband’s burial, laid down her head on the pillow, from which, +on the seventh day, it was lifted to be dressed for the same grave. +The inheritance left to the orphans may be <!-- page 12--><span class="pagenum">p. 12</span>briefly +described: seventeen acres of plough and pasture land, seven milk cows, +and seven pet sheep (many old people take delight in odd numbers); and +to this may be added seven bonnet-pieces of Scottish gold, and a broadsword +and spear, which their ancestor had wielded with such strength and courage +in the battle of Dryfe Sands, that the minstrel who sang of that deed +of arms ranked him only second to the Scotts and Johnstones.</p> +<p>“The youth and his sister grew in stature and in beauty. +The brent bright brow, the clear blue eye, and frank and blithe deportment +of the former gave him some influence among the young women of the valley; +while the latter was no less the admiration of the young men, and at +fair and dance, and at bridal, happy was he who touched but her hand, +or received the benediction of her eye. Like all other Scottish +beauties, she was the theme of many a song; and while tradition is yet +busy with the singular history of her brother, song has taken all the +care that rustic minstrelsy can of the gentleness of her spirit and +the charms of her person.”</p> +<p>“Now I vow,” exclaimed a wandering piper, “by mine +own honoured instrument, and by all other instruments that ever yielded +music for the joy and delight of mankind, that there are more bonnie +songs made about fair Phemie Irving than about all other dames of Annandale, +and many of them are both high and bonnie. A proud lass maun she +be if her spirit <!-- page 13--><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>hears; +and men say the dust lies not insensible of beautiful verse; for her +charms are breathed through a thousand sweet lips, and no further gone +than yestermorn I heard a lass singing on a green hillside what I shall +not readily forget. If ye like to listen, ye shall judge; and +it will not stay the story long, nor mar it much, for it is short, and +about Phemie Irving.” And, accordingly, he chanted the following +rude verses, not unaccompanied by his honoured instrument, as he called +his pipe, which chimed in with great effect, and gave richness to a +voice which felt better than it could express:—</p> +<blockquote><p>FAIR PHEMIE IRVING.</p> +<p>Gay is thy glen, Corrie,<br /> + With all thy groves flowering;<br /> +Green is thy glen, Corrie,<br /> + When July is showering;<br /> +And sweet is yon wood where<br /> + The small birds are bowering,<br /> +And there dwells the sweet one<br /> + Whom I am adoring.</p> +<p>Her round neck is whiter<br /> + Than winter when snowing;<br /> +Her meek voice is milder<br /> + Than Ae in its flowing;<br /> +The glad ground yields music<br /> + Where she goes by the river;<br /> +One kind glance would charm me<br /> + For ever and ever.</p> +<p>The proud and the wealthy<br /> + To Phemie are bowing;<br /> +No looks of love win they<br /> + With sighing or suing;<br /> +<!-- page 14--><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>Far away maun I stand<br /> + With my rude wooing,<br /> +She’s a flow’ret too lovely<br /> + Too bloom for my pu’ing.</p> +<p>Oh were I yon violet<br /> + On which she is walking;<br /> +Oh were I yon small bird<br /> + To which she is talking;<br /> +Or yon rose in her hand,<br /> + With its ripe ruddy blossom;<br /> +Or some pure gentle thought<br /> + To be blest with her bosom.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This minstrel interruption, while it established Phemie Irving’s +claim to grace and to beauty, gave me additional confidence to pursue +the story.</p> +<p>“But minstrel skill and true love-tale seemed to want their +usual influence when they sought to win her attention; she was only +observed to pay most respect to those youths who were most beloved by +her brother; and the same hour that brought these twins to the world +seemed to have breathed through them a sweetness and an affection of +heart and mind which nothing could divide. If, like the virgin +queen of the immortal poet, she walked ‘in maiden meditation fancy +free,’ her brother Elphin seemed alike untouched with the charms +of the fairest virgins in Corrie. He ploughed his field, he reaped +his grain, he leaped, he ran, and wrestled, and danced, and sang, with +more skill and life and grace than all other youths of the district; +but he had no twilight and stolen interviews; when all <!-- page 15--><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>other +young men had their loves by their side, he was single, though not unsought, +and his joy seemed never perfect save when his sister was near him. +If he loved to share his time with her, she loved to share her time +with him alone, or with the beasts of the field, or the birds of the +air. She watched her little flock late, and she tended it early; +not for the sordid love of the fleece, unless it was to make mantles +for her brother, but with the look of one who had joy in its company. +The very wild creatures, the deer and the hares, seldom sought to shun +her approach, and the bird forsook not its nest, nor stinted its song, +when she drew nigh; such is the confidence which maiden innocence and +beauty inspire.</p> +<p>“It happened one summer, about three years after they became +orphans, that rain had been for a while withheld from the earth, the +hillsides began to parch, the grass in the vales to wither, and the +stream of Corrie was diminished between its banks to the size of an +ordinary rill. The shepherds drove their flocks to moorlands, +and marsh and tarn had their reeds invaded by the scythe to supply the +cattle with food. The sheep of his sister were Elphin’s +constant care; he drove them to the moistest pastures during the day, +and he often watched them at midnight, when flocks, tempted by the sweet +dewy grass, are known to browse eagerly, that he might guard them from +the fox, and lead <!-- page 16--><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>them +to the choicest herbage. In these nocturnal watchings he sometimes +drove his little flock over the water of Corrie, for the fords were +hardly ankle-deep; or permitted his sheep to cool themselves in the +stream, and taste the grass which grew along the brink. All this +time not a drop of rain fell, nor did a cloud appear in the sky.</p> +<p>“One evening, during her brother’s absence with the flock, +Phemie sat at her cottage-door, listening to the bleatings of the distant +folds and the lessened murmur of the water of Corrie, now scarcely audible +beyond its banks. Her eyes, weary with watching along the accustomed +line of road for the return of Elphin, were turned on the pool beside +her, in which the stars were glimmering fitful and faint. As she +looked she imagined the water grew brighter and brighter; a wild illumination +presently shone upon the pool, and leaped from bank to bank, and suddenly +changing into a human form, ascended the margin, and, passing her, glided +swiftly into the cottage. The visionary form was so like her brother +in shape and air, that, starting up, she flew into the house, with the +hope of finding him in his customary seat. She found him not, +and, impressed with the terror which a wraith or apparition seldom fails +to inspire, she uttered a shriek so loud and so piercing as to be heard +at Johnstone Bank, on the other side of the vale of Corrie.”</p> +<p>An old woman now rose suddenly from her seat <!-- page 17--><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>in +the window-sill, the living dread of shepherds, for she travelled the +country with a brilliant reputation for witchcraft, and thus she broke +in upon the narrative: “I vow, young man, ye tell us the truth +upset and down-thrust. I heard my douce grandmother say that on +the night when Elphin Irving disappeared—disappeared I shall call +it, for the bairn can but be gone for a season, to return to us in his +own appointed time—she was seated at the fireside at Johnstone +Bank; the laird had laid aside his bonnet to take the Book, when a shriek +mair loud, believe me, than a mere woman’s shriek—and they +can shriek loud enough, else they’re sair wranged—came over +the water of Corrie, so sharp and shrilling, that the pewter plates +dinneled on the wall; such a shriek, my douce grandmother said, as rang +in her ear till the hour of her death, and she lived till she was aughty-and-aught, +forty full ripe years after the event. But there is another matter, +which, doubtless, I cannot compel ye to believe: it was the common rumour +that Elphin Irving came not into the world like the other sinful creatures +of the earth, but was one of the kane-bairns of the fairies, whilk they +had to pay to the enemy of man’s salvation every seventh year. +The poor lady-fairy—a mother’s aye a mother, be she elves’ +flesh or Eve’s flesh—hid her elf son beside the christened +flesh in Marion Irving’s cradle, and the auld enemy lost his prey +for a time. Now, hasten on with your story, <!-- page 18--><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>which +is not a bodle the waur for me. The maiden saw the shape of her +brother, fell into a faint, or a trance, and the neighbours came flocking +in—gang on with your tale, young man, and dinna be affronted because +an auld woman helped ye wi ’t.”</p> +<p>“It is hardly known,” I resumed, “how long Phemie +Irving continued in a state of insensibility. The morning was +far advanced, when a neighbouring maiden found her seated in an old +chair, as white as monumental marble; her hair, about which she had +always been solicitous, loosened from its curls, and hanging disordered +over her neck and bosom, her hands and forehead. The maiden touched +the one, and kissed the other; they were as cold as snow; and her eyes, +wide open, were fixed on her brother’s empty chair, with the intensity +of gaze of one who had witnessed the appearance of a spirit. She +seemed insensible of any one’s presence, and sat fixed and still +and motionless. The maiden, alarmed at her looks, thus addressed +her:—‘Phemie, lass, Phemie Irving! Dear me, but this +be awful! I have come to tell ye that seven of your pet sheep +have escaped drowning in the water; for Corrie, sae quiet and sae gentle +yestreen, is rolling and dashing frae bank to bank this morning. +Dear me, woman, dinna let the loss of the world’s gear bereave +ye of your senses. I would rather make ye a present of a dozen +mug-ewes of the Tinwald brood myself; and now I think <!-- page 19--><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>on +’t, if ye’ll send over Elphin, I will help him hame with +them in the gloaming myself. So, Phemie, woman, be comforted.’</p> +<p>“At the mention of her brother’s name she cried out, +‘Where is he? Oh, where is he?’ gazed wildly round, +and, shuddering from head to foot, fell senseless on the floor. +Other inhabitants of the valley, alarmed by the sudden swell of the +river, which had augmented to a torrent, deep and impassable, now came +in to inquire if any loss had been sustained, for numbers of sheep and +teds of hay had been observed floating down about the dawn of the morning. +They assisted in reclaiming the unhappy maiden from her swoon; but insensibility +was joy compared to the sorrow to which she awakened. ‘They +have ta’en him away, they have ta’en him away,’ she +chanted, in a tone of delirious pathos; ‘him that was whiter and +fairer than the lily on Lyddal Lee. They have long sought, and +they have long sued, and they had the power to prevail against my prayers +at last. They have ta’en him away; the flower is plucked +from among the weeds, and the dove is slain amid a flock of ravens. +They came with shout, and they came with song, and they spread the charm, +and they placed the spell, and the baptised brow has been bowed down +to the unbaptised hand. They have ta’en him away, they have +ta’en him away; he was too lovely, and too good, and too noble, +to bless us with his continuance <!-- page 20--><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>on +earth; for what are the sons of men compared to him?—the light +of the moonbeam to the morning sun, the glowworm to the eastern star. +They have ta’en him away, the invisible dwellers of the earth. +I saw them come on him with shouting and with singing, and they charmed +him where he sat, and away they bore him; and the horse he rode was +never shod with iron, nor owned before the mastery of human hand. +They have ta’en him away over the water, and over the wood, and +over the hill. I got but ae look of his bonnie blue ee, but ae; +ae look. But as I have endured what never maiden endured, so will +I undertake what never maiden undertook, I will win him from them all. +I know the invisible ones of the earth; I have heard their wild and +wondrous music in the wild woods, and there shall a christened maiden +seek him, and achieve his deliverance.’ She paused, and +glancing around a circle of condoling faces, down which the tears were +dropping like rain, said, in a calm and altered but still delirious +tone: ‘Why do you weep, Mary Halliday? and why do you weep, John +Graeme? Ye think that Elphin Irving—oh, it’s a bonnie, +bonnie name, and dear to many a maiden’s heart, as well as mine—ye +think he is drowned in Corrie; and ye will seek in the deep, deep pools +for the bonnie, bonnie corse, that ye may weep over it, as it lies in +its last linen, and lay it, amid weeping and wailing in the dowie kirkyard. +<!-- page 21--><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>Ye may seek, but ye +shall never find; so leave me to trim up my hair, and prepare my dwelling, +and make myself ready to watch for the hour of his return to upper earth.’ +And she resumed her household labours with an alacrity which lessened +not the sorrow of her friends.</p> +<p>“Meanwhile the rumour flew over the vale that Elphin Irving +was drowned in Corriewater. Matron and maid, old man and young, +collected suddenly along the banks of the river, which now began to +subside to its natural summer limits, and commenced their search; interrupted +every now and then by calling from side to side, and from pool to pool, +and by exclamations of sorrow for this misfortune. The search +was fruitless: five sheep, pertaining to the flock which he conducted +to pasture, were found drowned in one of the deep eddies; but the river +was still too brown, from the soil of its moorland sources, to enable +them to see what its deep shelves, its pools, and its overhanging and +hazelly banks concealed. They remitted further search till the +stream should become pure; and old man taking old man aside, began to +whisper about the mystery of the youth’s disappearance; old women +laid their lips to the ears of their coevals, and talked of Elphin Irving’s +fairy parentage, and his having been dropped by an unearthly hand into +a Christian cradle. The young men and maids conversed on other +themes; they grieved for the loss of the <!-- page 22--><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>friend +and the lover, and while the former thought that a heart so kind and +true was not left in the vale, the latter thought, as maidens will, +on his handsome person, gentle manners, and merry blue eye, and speculated +with a sigh on the time when they might have hoped a return for their +love. They were soon joined by others who had heard the wild and +delirious language of his sister: the old belief was added to the new +assurance, and both again commented upon by minds full of superstitious +feeling, and hearts full of supernatural fears, till the youths and +maidens of Corrievale held no more love trysts for seven days and nights, +lest, like Elphin Irving, they should be carried away to augment the +ranks of the unchristened chivalry.</p> +<p>“It was curious to listen to the speculations of the peasantry. +‘For my part,’ said a youth, ‘if I were sure that +poor Elphin escaped from that perilous water, I would not give the fairies +a pound of hiplock wool for their chance of him. There has not +been a fairy seen in the land since Donald Cargil, the Cameronian, conjured +them into the Solway for playing on their pipes during one of his nocturnal +preachings on the hip of the Burnswark hill.’</p> +<p>“‘Preserve me, bairn,’ said an old woman, justly +exasperated at the incredulity of her nephew, ‘if ye winna believe +what I both heard and saw at the moonlight end of Craigyburnwood on +a summer <!-- page 23--><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>night, rank +after rank of the fairy folk, ye’ll at least believe a douce man +and a ghostly professor, even the late minister of Tinwaldkirk. +His only son—I mind the lad weel, with his long yellow locks and +his bonnie blue eyes—when I was but a gilpie of a lassie, <i>he</i> +was stolen away from off the horse at his father’s elbow, as they +crossed that false and fearsome water, even Locherbriggflow, on the +night of the Midsummer fair of Dumfries. Ay, ay, who can doubt +the truth of that? Have not the godly inhabitants of Almsfieldtown +and Tinwaldkirk seen the sweet youth riding at midnight, in the midst +of the unhallowed troop, to the sound of flute and of dulcimer, and +though meikle they prayed, naebody tried to achieve his deliverance?’</p> +<p>“‘I have heard it said by douce folk and sponsible,’ +interrupted another, ‘that every seven years the elves and fairies +pay kane, or make an offering of one of their children, to the grand +enemy of salvation, and that they are permitted to purloin one of the +children of men to present to the fiend—a more acceptable offering, +I’ll warrant, than one of their own infernal brood that are Satan’s +sib allies, and drink a drop of the deil’s blood every May morning. +And touching this lost lad, ye all ken his mother was a hawk of an uncanny +nest, a second cousin of Kate Kimmer, of Barfloshan, as rank a witch +as ever rode on ragwort. Ay, sirs, what’s bred in the bone +is ill to come out of the flesh.’</p> +<p><!-- page 24--><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>“On these +and similar topics, which a peasantry full of ancient tradition and +enthusiasm and superstition readily associate with the commonest occurrences +of life, the people of Corrievale continued to converse till the fall +of evening, when each, seeking their home, renewed again the wondrous +subject, and illustrated it with all that popular belief and poetic +imagination could so abundantly supply.</p> +<p>“The night which followed this melancholy day was wild with +wind and rain; the river came down broader and deeper than before, and +the lightning, flashing by fits over the green woods of Corrie, showed +the ungovernable and perilous flood sweeping above its banks. +It happened that a farmer, returning from one of the border fairs, encountered +the full swing of the storm; but mounted on an excellent horse, and +mantled from chin to heel in a good grey plaid, beneath which he had +the further security of a thick greatcoat, he sat dry in his saddle, +and proceeded in the anticipated joy of a subsided tempest and a glowing +morning sun. As he entered the long grove, or rather remains of +the old Galwegian forest, which lines for some space the banks of the +Corriewater, the storm began to abate, the wind sighed milder and milder +among the trees, and here and there a star, twinkling momentarily through +the sudden rack of the clouds, showed the river raging from bank to +brae. As he shook the moisture from his clothes, he was not without +a wish that the <!-- page 25--><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>day +would dawn, and that he might be preserved on a road which his imagination +beset with greater perils than the raging river; for his superstitious +feeling let loose upon his path elf and goblin, and the current traditions +of the district supplied very largely to his apprehension the ready +materials of fear.</p> +<p>“Just as he emerged from the wood, where a fine sloping bank, +covered with short greensward, skirts the limit of the forest, his horse +made a full pause, snorted, trembled, and started from side to side, +stooped his head, erected his ears, and seemed to scrutinise every tree +and bush. The rider, too, it may be imagined, gazed round and +round, and peered warily into every suspicious-looking place. +His dread of a supernatural visitation was not much allayed when he +observed a female shape seated on the ground at the root of a huge old +oak-tree, which stood in the centre of one of those patches of verdant +sward, known by the name of ‘fairy rings,’ and avoided by +all peasants who wish to prosper. A long thin gleam of eastern +daylight enabled him to examine accurately the being who, in this wild +place and unusual hour, gave additional terror to this haunted spot. +She was dressed in white from the neck to the knees; her arms, long +and round and white, were perfectly bare; her head, uncovered, allowed +her long hair to descend in ringlet succeeding ringlet, till the half +of her person was nearly <!-- page 26--><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>concealed +in the fleece. Amidst the whole, her hands were constantly busy +in shedding aside the tresses which interposed between her steady and +uninterrupted gaze down a line of old road which wound among the hills +to an ancient burial-ground.</p> +<p>“As the traveller continued to gaze, the figure suddenly rose, +and, wringing the rain from her long locks, paced round and round the +tree, chanting in a wild and melancholy manner an equally wild and delirious +song.</p> +<blockquote><p>THE FAIRY OAK OF CORRIEWATER.</p> +<p>The small bird’s head is under its wing,<br /> + The deer sleeps on the grass;<br /> +The moon comes out, and the stars shine down,<br /> + The dew gleams like the glass:<br /> +There is no sound in the world so wide,<br /> + Save the sound of the smitten brass,<br /> +With the merry cittern and the pipe<br /> + Of the fairies as they pass.<br /> +But oh! the fire maun burn and burn,<br /> +And the hour is gone, and will never return.</p> +<p>The green hill cleaves, and forth, with a bound,<br /> + Comes elf and elfin steed;<br /> +The moon dives down in a golden cloud,<br /> + The stars grow dim with dread;<br /> +But a light is running along the earth,<br /> + So of heaven’s they have no need:<br /> +O’er moor and moss with a shout they pass,<br /> + And the word is spur and speed—<br /> +But the fire maun burn, and I maun quake,<br /> +And the hour is gone that will never come back.</p> +<p><!-- page 27--><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>And when they came +to Craigyburnwood,<br /> + The Queen of the Fairies spoke:<br /> +“Come, bind your steeds to the rushes so green,<br /> + And dance by the haunted oak:<br /> +I found the acorn on Heshbon Hill,<br /> + In the nook of a palmer’s poke,<br /> +A thousand years since; here it grows!”<br /> + And they danced till the greenwood shook:<br /> +But oh! the fire, the burning fire,<br /> +The longer it burns, it but blazes the higher.</p> +<p>“I have won me a youth,” the Elf Queen said,<br /> + “The fairest that earth may see;<br /> +This night I have won young Elph Irving<br /> + My cupbearer to be.<br /> +His service lasts but seven sweet years,<br /> + And his wage is a kiss of me.”<br /> +And merrily, merrily, laughed the wild elves<br /> + Round Corris’s greenwood tree.<br /> +But oh! the fire it glows in my brain,<br /> +And the hour is gone, and comes not again.</p> +<p>The Queen she has whispered a secret word,<br /> + “Come hither my Elphin sweet,<br /> +And bring that cup of the charméd wine,<br /> + Thy lips and mine to weet.”<br /> +But a brown elf shouted a loud, loud shout,<br /> + “Come, leap on your coursers fleet,<br /> +For here comes the smell of some baptised flesh,<br /> + And the sounding of baptised feet.”<br /> +But oh! the fire that burns, and maun burn;<br /> +For the time that is gone will never return.</p> +<p>On a steed as white as the new-milked milk,<br /> + The Elf Queen leaped with a bound,<br /> +And young Elphin a steed like December snow<br /> + ’Neath him at the word he found.<br /> +But a maiden came, and her christened arms<br /> + She linked her brother around,<br /> +<!-- page 28--><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>And called on God, +and the steed with a snort<br /> + Sank into the gaping ground.<br /> +But the fire maun burn, and I maun quake,<br /> +And the time that is gone will no more come back.</p> +<p>And she held her brother, and lo! he grew<br /> + A wild bull waked in ire;<br /> +And she held her brother, and lo! he changed<br /> + To a river roaring higher;<br /> +And she held her brother, and he became<br /> + A flood of the raging fire;<br /> +She shrieked and sank, and the wild elves laughed<br /> + Till the mountain rang and mire.<br /> +But oh! the fire yet burns in my brain,<br /> +And the hour is gone, and comes not again.</p> +<p>“O maiden, why waxed thy faith so faint,<br /> + Thy spirit so slack and slaw?<br /> +Thy courage kept good till the flame waxed wud,<br /> + Then thy might begun to thaw;<br /> +Had ye kissed him with thy christened lip,<br /> + Ye had wan him frae ’mang us a’.<br /> +Now bless the fire, the elfin fire,<br /> + That made thee faint and fa’;<br /> +Now bless the fire, the elfin fire,<br /> +The longer it burns it blazes the higher.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“At the close of this unusual strain, the figure sat down on +the grass, and proceeded to bind up her long and disordered tresses, +gazing along the old and unfrequented road. ‘Now God be +my helper,’ said the traveller, who happened to be the laird of +Johnstone Bank, ‘can this be a trick of the fiend, or can it be +bonnie Phemie Irving who chants this dolorous sang? Something +sad has befallen that makes her seek her seat in this eerie nook amid +the darkness and tempest; through might from <!-- page 29--><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>aboon +I will go on and see.’ And the horse, feeling something +of the owner’s reviving spirit in the application of spur-steel, +bore him at once to the foot of the tree. The poor delirious maiden +uttered a yell of piercing joy as she beheld him, and, with the swiftness +of a creature winged, linked her arms round the rider’s waist, +and shrieked till the woods rang. ‘Oh, I have ye now, Elphin, +I have ye now,’ and she strained him to her bosom with a convulsive +grasp. ‘What ails ye, my bonnie lass?’ said the laird +of Johnstone Bank, his fears of the supernatural vanishing when he beheld +her sad and bewildered look. She raised her eyes at the sound, +and seeing a strange face, her arms slipped their hold, and she dropped +with a groan on the ground.</p> +<p>“The morning had now fairly broke; the flocks shook the rain +from their sides, the shepherds hastened to inspect their charges, and +a thin blue smoke began to stream from the cottages of the valley into +the brightening air. The laird carried Phemie Irving in his arms, +till he observed two shepherds ascending from one of the loops of Corriewater, +bearing the lifeless body of her brother. They had found him whirling +round and round in one of the numerous eddies, and his hands, clutched +and filled with wool, showed that he had lost his life in attempting +to save the flock of his sister. A plaid was laid over the body, +which, along with the unhappy maiden in a half-lifeless state, was carried +<!-- page 30--><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>into a cottage, and +laid in that apartment distinguished among the peasantry by the name +of the chamber. While the peasant’s wife was left to take +care of Phemie, old man and matron and maid had collected around the +drowned youth, and each began to relate the circumstances of his death, +when the door suddenly opened, and his sister, advancing to the corpse, +with a look of delirious serenity, broke out into a wild laugh and said: +‘Oh, it is wonderful, it’s truly wonderful! That bare +and death-cold body, dragged from the darkest pool of Corrie, with its +hands filled with fine wool, wears the perfect similitude of my own +Elphin! I’ll tell ye—the spiritual dwellers of the +earth, the fairyfolk of our evening tale, have stolen the living body, +and fashioned this cold and inanimate clod to mislead your pursuit. +In common eyes this seems all that Elphin Irving would be, had he sunk +in Corriewater; but so it seems not to me. Ye have sought the +living soul, and ye have found only its garment. But oh, if ye +had beheld him, as I beheld him to-night, riding among the elfin troop, +the fairest of them all; had you clasped him in your arms, and wrestled +for him with spirits and terrible shapes from the other world, till +your heart quailed and your flesh was subdued, then would ye yield no +credit to the semblance which this cold and apparent flesh bears to +my brother. But hearken! On Hallowmass Eve, when the spiritual +people are let loose on earth for <!-- page 31--><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>a +season, I will take my stand in the burial-ground of Corrie; and when +my Elphin and his unchristened troop come past, with the sound of all +their minstrelsy, I will leap on him and win him, or perish for ever.’</p> +<p>“All gazed aghast on the delirious maiden, and many of her +auditors gave more credence to her distempered speech than to the visible +evidence before them. As she turned to depart, she looked round, +and suddenly sank upon the body, with tears streaming from her eyes, +and sobbed out, ‘My brother! Oh, my brother!’ +She was carried out insensible, and again recovered; but relapsed into +her ordinary delirium, in which she continued till the Hallow Eve after +her brother’s burial. She was found seated in the ancient +burial-ground, her back against a broken gravestone, her locks white +with frost-rime, watching with intensity of look the road to the kirkyard; +but the spirit which gave life to the fairest form of all the maids +of Annandale was fled for ever.”</p> +<p>Such is the singular story which the peasants know by the name of +“Elphin Irving, the Fairies’ Cupbearer”; and the title, +in its fullest and most supernatural sense, still obtains credence among +the industrious and virtuous dames of the romantic vale of Corrie.</p> +<h2><!-- page 32--><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>THE GHOSTS OF CRAIG-AULNAIC.</h2> +<p>Two celebrated ghosts existed, once on a time, in the wilds of Craig-Aulnaic, +a romantic place in the district of Strathdown, Banffshire. The +one was a male and the other a female. The male was called Fhuna +Mhoir Ben Baynac, after one of the mountains of Glenavon, where at one +time he resided; and the female was called Clashnichd Aulnaic, from +her having had her abode in Craig-Aulnaic. But although the great +ghost of Ben Baynac was bound by the common ties of nature and of honour +to protect and cherish his weaker companion, Clashnichd Aulnaic, yet +he often treated her in the most cruel and unfeeling manner. In +the dead of night, when the surrounding hamlets were buried in deep +repose, and when nothing else disturbed the solemn stillness of the +midnight scene, oft would the shrill shrieks of poor Clashnichd burst +upon the slumberer’s ears, and awake him to anything but pleasant +reflections.</p> +<p>But of all those who were incommoded by the noisy and unseemly quarrels +of these two ghosts, James Owre or Gray, the tenant of the farm of <!-- page 33--><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>Balbig +of Delnabo, was the greatest sufferer. From the proximity of his +abode to their haunts, it was the misfortune of himself and family to +be the nightly audience of Clashnichd’s cries and lamentations, +which they considered anything but agreeable entertainment.</p> +<p>One day as James Gray was on his rounds looking after his sheep, +he happened to fall in with Clashnichd, the ghost of Aulnaic, with whom +he entered into a long conversation. In the course of it he took +occasion to remonstrate with her on the very disagreeable disturbance +she caused himself and family by her wild and unearthly cries—cries +which, he said, few mortals could relish in the dreary hours of midnight. +Poor Clashnichd, by way of apology for her conduct, gave James Gray +a sad account of her usage, detailing at full length the series of cruelties +committed upon her by Ben Baynac. From this account, it appeared +that her living with the latter was by no means a matter of choice with +Clashnichd; on the contrary, it seemed that she had, for a long time, +lived apart with much comfort, residing in a snug dwelling, as already +mentioned, in the wilds of Craig-Aulnaic; but Ben Baynac having unfortunately +taken into his head to pay her a visit, took a fancy, not to herself, +but her dwelling, of which, in his own name and authority, he took immediate +possession, and soon after he expelled poor Clashnichd, with many stripes, +from her natural <!-- page 34--><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>inheritance. +Not satisfied with invading and depriving her of her just rights, he +was in the habit of following her into her private haunts, not with +the view of offering her any endearments, but for the purpose of inflicting +on her person every torment which his brain could invent.</p> +<p>Such a moving relation could not fail to affect the generous heart +of James Gray, who determined from that moment to risk life and limb +in order to vindicate the rights and avenge the wrongs of poor Clashnichd, +the ghost of Craig-Aulnaic. He, therefore, took good care to interrogate +his new <i>protégée</i> touching the nature of her oppressor’s +constitution, whether he was of that <i>killable</i> species of ghost +that could be shot with a silver sixpence, or if there was any other +weapon that could possibly accomplish his annihilation. Clashnichd +informed him that she had occasion to know that Ben Baynac was wholly +invulnerable to all the weapons of man, with the exception of a large +mole on his left breast, which was no doubt penetrable by silver or +steel; but that, from the specimens she had of his personal prowess +and strength, it were vain for mere man to attempt to combat him. +Confiding, however, in his expertness as an archer—for he was +allowed to be the best marksman of the age—James Gray told Clashnichd +he did not fear him with all his might,—that <i>he</i> was a man; +and desired her, moreover, next time the ghost chose <!-- page 35--><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>to +repeat his incivilities to her, to apply to him, James Gray, for redress.</p> +<p>It was not long ere he had an opportunity of fulfilling his promises. +Ben Baynac having one night, in the want of better amusement, entertained +himself by inflicting an inhuman castigation on Clashnichd, she lost +no time in waiting on James Gray, with a full and particular account +of it. She found him smoking his <i>cutty</i>, for it was night +when she came to him; but, notwithstanding the inconvenience of the +hour, James needed no great persuasion to induce him to proceed directly +along with Clashnichd to hold a communing with their friend, Ben Baynac, +the great ghost. Clashnichd was stout and sturdy, and understood +the knack of travelling much better than our women do. She expressed +a wish that, for the sake of expedition, James Gray would suffer her +to bear him along, a motion to which the latter agreed; and a few minutes +brought them close to the scene of Ben Baynac’s residence. +As they approached his haunt, he came forth to meet them, with looks +and gestures which did not at all indicate a cordial welcome. +It was a fine moonlight night, and they could easily observe his actions. +Poor Clashnichd was now sorely afraid of the great ghost. Apprehending +instant destruction from his fury, she exclaimed to James Gray that +they would be both dead people, and that immediately, unless James Gray +hit with an arrow the mole which covered Ben <!-- page 36--><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>Baynac’s +heart. This was not so difficult a task as James had hitherto +apprehended it. The mole was as large as a common bonnet, and +yet nowise disproportioned to the natural size of the ghost’s +body, for he certainly was a great and a mighty ghost. Ben Baynac +cried out to James Gray that he would soon make eagle’s meat of +him; and certain it is, such was his intention, had not the shepherd +so effectually stopped him from the execution of it. Raising his +bow to his eye when within a few yards of Ben Baynac, he took deliberate +aim; the arrow flew—it hit—a yell from Ben Baynac announced +the result. A hideous howl re-echoed from the surrounding mountains, +responsive to the groans of a thousand ghosts; and Ben Baynac, like +the smoke of a shot, vanished into air.</p> +<p>Clashnichd, the ghost of Aulnaic, now found herself emancipated from +the most abject state of slavery, and restored to freedom and liberty, +through the invincible courage of James Gray. Overpowered with +gratitude, she fell at his feet, and vowed to devote the whole of her +time and talents towards his service and prosperity. Meanwhile, +being anxious to have her remaining goods and furniture removed to her +former dwelling, whence she had been so iniquitously expelled by Ben +Baynac, the great ghost, she requested of her new master the use of +his horses to remove them. James observing on the adjacent hill +a flock of deer, and wishing to have a <!-- page 37--><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>trial +of his new servant’s sagacity or expertness, told her those were +his horses—she was welcome to the use of them; desiring that when +she had done with them, she would inclose them in his stable. +Clashnichd then proceeded to make use of the horses, and James Gray +returned home to enjoy his night’s rest.</p> +<p>Scarce had he reached his arm-chair, and reclined his cheek on his +hand, to ruminate over the bold adventure of the night, when Clashnichd +entered, with her “breath in her throat,” and venting the +bitterest complaints at the unruliness of his horses, which had broken +one-half of her furniture, and caused her more trouble in the stabling +of them than their services were worth.</p> +<p>“Oh! they are stabled, then?” inquired James Gray. +Clashnichd replied in the affirmative. “Very well,” +rejoined James, “they shall be tame enough to-morrow.”</p> +<p>From this specimen of Clashnichd, the ghost of Craig-Aulnaic’s +expertness, it will be seen what a valuable acquisition her service +proved to James Gray and his young family. They were, however, +speedily deprived of her assistance by a most unfortunate accident. +From the sequel of the story, from which the foregoing is an extract, +it appears that poor Clashnichd was deeply addicted to propensities +which at that time rendered her kin so obnoxious to their human neighbours. +She was constantly in the habit of visiting her friends much <!-- page 38--><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>oftener +than she was invited, and, in the course of such visits, was never very +scrupulous in making free with any eatables which fell within the circle +of her observation.</p> +<p>One day, while engaged on a foraging expedition of this description, +she happened to enter the Mill of Delnabo, which was inhabited in those +days by the miller’s family. She found his wife engaged +in roasting a large gridiron of fine savoury fish, the agreeable smell +proceeding from which perhaps occasioned her visit. With the usual +inquiries after the health of the miller and his family, Clashnichd +proceeded with the greatest familiarity and good-humour to make herself +comfortable at their expense. But the miller’s wife, enraged +at the loss of her fish, and not relishing such unwelcome familiarity, +punished the unfortunate Clashnichd rather too severely for her freedom. +It happened that there was at the time a large caldron of boiling water +suspended over the fire, and this caldron the enraged wife overturned +in Clashnichd’s bosom!</p> +<p>Scalded beyond recovery, she fled up the wilds of Craig-Aulnaic, +uttering the most melancholy lamentations, nor has she been ever heard +of since.</p> +<h2><!-- page 39--><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>THE DOOMED RIDER.</h2> +<p>“The Conan is as bonny a river as we hae in a’ the north +country. There’s mony a sweet sunny spot on its banks, an’ +mony a time an’ aft hae I waded through its shallows, whan a boy, +to set my little scautling-line for the trouts an’ the eels, or +to gather the big pearl-mussels that lie sae thick in the fords. +But its bonny wooded banks are places for enjoying the day in—no +for passing the nicht. I kenna how it is; it’s nane o’ +your wild streams that wander desolate through a desert country, like +the Aven, or that come rushing down in foam and thunder, ower broken +rocks, like the Foyers, or that wallow in darkness, deep, deep in the +bowels o’ the earth, like the fearfu’ Auldgraunt; an’ +yet no ane o’ these rivers has mair or frightfuller stories connected +wi’ it than the Conan. Ane can hardly saunter ower half-a-mile +in its course, frae where it leaves Coutin till where it enters the +sea, without passing ower the scene o’ some frightful auld legend +o’ the kelpie or the waterwraith. And ane o’ the most +frightful looking o’ these places is to be found among the <!-- page 40--><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>woods +of Conan House. Ye enter a swampy meadow that waves wi’ +flags an’ rushes like a corn-field in harvest, an’ see a +hillock covered wi’ willows rising like an island in the midst. +There are thick mirk-woods on ilka side; the river, dark an’ awesome, +an’ whirling round an’ round in mossy eddies, sweeps away +behind it; an’ there is an auld burying-ground, wi’ the +broken ruins o’ an auld Papist kirk, on the tap. Ane can +see amang the rougher stanes the rose-wrought mullions of an arched +window, an’ the trough that ance held the holy water. About +twa hunder years ago—a wee mair maybe, or a wee less, for ane +canna be very sure o’ the date o’ thae old stories—the +building was entire; an’ a spot near it, whar the wood now grows +thickest, was laid out in a corn-field. The marks o’ the +furrows may still be seen amang the trees.</p> +<p>“A party o’ Highlanders were busily engaged, ae day in +harvest, in cutting down the corn o’ that field; an’ just +aboot noon, when the sun shone brightest an’ they were busiest +in the work, they heard a voice frae the river exclaim:—‘The +hour but not the man has come.’ Sure enough, on looking +round, there was the kelpie stan’in’ in what they ca’ +a fause ford, just fornent the auld kirk. There is a deep black +pool baith aboon an’ below, but i’ the ford there’s +a bonny ripple, that shows, as ane might think, but little depth o’ +water; an’ just i’ <!-- page 41--><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>the +middle o’ that, in a place where a horse might swim, stood the +kelpie. An’ it again repeated its words:—‘The +hour but not the man has come,’ an’ then flashing through +the water like a drake, it disappeared in the lower pool. When +the folk stood wondering what the creature might mean, they saw a man +on horseback come spurring down the hill in hot haste, making straight +for the fause ford. They could then understand her words at ance; +an’ four o’ the stoutest o’ them sprang oot frae amang +the corn to warn him o’ his danger, an’ keep him back. +An’ sae they tauld him what they had seen an’ heard, an’ +urged him either to turn back an’ tak’ anither road, or +stay for an hour or sae where he was. But he just wadna hear them, +for he was baith unbelieving an’ in haste, an’ wauld hae +taen the ford for a’ they could say, hadna the Highlanders, determined +on saving him whether he would or no, gathered round him an’ pulled +him frae his horse, an’ then, to mak’ sure o’ him, +locked him up in the auld kirk. Weel, when the hour had gone by—the +fatal hour o’ the kelpie—they flung open the door, an’ +cried to him that he might noo gang on his journey. Ah! but there +was nae answer, though; an’ sae they cried a second time, an’ +there was nae answer still; an’ then they went in, an’ found +him lying stiff an’ cauld on the floor, wi’ his face buried +in the water o’ the very stone trough that we may still see amang +the ruins. <!-- page 42--><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>His +hour had come, an’ he had fallen in a fit, as ’twould seem, +head-foremost amang the water o’ the trough, where he had been +smothered,—an’ sae ye see, the prophecy o’ the kelpie +availed naething.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 43--><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>WHIPPETY STOURIE.</h2> +<p>There was once a gentleman that lived in a very grand house, and +he married a young lady that had been delicately brought up. In +her husband’s house she found everything that was fine—fine +tables and chairs, fine looking-glasses, and fine curtains; but then +her husband expected her to be able to spin twelve hanks o’ thread +every day, besides attending to her house; and, to tell the even-down +truth, the lady could not spin a bit. This made her husband glunchy +with her, and, before a month had passed, she found hersel’ very +unhappy.</p> +<p>One day the husband gaed away upon a journey, after telling her that +he expected her, before his return, to have not only learned to spin, +but to have spun a hundred hanks o’ thread. Quite downcast, +she took a walk along the hillside, till she cam’ to a big flat +stane, and there she sat down and grat. By and by she heard a +strain o’ fine sma’ music, coming as it were frae aneath +the stane, and, on turning it up, she saw a cave below, where there +were sitting <!-- page 44--><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>six wee +ladies in green gowns, ilk ane o’ them spinning on a little wheel, +and singing,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Little kens my dame at hame<br /> +That Whippety Stourie is my name.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The lady walked into the cave, and was kindly asked by the wee bodies +to take a chair and sit down, while they still continued their spinning. +She observed that ilk ane’s mouth was thrawn away to ae side, +but she didna venture to speer the reason. They asked why she +looked so unhappy, and she telt them that it was she was expected by +her husband to be a good spinner, when the plain truth was that she +could not spin at all, and found herself quite unable for it, having +been so delicately brought up; neither was there any need for it, as +her husband was a rich man.</p> +<p>“Oh, is that a’?” said the little wifies, speaking +out of their cheeks alike.</p> +<p>“Yes, and is it not a very good a’ too?” said the +lady, her heart like to burst wi’ distress.</p> +<p>“We could easily quit ye o’ that trouble,” said +the wee women. “Just ask us a’ to dinner for the day +when your husband is to come back. We’ll then let you see +how we’ll manage him.”</p> +<p>So the lady asked them all to dine with herself and her husband, +on the day when he was to come back.</p> +<p>When the gudeman came hame, he found the <!-- page 45--><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>house +so occupied with preparations for dinner, that he had nae time to ask +his wife about her thread; and, before ever he had ance spoken to her +on the subject, the company was announced at the hall door. The +six ladies all came in a coach-and-six, and were as fine as princesses, +but still wore their gowns of green. The gentleman was very polite, +and showed them up the stair with a pair of wax candles in his hand. +And so they all sat down to dinner, and conversation went on very pleasantly, +till at length the husband, becoming familiar with them, said—</p> +<p>“Ladies, if it be not an uncivil question, I should like to +know how it happens that all your mouths are turned away to one side?”</p> +<p>“Oh,” said ilk ane at ance, “it’s with our +constant <i>spin-spin-spinning</i>.”</p> +<p>“Is that the case?” cried the gentleman; “then, +John, Tam, and Dick, fie, go haste and burn every rock, and reel, and +spinning-wheel in the house, for I’ll not have my wife to spoil +her bonnie face with <i>spin-spin-spinning</i>.”</p> +<p>And so the lady lived happily with her gudeman all the rest of her +days.</p> +<h2><!-- page 46--><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>THE WEIRD OF THE +THREE ARROWS.</h2> +<p>Sir James Douglas, the companion of Bruce, and well known by his +appellation of the “Black Douglas,” was once, during the +hottest period of the exterminating war carried on by him and his colleague +Randolph, against the English, stationed at Linthaughlee, near Jedburgh. +He was resting, himself and his men after the toils of many days’ +fighting-marches through Teviotdale; and, according to his custom, had +walked round the tents, previous to retiring to the unquiet rest of +a soldier’s bed. He stood for a few minutes at the entrance +to his tent contemplating the scene before him, rendered more interesting +by a clear moon, whose silver beams fell, in the silence of a night +without a breath of wind, calmly on the slumbers of mortals destined +to mix in the melée of dreadful war, perhaps on the morrow. +As he stood gazing, irresolute whether to retire to rest or indulge +longer in a train of thought not very suitable to a warrior who delighted +in the spirit-stirring scenes of his profession, his eye was attracted +by the figure of an old woman, who approached <!-- page 47--><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>him +with a trembling step, leaning on a staff, and holding in her left hand +three English cloth-shaft arrows.</p> +<p>“You are he who is ca’ed the guid Sir James?” said +the old woman.</p> +<p>“I am, good woman,” replied Sir James. “Why +hast thou wandered from the sutler’s camp?”</p> +<p>“I dinna belang to the camp o’ the hoblers,” answered +the woman. “I hae been a residenter in Linthaughlee since +the day when King Alexander passed the door o’ my cottage wi’ +his bonny French bride, wha was terrified awa’ frae Jedburgh by +the death’s-head whilk appeared to her on the day o’ her +marriage. What I hae suffered sin’ that day” (looking +at the arrows in her hand) “lies between me an’ heaven.”</p> +<p>“Some of your sons have been killed in the wars, I presume?” +said Sir James.</p> +<p>“Ye hae guessed a pairt o’ my waes,” replied the +woman. “That arrow” (holding out one of the three) +“carries on its point the bluid o’ my first born; that is +stained wi’ the stream that poured frae the heart o’ my +second; and that is red wi’ the gore in which my youngest weltered, +as he gae up the life that made me childless. They were a’ +shot by English hands, in different armies, in different battles. +I am an honest woman, and wish to return to the English what belongs +to the English; but that in the same fashion in which they were sent. +<!-- page 48--><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>The Black Douglas has +the strongest arm an’ the surest ee in auld Scotland; an’ +wha can execute my commission better than he?”</p> +<p>“I do not use the bow, good woman,” replied Sir James. +“I love the grasp of the dagger or the battle-axe. You must +apply to some other individual to return your arrows.”</p> +<p>“I canna tak’ them hame again,” said the woman, +laying them down at the feet of Sir James. “Ye’ll +see me again on St. James’ E’en.”</p> +<p>The old woman departed as she said these words.</p> +<p>Sir James took up the arrows, and placed them in an empty quiver +that lay amongst his baggage. He retired to rest, but not to sleep. +The figure of the old woman and her strange request occupied his thoughts, +and produced trains of meditation which ended in nothing but restlessness +and disquietude. Getting up at daybreak, he met a messenger at +the entrance of his tent, who informed him that Sir Thomas de Richmont, +with a force of ten thousand men, had crossed the Borders, and would +pass through a narrow defile, which he mentioned, where he could be +attacked with great advantage. Sir James gave instant orders to +march to the spot; and, with that genius for scheming, for which he +was so remarkable, commanded his men to twist together the young birch-trees +on either side of the passage to prevent the escape of the enemy. +This finished, he concealed his archers in a hollow way, near the gorge +of the pass.</p> +<p><!-- page 49--><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>The enemy came on; +and when their ranks were embarrassed by the narrowness of the road, +and it was impossible for the cavalry to act with effect, Sir James +rushed upon them at the head of his horsemen; and the archers, suddenly +discovering themselves, poured in a flight of arrows on the confused +soldiers, and put the whole army to flight. In the heat of the +onset, Douglas killed Sir Thomas de Richmont with his dagger.</p> +<p>Not long after this, Edmund de Cailon, a knight of Gascony, and Governor +of Berwick, who had been heard to vaunt that he had sought the famous +Black Knight, but could not find him, was returning to England, loaded +with plunder, the fruit of an inroad on Teviotdale. Sir James +thought it a pity that a Gascon’s vaunt should be heard unpunished +in Scotland, and made long forced marches to satisfy the desire of the +foreign knight, by giving him a sight of the dark countenance he had +made a subject of reproach. He soon succeeded in gratifying both +himself and the Gascon. Coming up in his terrible manner, he called +to Cailon to stop, and, before he proceeded into England, receive the +respects of the Black Knight he had come to find, but hitherto had not +met. The Gascon’s vaunt was now changed; but shame supplied +the place of courage, and he ordered his men to receive Douglas’s +attack. Sir James assiduously sought his enemy. He at last +succeeded; and a single combat ensued, <!-- page 50--><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>of +a most desperate character. But who ever escaped the arm of Douglas +when fairly opposed to him in single conflict? Cailon was killed; +he had met the Black Knight at last.</p> +<p>“So much,” cried Sir James, “for the vaunt of a +Gascon!”</p> +<p>Similar in every respect to the fate of Cailon, was that of Sir Ralph +Neville. He, too, on hearing the great fame of Douglas’s +prowess, from some of Gallon’s fugitive soldiers, openly boasted +that he would fight with the Scottish Knight, if he would come and show +his banner before Berwick. Sir James heard the boast and rejoiced +in it. He marched to that town, and caused his men to ravage the +country in front of the battlements, and burn the villages. Neville +left Berwick with a strong body of men; and, stationing himself on a +high ground, waited till the rest of the Scots should disperse to plunder; +but Douglas called in his detachment and attacked the knight. +After a desperate conflict, in which many were slain, Douglas, as was +his custom, succeeded in bringing the leader to a personal encounter, +and the skill of the Scottish knight was again successful. Neville +was slain, and his men utterly discomfited.</p> +<p>Having retired one night to his tent to take some rest after so much +pain and toil, Sir James Douglas was surprised by the reappearance of +the old woman whom he had seen at Linthaughlee.</p> +<p><!-- page 51--><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>“This is the +feast o’ St. James,” said she, as she approached him. +“I said I would see ye again this nicht, an’ I’m as +guid’s my word. Hae ye returned the arrows I left wi’ +ye to the English wha sent them to the hearts o’ my sons?”</p> +<p>“No,” replied Sir James. “I told ye I did +not fight with the bow. Wherefore do ye importune me thus?”</p> +<p>“Give me back the arrows then,” said the woman.</p> +<p>Sir James went to bring the quiver in which he had placed them. +On taking them out, he was surprised to find that they were all broken +through the middle.</p> +<p>“How has this happened?” said he. “I put +these arrows in this quiver entire, and now they are broken.”</p> +<p>“The weird is fulfilled!” cried the old woman, laughing +eldrichly, and clapping her hands. “That broken shaft cam’ +frae a soldier o’ Richmont’s; that frae ane o’ Cailon’s, +and that frae ane o’ Neville’s. They are a’ +dead, an’ I am revenged!”</p> +<p>The old woman then departed, scattering, as she went, the broken +fragments of the arrows on the floor of the tent.</p> +<h2><!-- page 52--><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>THE LAIRD OF BALMACHIE’S +WIFE.</h2> +<p>In the olden times, when it was the fashion for gentlemen to wear +swords, the Laird of Balmachie went one day to Dundee, leaving his wife +at home ill in bed. Riding home in the twilight, he had occasion +to leave the high road, and when crossing between some little romantic +knolls, called the Cur-hills, in the neighbourhood of Carlungy, he encountered +a troop of fairies supporting a kind of litter, upon which some person +seemed to be borne. Being a man of dauntless courage, and, as +he said, impelled by some internal impulse, he pushed his horse close +to the litter, drew his sword, laid it across the vehicle, and in a +firm tone exclaimed—</p> +<p>“In the name of God, release your captive.”</p> +<p>The tiny troop immediately disappeared, dropping the litter on the +ground. The laird dismounted, and found that it contained his +own wife, dressed in her bedclothes. Wrapping his coat around +her, he placed her on the horse before him, and, having <!-- page 53--><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>only +a short distance to ride, arrived safely at home.</p> +<p>Placing her in another room, under the care of an attentive friend, +he immediately went to the chamber where he had left his wife in the +morning, and there to all appearance she still lay, very sick of a fever. +She was fretful, discontented, and complained much of having been neglected +in his absence, at all of which the laird affected great concern, and +pretending much sympathy, insisted upon her rising to have her bed made. +She said that she was unable to rise, but her husband was peremptory, +and having ordered a large wood fire to warm the room, he lifted the +impostor from the bed, and bearing her across the floor as if to a chair, +which had been previously prepared, he threw her on the fire, from which +she bounced like a sky-rocket, and went through the ceiling, and out +at the roof of the house, leaving a hole among the slates. He +then brought in his own wife, a little recovered from her alarm, who +said, that sometime after sunset, the nurse having left her for the +purpose of preparing a little candle, a multitude of elves came in at +the window, thronging like bees from a hive. They filled the room, +and having lifted her from the bed carried her through the window, after +which she recollected nothing further, till she saw her husband standing +over her on the Cur-hills, at the back of <!-- page 54--><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>Carlungy. +The hole in the roof, by which the female fairy made her escape, was +mended, but could never be kept in repair, as a tempest of wind happened +always once a year, which uncovered that particular spot, without injuring +any other part of the roof.</p> +<h2><!-- page 55--><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>MICHAEL SCOTT.</h2> +<p>In the early part of Michael Scott’s life he was in the habit +of emigrating annually to the Scottish metropolis, for the purpose of +being employed in his capacity of mason. One time as he and two +companions were journeying to the place of their destination for a similar +object, they had occasion to pass over a high hill, the name of which +is not mentioned, but which is supposed to have been one of the Grampians, +and being fatigued with climbing, they sat down to rest themselves. +They had no sooner done so than they were warned to take to their heels +by the hissing of a large serpent, which they observed revolving itself +towards them with great velocity. Terrified at the sight, Michael’s +two companions fled, while he, on the contrary, resolved to encounter +the reptile. The appalling monster approached Michael Scott with +distended mouth and forked tongue; and, throwing itself into a coil +at his feet, was raising its head to inflict a mortal sting, when Michael, +with one stroke of his stick, severed its body into three pieces. +Having rejoined <!-- page 56--><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>his +affrighted comrades, they resumed their journey; and, on arriving at +the next public-house, it being late, and the travellers being weary, +they took up their quarters at it for the night. In the course +of the night’s conversation, reference was naturally made to Michael’s +recent exploit with the serpent, when the landlady of the house, who +was remarkable for her “arts,” happened to be present. +Her curiosity appeared much excited by the conversation; and, after +making some inquiries regarding the colour of the serpent, which she +was told was white, she offered any of them that would procure her the +middle piece such a tempting reward, as induced one of the party instantly +to go for it. The distance was not very great; and on reaching +the spot, he found the middle and tail piece in the place where Michael +left them, but the head piece was gone.</p> +<p>The landlady on receiving the piece, which still vibrated with life, +seemed highly gratified at her acquisition; and, over and above the +promised reward, regaled her lodgers very plentifully with the choicest +dainties in her house. Fired with curiosity to know the purpose +for which the serpent was intended, the wily Michael Scott was immediately +seized with a severe fit of indisposition, which caused him to prefer +the request that he might be allowed to sleep beside the fire, the warmth +of which, he affirmed, was in the highest degree beneficial to him.</p> +<p><!-- page 57--><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>Never suspecting +Michael Scott’s hypocrisy, and naturally supposing that a person +so severely indisposed would feel very little curiosity about the contents +of any cooking utensils which might lie around the fire, the landlady +allowed his request. As soon as the other inmates of the house +were retired to bed, the landlady resorted to her darling occupation; +and, in his feigned state of indisposition, Michael had a favourable +opportunity of watching most scrupulously all her actions through the +keyhole of a door leading to the next apartment where she was. +He could see the rites and ceremonies with which the serpent was put +into the oven, along with many mysterious ingredients. After which +the unsuspicious landlady placed the dish by the fireside, where lay +the distressed traveller, to stove till the morning.</p> +<p>Once or twice in the course of the night the “wife of the change-house,” +under the pretence of inquiring for her sick lodger, and administering +to him some renovating cordials, the beneficial effects of which he +gratefully acknowledged, took occasion to dip her finger in her saucepan, +upon which the cock, perched on his roost, crowed aloud. All Michael’s +sickness could not prevent him considering very inquisitively the landlady’s +cantrips, and particularly the influence of the sauce upon the crowing +of the cock. Nor could he dissipate some inward desires he felt +to follow her example. At <!-- page 58--><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>the +same time, he suspected that Satan had a hand in the pie, yet he thought +he would like very much to be at the bottom of the concern; and thus +his reason and his curiosity clashed against each other for the space +of several hours. At length passion, as is too often the case, +became the conqueror. Michael, too, dipped his finger in the sauce, +and applied it to the tip of his tongue, and immediately the cock perched +on the <i>spardan</i> announced the circumstance in a mournful clarion. +Instantly his mind received a new light to which he was formerly a stranger, +and the astonished dupe of a landlady now found it her interest to admit +her sagacious lodger into a knowledge of the remainder of her secrets.</p> +<p>Endowed with the knowledge of “good and evil,” and all +the “second sights” that can be acquired, Michael left his +lodgings in the morning, with the philosopher’s stone in his pocket. +By daily perfecting his supernatural attainments, by new series of discoveries, +he became more than a match for Satan himself. Having seduced +some thousands of Satan’s best workmen into his employment, he +trained them up so successfully to the architective business, and inspired +them with such industrious habits, that he was more than sufficient +for all the architectural work of the empire. To establish this +assertion, we need only refer to some remains of his workmanship still +existing north of the Grampians, some of them, stupendous bridges built +by him in one short night, <!-- page 59--><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>with +no other visible agents than two or three workmen.</p> +<p>On one occasion work was getting scarce, as might have been naturally +expected, and his workmen, as they were wont, flocked to his doors, +perpetually exclaiming, “Work! work! work!” Continually +annoyed by their incessant entreaties, he called out to them in derision +to go and make a dry road from Fortrose to Arderseir, over the Moray +Firth. Immediately their cry ceased, and as Scott supposed it +wholly impossible for them to execute his order, he retired to rest, +laughing most heartily at the chimerical sort of employment he had given +to his industrious workmen. Early in the morning, however, he +got up and took a walk at the break of day down to the shore to divert +himself at the fruitless labours of his zealous workmen. But on +reaching the spot, what was his astonishment to find the formidable +piece of work allotted to them only a few hours before already nearly +finished. Seeing the great damage the commercial class of the +community would sustain from the operation, he ordered the workmen to +demolish the most part of their work; leaving, however, the point of +Fortrose to show the traveller to this day the wonderful exploit of +Michael Scott’s fairies.</p> +<p>On being thus again thrown out of employment, their former clamour +was resumed, nor could Michael Scott, with all his sagacity, devise +a plan to keep <!-- page 60--><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>them +in innocent employment. He at length discovered one. “Go,” +says he, “and manufacture me ropes that will carry me to the back +of the moon, of these materials—<i>miller’s-sudds</i> and +sea-sand.” Michael Scott here obtained rest from his active +operators; for, when other work failed them, he always despatched them +to their rope manufactory. But though these agents could never +make proper ropes of those materials, their efforts to that effect are +far from being contemptible, for some of their ropes are seen by the +sea-side to this day.</p> +<p>We shall close our notice of Michael Scott by reciting one anecdote +of him in the latter part of his life.</p> +<p>In consequence of a violent quarrel which Michael Scott once had +with a person whom he conceived to have caused him some injury, he resolved, +as the highest punishment he could inflict upon him, to send his adversary +to that evil place designed only for Satan and his black companions. +He accordingly, by means of his supernatural machinations, sent the +poor unfortunate man thither; and had he been sent by any other means +than those of Michael Scott, he would no doubt have met with a warm +reception. Out of pure spite to Michael, however, when Satan learned +who was his billet-master, he would no more receive him than he would +receive the Wife of Beth; and instead of treating the unfortunate man +with the harshness characteristic <!-- page 61--><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>of +him, he showed him considerable civilities. Introducing him to +his “Ben Taigh,” he directed her to show the stranger any +curiosities he might wish to see, hinting very significantly that he +had provided some accommodation for their mutual friend, Michael Scott, +the sight of which might afford him some gratification. The polite +housekeeper accordingly conducted the stranger through the principal +apartments in the house, where he saw fearful sights. But the +bed of Michael Scott!—his greatest enemy could not but feel satiated +with revenge at the sight of it. It was a place too horrid to +be described, filled promiscuously with all the awful brutes imaginable. +Toads and lions, lizards and leeches, and, amongst the rest, not the +least conspicuous, a large serpent gaping for Michael Scott, with its +mouth wide open. This last sight having satisfied the stranger’s +curiosity, he was led to the outer gate, and came away. He reached +his friends, and, among other pieces of news touching his travels, he +was not backward in relating the entertainment that awaited his friend +Michael Scott, as soon as he would “stretch his foot” for +the other world. But Michael did not at all appear disconcerted +at his friend’s intelligence. He affirmed that he would +disappoint all his enemies in their expectations—in proof of which +he gave the following signs: “When I am just dead,” says +he, “open my breast and extract my heart. Carry it to some +place where <!-- page 62--><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>the public +may see the result. You will then transfix it upon a long pole, +and if Satan will have my soul, he will come in the likeness of a black +raven and carry it off; and if my soul will be saved it will be carried +off by a white dove.”</p> +<p>His friends faithfully obeyed his instructions. Having exhibited +his heart in the manner directed, a large black raven was observed to +come from the east with great fleetness, while a white dove came from +the west with equal velocity. The raven made a furious dash at +the heart, missing which, it was unable to curb its force, till it was +considerably past it; and the dove, reaching the spot at the same time, +carried off the heart amidst the rejoicing and ejaculations of the spectators.</p> +<h2><!-- page 63--><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>THE MINISTER AND +THE FAIRY.</h2> +<p>Not long since, a pious clergyman was returning home, after administering +spiritual consolation to a dying member of his flock. It was late +of the night, and he had to pass through a good deal of <i>uncanny</i> +land. He was, however, a good and a conscientious minister of +the Gospel, and feared not all the spirits in the country. On +his reaching the end of a lake which stretched along the roadside for +some distance, he was a good deal surprised at hearing the most melodious +strains of music. Overcome by pleasure and curiosity, the minister +coolly sat down to listen to the harmonious sounds, and try what new +discoveries he could make with regard to their nature and source. +He had not sat many minutes before he could distinguish the approach +of the music, and also observe a light in the direction from whence +it proceeded gliding across the lake towards him. Instead of taking +to his heels, as any faithless wight would have done, the pastor fearlessly +determined to await the issue of the phenomenon. As the light +and music drew near, the clergyman could at <!-- page 64--><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>length +distinguish an object resembling a human being walking on the surface +of the water, attended by a group of diminutive musicians, some of them +bearing lights, and others instruments of music, from which they continued +to evoke those melodious strains which first attracted his attention. +The leader of the band dismissed his attendants, landed on the beach, +and afforded the minister the amplest opportunities of examining his +appearance. He was a little primitive-looking grey-headed man, +clad in the most grotesque habit the clergyman had ever seen, and such +as led him at once to suspect his real character. He walked up +to the minister, whom he saluted with great grace, offering an apology +for his intrusion. The pastor returned his compliments, and, without +further explanation, invited the mysterious stranger to sit down by +his side. The invitation was complied with, upon which the minister +proposed the following question:—“Who art thou, stranger, +and from whence?”</p> +<p>To this question the fairy, with downcast eye, replied that he was +one of those sometimes called <i>Doane Shee</i>, or men of peace, or +good men, though the reverse of this title was a more fit appellation +for them. Originally angelic in his nature and attributes, and +once a sharer of the indescribable joys of the regions of light, he +was seduced by Satan to join him in his mad conspiracies; and, as a +punishment for his transgression, he was cast down <!-- page 65--><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>from +those regions of bliss, and was now doomed, along with millions of fellow-sufferers, +to wander through seas and mountains, until the coming of the Great +Day. What their fate would be then they could not divine, but +they apprehended the worst. “And,” continued he, turning +to the minister, with great anxiety, “the object of my present +intrusion on you is to learn your opinion, as an eminent divine, as +to our final condition on that dreadful day.” Here the venerable +pastor entered upon a long conversation with the fairy, touching the +principles of faith and repentance. Receiving rather unsatisfactory +answers to his questions, the minister desired the “sheech” +to repeat after him the Paternoster, in attempting to do which, it was +not a little remarkable that he could not repeat the word “art,” +but said “<i>wert</i>,” in heaven. Inferring from +every circumstance that their fate was extremely precarious, the minister +resolved not to puff the fairies up with presumptuous, and, perhaps, +groundless expectations. Accordingly, addressing himself to the +unhappy fairy, who was all anxiety to know the nature of his sentiments, +the reverend gentleman told him that he could not take it upon him to +give them any hopes of pardon, as their crime was of so deep a hue as +scarcely to admit of it. On this the unhappy fairy uttered a shriek +of despair, plunged headlong into the loch, and the minister resumed +his course to his home.</p> +<h2><!-- page 66--><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>THE FISHERMAN AND +THE MERMAN.</h2> +<p>Of mermen and merwomen many strange stories are told in the Shetland +Isles. Beneath the depths of the ocean, according to these stories, +an atmosphere exists adapted to the respiratory organs of certain beings, +resembling, in form, the human race, possessed of surpassing beauty, +of limited supernatural powers, and liable to the incident of death. +They dwell in a wide territory of the globe, far below the region of +fishes, over which the sea, like the cloudy canopy of our sky, loftily +rolls, and they possess habitations constructed of the pearl and coral +productions of the ocean. Having lungs not adapted to a watery +medium, but to the nature of atmospheric air, it would be impossible +for them to pass through the volume of waters that intervenes between +the submarine and supramarine world, if it were not for the extraordinary +power they inherit of entering the skin of some animal capable of existing +in the sea, which they are enabled to occupy by a sort of demoniacal +possession. One shape they put on, is that of an animal human +above the waist, <!-- page 67--><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>yet +terminating below in the tail and fins of a fish, but the most favourite +form is that of the larger seal or Haaf-fish; for, in possessing an +amphibious nature, they are enabled not only to exist in the ocean, +but to land on some rock, where they frequently lighten themselves of +their sea-dress, resume their proper shape, and with much curiosity +examine the nature of the upper world belonging to the human race. +Unfortunately, however, each merman or merwoman possesses but one skin, +enabling the individual to ascend the seas, and if, on visiting the +abode of man, the garb be lost, the hapless being must unavoidably become +an inhabitant of the earth.</p> +<p>A story is told of a boat’s crew who landed for the purpose +of attacking the seals lying in the hollows of the crags at one of the +stacks. The men stunned a number of the animals, and while they +were in this state stripped them of their skins, with the fat attached +to them. Leaving the carcasses on the rock, the crew were about +to set off for the shore of Papa Stour, when such a tremendous swell +arose that every one flew quickly to the boat. All succeeded in +entering it except one man, who had imprudently lingered behind. +The crew were unwilling to leave a companion to perish on the skerries, +but the surge increased so fast, that after many unsuccessful attempts +to bring the boat close in to the stack the unfortunate wight was left +to his fate. A stormy night came on, and the deserted <!-- page 68--><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>Shetlander +saw no prospect before him but that of perishing from cold and hunger, +or of being washed into the sea by the breakers which threatened to +dash over the rocks. At length, he perceived many of the seals, +who, in their flight had escaped the attack of the boatmen, approach +the skerry, disrobe themselves of their amphibious hides, and resume +the shape of the sons and daughters of the ocean. Their first +object was to assist in the recovery of their friends, who having been +stunned by clubs, had, while in that state, been deprived of their skins. +When the flayed animals had regained their sensibility, they assumed +their proper form of mermen or merwomen, and began to lament in a mournful +lay, wildly accompanied by the storm that was raging around, the loss +of their sea-dress, which would prevent them from again enjoying their +native azure atmosphere, and coral mansions that lay below the deep +waters of the Atlantic. But their chief lamentation was for Ollavitinus, +the son of Gioga, who, having been stripped of his seal’s skin, +would be for ever parted from his mates, and condemned to become an +outcast inhabitant of the upper world. Their song was at length +broken off, by observing one of their enemies viewing, with shivering +limbs and looks of comfortless despair, the wild waves that dashed over +the stack. Gioga immediately conceived the idea of rendering subservient +to the advantage of the son the perilous situation of the man. +<!-- page 69--><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>She addressed him with +mildness, proposing to carry him safe on her back across the sea to +Papa Stour, on condition of receiving the seal-skin of Ollavitinus. +A bargain was struck, and Gioga clad herself in her amphibious garb; +but the Shetlander, alarmed at the sight of the stormy main that he +was to ride through, prudently begged leave of the matron, for his better +preservation, that he might be allowed to cut a few holes in her shoulders +and flanks, in order to procure, between the skin and the flesh, a better +fastening for his hands and feet. The request being complied with, +the man grasped the neck of the seal, and committing himself to her +care, she landed him safely at Acres Gio in Papa Stour; from which place +he immediately repaired to a skeo at Hamna Voe, where the skin was deposited, +and honourably fulfilled his part of the contract, by affording Gioga +the means whereby her son could again revisit the ethereal space over +which the sea spread its green mantle.</p> +<h2><!-- page 70--><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>THE LAIRD O’ +CO’.</h2> +<p>In the days of yore, the proprietors of Colzean, in Ayrshire (ancestors +of the Marquis of Ailsa), were known in that country by the title of +Lairds o’ Co’, a name bestowed on Colzean from some co’s +(or coves) in the rock beneath the castle.</p> +<p>One morning, a very little boy, carrying a small wooden can, addressed +the Laird near the castle gate, begging for a little ale for his mother, +who was sick. The Laird directed him to go to the butler and get +his can filled; so away he went as ordered. The butler had a barrel +of ale on tap, but about half full, out of which he proceeded to fill +the boy’s can; but to his extreme surprise he emptied the cask, +and still the little can was not nearly full. The butler was unwilling +to broach another barrel, but the little fellow insisted on the fulfilment +of the Laird’s order, and a reference was made to the Laird by +the butler, who stated the miraculous capacity of the tiny can, and +received instant orders to fill it if all the ale in the cellar would +suffice. Obedient to this command, he broached another cask, but +had <!-- page 71--><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>scarcely drawn +a drop when the can was full, and the dwarf departed with expressions +of gratitude.</p> +<p>Some years afterwards the Laird being at the wars in Flanders was +taken prisoner, and for some reason or other (probably as a spy) condemned +to die a felon’s death. The night prior to the day for his +execution, being confined in a dungeon strongly barricaded, the doors +suddenly flew open, and the dwarf reappeared, saying—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Laird o’ Co’,<br /> +Rise an’ go.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>a summons too welcome to require repetition.</p> +<p>On emerging from prison, the boy caused him to mount on his shoulders, +and in a short time set him down at his own gate, on the very spot where +they had formerly met, saying—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Ae gude turn deserves anither—<br /> +Tak’ ye that for being sae kin’ to my auld mither,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and vanished.</p> +<h2><!-- page 72--><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>EWEN OF THE LITTLE +HEAD.</h2> +<p>About three hundred years ago, Ewen Maclaine of Lochbuy, in the island +of Mull, having been engaged in a quarrel with a neighbouring chief, +a day was fixed for determining the affair by the sword. Lochbuy, +before the day arrived, consulted a celebrated witch as to the result +of the feud. The witch declared that if Lochbuy’s wife should +on the morning of that day give him and his men food unasked, he would +be victorious, but if not, the result would be the reverse. This +was a disheartening response for the unhappy votary, his wife being +a noted shrew.</p> +<p>The fatal morning arrived, and the hour for meeting the enemy approached, +but there appeared no symptoms of refreshment for Lochbuy and his men. +At length the unfortunate man was compelled to ask his wife to supply +them with food. She set down before them curds, but without spoons. +When the husband inquired how they were to eat them, she replied they +should assume the bills of hens. The men ate the curds, as well +as they could, with their hands; but Lochbuy himself ate none. +After <!-- page 73--><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>behaving with +the greatest bravery in the bloody conflict which ensued, he fell covered +with wounds, leaving his wife to the execration of the people. +She is still known in that district under the appellation of Corr-dhu, +or the Black Crane.</p> +<p>But the miseries brought on the luckless Lochbuy by his wife did +not end with his life, for he died fasting, and his ghost is frequently +seen to this day riding the very horse on which he was mounted when +he was killed. It was a small, but very neat and active pony, +dun or mouse-coloured, to which the Laird was much attached, and on +which he had ridden for many years before his death. Its appearance +is as accurately described in the island of Mull as any steed is at +Newmarket. The prints of its shoes are discerned by connoisseurs, +and the rattling of its curb is recognised in the darkest night. +It is not particular with regard to roads, for it goes up hill and down +dale with equal velocity. Its hard-fated rider still wears the +same green cloak which covered him in his last battle; and he is particularly +distinguished by the small size of his head, a peculiarity which, we +suspect, the learned disciples of Spurzheim have never yet had the sagacity +to discover as indicative of an extraordinary talent and incomparable +perseverance in horsemanship.</p> +<p>It is now above three hundred years since Ewen-a-chin-vig (<i>Anglice</i>, +Hugh of the Little Head) fell in the field of honour; but neither the +vigour of the <!-- page 74--><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>horse +nor of the rider is yet diminished. His mournful duty has always +been to attend the dying moments of every member of his own tribe, and +to escort the departed spirit on its long and arduous journey. +He has been seen in the remotest of the Hebrides; and he has found his +way to Ireland on these occasions long before steam navigation was invented. +About a century ago he took a fancy for a young man of his own race, +and frequently did him the honour of placing him behind himself on horseback. +He entered into conversation with him, and foretold many circumstances +connected with the fate of his successors, which have undoubtedly since +come to pass.</p> +<p>Many a long winter night have I listened to the feats of Ewen-a-chin-vig, +the faithful and indefatigable guardian of his ancient family, in the +hour of their last and greatest trial, affording an example worthy the +imitation of every chief,—perhaps not beneath the notice of Glengarry +himself.</p> +<p>About a dozen years since some symptoms of Ewen’s decay gave +very general alarm to his friends. He accosted one of his own +people (indeed he never has been known to notice any other), and, shaking +him cordially by the hand, he attempted to place him on the saddle behind +him, but the uncourteous dog declined the honour. Ewen struggled +hard, but the clown was a great, strong, clumsy fellow, and stuck to +the earth with all his might. He <!-- page 75--><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>candidly +acknowledged, however, that his chief would have prevailed, had it not +been for a birch-tree which stood by, and which he got within the fold +of his left arm. The contest became very warm indeed, and the +tree was certainly twisted like an osier, as thousands can testify who +saw it as well as myself. At length, however, Ewen lost his seat +for the first time, and the instant the pony found he was his own master, +he set off with the fleetness of lightning. Ewen immediately pursued +his steed, and the wearied rustic sped his way homeward. It was +the general opinion that Ewen found considerable difficulty in catching +the horse; but I am happy to learn that he has been lately seen riding +the old mouse-coloured pony without the least change in either the horse +or the rider. Long may he continue to do so!</p> +<p>Those who from motives of piety or curiosity have visited the sacred +island of Iona, must remember to have seen the guide point out the tomb +of Ewen, with his figure on horseback, very elegantly sculptured in +alto-relievo, and many of the above facts are on such occasions related.</p> +<h2><!-- page 76--><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>JOCK AND HIS MOTHER.</h2> +<p>Ye see, there was a wife had a son, and they called him Jock; and +she said to him, “You are a lazy fellow; ye maun gang awa’ +and do something for to help me.” “Weel,” says +Jock, “I’ll do that.” So awa’ he gangs, +and fa’s in wi’ a packman. Says the packman, “If +you carry my pack a’ day, I’ll gie you a needle at night.” +So he carried the pack, and got the needle; and as he was gaun awa’ +hame to his mither, he cuts a burden o’ brackens, and put the +needle into the heart o’ them. Awa’ he gaes hame. +Says his mither, “What hae ye made o’ yoursel’ the +day?” Says Jock, “I fell in wi’ a packman, and +carried his pack a’ day, and he gae me a needle for’t, and +ye may look for it amang the brackens.” “Hout,” +quo’ she, “ye daft gowk, you should hae stuck it into your +bonnet, man.” “I’ll mind that again,” +quo’ Jock.</p> +<p>Next day he fell in wi’ a man carrying plough socks. +“If ye help me to carry my socks a’ day, I’ll gie +ye ane to yersel’ at night.” “I’ll do +that,” quo’ Jock. Jock carried them a’ day, +and got a <!-- page 77--><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>sock, which +he stuck in his bonnet. On the way hame, Jock was dry, and gaed +away to take a drink out o’ the burn; and wi’ the weight +o’ the sock, his bonnet fell into the river, and gaed out o’ +sight. He gaed hame, and his mither says, “Weel, Jock, what +hae you been doing a’ day?” And then he tells her. +“Hout,” quo’ she, “you should hae tied the string +to it, and trailed it behind you.” “Weel,” quo’ +Jock, “I’ll mind that again.”</p> +<p>Awa’ he sets, and he fa’s in wi’ a flesher. +“Weel,” says the flesher, “if ye’ll be my servant +a’ day, I’ll gie ye a leg o’ mutton at night.” +“I’ll be that,” quo’ Jock. He got a leg +o’ mutton at night. He ties a string to it, and trails it +behind him the hale road hame. “What hae ye been doing?” +said his mither. He tells her. “Hout, you fool, ye +should hae carried it on your shouther.” “I’ll +mind that again,” quo’ Jock.</p> +<p>Awa’ he gaes next day, and meets a horse-dealer. He says, +“If you will help me wi’ my horses a’ day, I’ll +give you ane to yoursel’ at night.” “I’ll +do that,” quo’ Jock. So he served him, and got his +horse, and he ties its feet; but as he was not able to carry it on his +back, he left it lying on the roadside. Hame he comes, and tells +his mither. “Hout, ye daft gowk, ye’ll ne’er +turn wise! Could ye no hae loupen on it, and ridden it?” +“I’ll mind that again,” quo’ Jock.</p> +<p>Aweel, there was a grand gentleman, wha had a <!-- page 78--><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>daughter +wha was very subject to melancholy; and her father gae out that whaever +should mak’ her laugh would get her in marriage. So it happened +that she was sitting at the window ae day, musing in her melancholy +state, when Jock, according to the advice o’ his mither, cam’ +flying up on a cow’s back, wi’ the tail over his shouther. +And she burst out into a fit o’ laughter. When they made +inquiry wha made her laugh, it was found to be Jock riding on the cow. +Accordingly, Jock was sent for to get his bride. Weel, Jock was +married to her, and there was a great supper prepared. Amongst +the rest o’ the things, there was some honey, which Jock was very +fond o’. After supper, they all retired, and the auld priest +that married them sat up a’ night by the kitchen fireside. +So Jock waukens in the night-time, and says, “Oh, wad ye gie me +some o’ yon nice sweet honey that we got to our supper last night?” +“Oh ay,” says his wife, “rise and gang into the press, +and ye’ll get a pig fou o ’t.” Jock rose, and +thrust his hand into the honey-pig for a nievefu’ o ’t, +and he could not get it out. So he cam’ awa’ wi’ +the pig in his hand, like a mason’s mell, and says, “Oh, +I canna get my hand out.” “Hoot,” quo’ +she, “gang awa’ and break it on the cheek-stane.” +By this time, the fire was dark, and the auld priest was lying snoring +wi’ his head against the chimney-piece, wi’ a huge white +wig on. Jock gaes awa’, and gae him a whack wi’ the +honey-pig on the <!-- page 79--><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>head, +thinking it was the cheek-stane, and knocks it a’ in bits. +The auld priest roars out, “Murder!” Jock tak’s +doun the stair as hard as he could bicker, and hides himsel’ amang +the bees’ skeps.</p> +<p>That night, as luck wad have it, some thieves cam’ to steal +the bees’ skeps, and in the hurry o’ tumbling them into +a large grey plaid, they tumbled Jock in alang wi’ them. +So aff they set, wi’ Jock and the skeps on their backs. +On the way, they had to cross the burn where Jock lost his bonnet. +Ane o’ the thieves cries, “Oh, I hae fand a bonnet!” +and Jock, on hearing that, cries out, “Oh, that’s mine!” +They thocht they had got the deil on their backs. So they let +a’ fa’ in the burn; and Jock, being tied in the plaid, couldna +get out; so he and the bees were a’ drowned thegither.</p> +<p>If a’ tales be true, that’s nae lee.</p> +<h2><!-- page 80--><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>SAINT COLUMBA.</h2> +<p>Soon after Saint Columba established his residence in Iona, tradition +says that he paid a visit to a great seminary of Druids, then in the +vicinity, at a place called Camusnan Ceul, or Bay of Cells, in the district +of Ardnamurchan. Several remains of Druidical circles are still +to be seen there, and on that bay and the neighbourhood many places +are still named after their rites and ceremonies; such as <i>Ardintibert</i>, +the Mount of Sacrifice, and others. The fame of the Saint had +been for some time well known to the people, and his intention of instructing +them in the doctrines of Christianity was announced to them. The +ancient priesthood made every exertion to dissuade the inhabitants from +hearing the powerful eloquence of Columba, and in this they were seconded +by the principal man then in that country, whose name was Donald, a +son of Connal.</p> +<p>The Saint had no sooner made his appearance, however, than he was +surrounded by a vast multitude, anxious to hear so celebrated a preacher; +and after the sermon was ended, many persons expressed <!-- page 81--><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>a +desire to be baptized, in spite of the remonstrances of the Druids. +Columba had made choice of an eminence centrally situated for performing +worship; but there was no water near the spot, and the son of Connal +threatened with punishment any who should dare to procure it for his +purpose. The Saint stood with his back leaning on a rock; after +a short prayer, he struck the rock with his foot, and a stream of water +issued forth in great abundance. The miracle had a powerful effect +on the minds of his hearers, and many became converts to the new religion. +This fountain is still distinguished by the name of Columba, and is +considered of superior efficacy in the cure of diseases. When +the Catholic form of worship prevailed in that country it was greatly +resorted to, and old persons yet remember to have seen offerings left +at the fountain in gratitude for benefits received from the benignant +influence of the Saint’s blessing on the water. At length +it is said that a daughter of Donald, the son of Connal, expressed a +wish to be baptized, and the father restrained her by violence. +He also, with the aid of the Druids, forced Columba to take refuge in +his boat, and the holy man departed for Iona, after warning the inhospitable +Caledonian to prepare for another world, as his life would soon terminate.</p> +<p>The Saint was at sea during the whole night, which was stormy; and +when approaching the shores of his own sacred island the following <!-- page 82--><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>morning, +a vast number of ravens were observed flying over the boat, chasing +another of extraordinary large size. The croaking of the ravens +awoke the Saint, who had been sleeping; and he instantly exclaimed that +the son of Connal had just expired, which was afterwards ascertained +to be true.</p> +<p>A very large Christian establishment appears to have been afterwards +formed in the Bay of Cells; and the remains of a chapel, dedicated to +Saint Kiaran, are still to be seen there. It is the favourite +place of interment among the Catholics of this day. Indeed, Columba +and many of his successors seem to have adopted the policy of engrafting +their institutions on those which had formerly existed in the country. +Of this there are innumerable instances, at least we observe the ruins +of both still visible in many places; even in Iona we find the burying-ground +of the Druids known at the present day. This practice may have +had advantages at the time, but it must have been ultimately productive +of many corruptions; and, in a great measure, accounts for many superstitious +and absurd customs which prevailed among that people to a very recent +period, and which are not yet entirely extinct. In a very ancient +family in that country two round balls of coarse glass have been carefully +preserved from time immemorial, and to these have been ascribed many +virtues—amongst others, the cure of any extraordinary disease +among cattle. The balls were immersed <!-- page 83--><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>in +cold water for three days and nights, and the water was afterwards sprinkled +over all the cattle; this was expected to cure those affected, and to +prevent the disease in the rest. From the names and appearance +of these balls, there is no doubt that they had been symbols used by +the Archdruids.</p> +<p>Within a short distance of the Bay of Cells there is a cave very +remarkable in its appearance, and still more so from the purposes to +which it has been appropriated. Saint Columba, on one of his many +voyages among the Hebrides, was benighted on this rocky coast, and the +mariners were alarmed for their own safety. The Saint assured +them that neither he nor his crew would ever be drowned. They +unexpectedly discovered a light at no great distance, and to that they +directed their course. Columba’s boat consisted of a frame +of osiers, which was covered with hides of leather, and it was received +into a very narrow creek close to this cave. After returning thanks +for their escape, the Saint and his people had great difficulty in climbing +up to the cave, which is elevated considerably above sea. They +at length got sight of the fire which had first attracted their attention. +Several persons sat around it, and their appearance was not much calculated +to please the holy man. Their aspects were fierce, and they had +on the fire some flesh roasting over the coals. The Saint gave +them his benediction; and he was invited to sit down among them and +to share <!-- page 84--><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>their hurried +repast, with which he gladly complied. They were freebooters, +who lived by plunder and robbery, and this Columba soon discovered. +He advised them to forsake that course, and to be converted to his doctrines, +to which they all assented, and in the morning they accompanied the +Saint on his voyage homeward. This circumstance created a high +veneration for the cave among the disciples and successors of Columba, +and that veneration still continues, in some degree. In one side +of it there was a cleft of the rock, where lay the water with which +the freebooters had been baptized; and this was afterwards formed by +art into a basin, which is supplied with water by drops from the roof +of the cave. It is alleged never to be empty or to overflow, and +the most salubrious qualities are ascribed to it. To obtain the +benefit of it, however, the votaries must undergo a very severe ordeal. +They must be in the cave before daylight; they stand on the spot where +the Saint first landed his boat, and nine waves must dash over their +heads; they must afterwards pass through nine openings in the walls +of the cave; and, lastly, they must swallow nine mouthfuls out of the +holy basin. After invoking the aid of the Saint, the votaries +within three weeks are either relieved by death or by recovery. +Offerings are left in a certain place appropriated for that purpose; +and these are sometimes of considerable value, nor are they <!-- page 85--><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>ever +abstracted. Strangers are always informed that a young man, who +had wantonly taken away some of these not many years since, broke his +leg before he got home, and this affords the property of the Saint ample +protection.</p> +<h2><!-- page 86--><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>THE MERMAID WIFE.</h2> +<p>A story is told of an inhabitant of Unst, who, in walking on the +sandy margin of a voe, saw a number of mermen and mermaids dancing by +moonlight, and several seal-skins strewed beside them on the ground. +At his approach they immediately fled to secure their garbs, and, taking +upon themselves the form of seals, plunged immediately into the sea. +But as the Shetlander perceived that one skin lay close to his feet, +he snatched it up, bore it swiftly away, and placed it in concealment. +On returning to the shore he met the fairest damsel that was ever gazed +upon by mortal eyes, lamenting the robbery, by which she had become +an exile from her submarine friends, and a tenant of the upper world. +Vainly she implored the restitution of her property; the man had drunk +deeply of love, and was inexorable; but he offered her protection beneath +his roof as his betrothed spouse. The merlady, perceiving that +she must become an inhabitant of the earth, found that she could not +do better than accept of the offer. This strange attachment <!-- page 87--><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>subsisted +for many years, and the couple had several children. The Shetlander’s +love for his merwife was unbounded, but his affection was coldly returned. +The lady would often steal alone to the desert strand, and, on a signal +being given, a large seal would make his appearance, with whom she would +hold, in an unknown tongue, an anxious conference. Years had thus +glided away, when it happened that one of the children, in the course +of his play, found concealed beneath a stack of corn a seal’s +skin; and, delighted with the prize, he ran with it to his mother. +Her eyes glistened with rapture—she gazed upon it as her own—as +the means by which she could pass through the ocean that led to her +native home. She burst forth into an ecstasy of joy, which was +only moderated when she beheld her children, whom she was now about +to leave; and, after hastily embracing them, she fled with all speed +towards the sea-side. The husband immediately returned, learned +the discovery that had taken place, ran to overtake his wife, but only +arrived in time to see her transformation of shape completed—to +see her, in the form of a seal, bound from the ledge of a rock into +the sea. The large animal of the same kind with whom she had held +a secret converse soon appeared, and evidently congratulated her, in +the most tender manner, on her escape. But before she dived to +unknown depths, she cast a parting glance at the wretched Shetlander, +<!-- page 88--><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>whose despairing looks +excited in her breast a few transient feelings of commiseration.</p> +<p>“Farewell!” said she to him, “and may all good +attend you. I loved you very well when I resided upon earth, but +I always loved my first husband much better.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 89--><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>THE FIDDLER AND +THE BOGLE OF BOGANDORAN.</h2> +<p>“Late one night, as my grand-uncle, Lachlan Dhu Macpherson, +who was well known as the best fiddler of his day, was returning home +from a ball, at which he had acted as a musician, he had occasion to +pass through the once-haunted Bog of Torrans. Now, it happened +at that time that the bog was frequented by a huge bogle or ghost, who +was of a most mischievous disposition, and took particular pleasure +in abusing every traveller who had occasion to pass through the place +betwixt the twilight at night and cock-crowing in the morning. +Suspecting much that he would also come in for a share of his abuse, +my grand-uncle made up his mind, in the course of his progress, to return +the ghost any <i>civilities</i> which he might think meet to offer him. +On arriving on the spot, he found his suspicions were too well grounded; +for whom did he see but the ghost of Bogandoran apparently ready waiting +him, and seeming by his ghastly grin not a little overjoyed at the meeting. +Marching up to my <!-- page 90--><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>grand-uncle, +the bogle clapped a huge club into his hand, and furnishing himself +with one of the same dimensions, he put a spittle in his hand, and deliberately +commenced the combat. My grand-uncle returned the salute with +equal spirit, and so ably did both parties ply their batons that for +a while the issue of the combat was extremely doubtful. At length, +however, the fiddler could easily discover that his opponent’s +vigour was much in the fagging order. Picking up renewed courage +in consequence, he plied the ghost with renewed force, and after a stout +resistance, in the course of which both parties were seriously handled, +the ghost of Bogandoran thought it prudent to give up the night.</p> +<p>“At the same time, filled no doubt with great indignation at +this signal defeat, it seems the ghost resolved to re-engage my grand-uncle +on some other occasion, under more favourable circumstances. Not +long after, as my grand-uncle was returning home quite unattended from +another ball in the Braes of the country, he had just entered the hollow +of Auldichoish, well known for its ‘eerie’ properties, when, +lo! who presented himself to his view on the adjacent eminence but his +old friend of Bogandoran, advancing as large as the gable of a house, +and putting himself in the most threatening and fighting attitudes.</p> +<p>“Looking at the very dangerous nature of the ground where they +had met, and feeling no anxiety <!-- page 91--><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>for +a second encounter with a combatant of his weight, in a situation so +little desirable, the fiddler would have willingly deferred the settlement +of their differences till a more convenient season. He, accordingly, +assuming the most submissive aspect in the world, endeavoured to pass +by his champion in peace, but in vain. Longing, no doubt, to retrieve +the disgrace of his late discomfiture, the bogle instantly seized the +fiddler, and attempted with all his might to pull the latter down the +precipice, with the diabolical intention, it is supposed, of drowning +him in the river Avon below. In this pious design the bogle was +happily frustrated by the intervention of some trees which grew on the +precipice, and to which my unhappy grand-uncle clung with the zeal of +a drowning man. The enraged ghost, finding it impossible to extricate +him from those friendly trees, and resolving, at all events, to be revenged +upon him, fell upon maltreating the fiddler with his hands and feet +in the most inhuman manner.</p> +<p>“Such gross indignities my worthy grand-uncle was not accustomed +to, and being incensed beyond all measure at the liberties taken by +Bogandoran, he resolved again to try his mettle, whether life or death +should be the consequence. Having no other weapon wherewith to +defend himself but his <i>biodag</i>, which, considering the nature +of his opponent’s constitution, he suspected much would be of +little <!-- page 92--><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>avail to him—I +say, in the absence of any other weapon, he sheathed the <i>biodag</i> +three times in the ghost of Bogandoran’s body. And what +was the consequence? Why, to the great astonishment of my courageous +forefather, the ghost fell down cold dead at his feet, and was never +more seen or heard of.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 93--><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>THOMAS THE RHYMER.</h2> +<p>Thomas, of Ercildoun, in Lauderdale, called the Rhymer, on account +of his producing a poetical romance on the subject of Tristrem and Yseult, +which is curious as the earliest specimen of English verse known to +exist, flourished in the reign of Alexander III. of Scotland. +Like other men of talent of the period, Thomas was suspected of magic. +He was also said to have the gift of prophecy, which was accounted for +in the following peculiar manner, referring entirely to the Elfin superstition.</p> +<p>As Thomas lay on Huntly Bank (a place on the descent of the Eildon +Hills, which raise their triple crest above the celebrated monastery +of Melrose), he saw a lady so extremely beautiful that he imagined she +must be the Virgin Mary herself. Her appointments, however, were +those rather of an amazon, or goddess of the woods. Her steed +was of the highest beauty, and at its mane hung thirty silver bells +and nine, which were music to the wind <!-- page 94--><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>as +she paced along. Her saddle was of “royal bone” (ivory), +laid over with “orfeverie” (goldsmith’s work). +Her stirrups, her dress, all corresponded with her extreme beauty and +the magnificence of her array. The fair huntress had her bow in +hand, and her arrows at her belt. She led three greyhounds in +a leash, and three raches, or hounds of scent, followed her closely.</p> +<p>She rejected and disclaimed the homage which Thomas desired to pay +her; so that, passing from one extremity to the other, Thomas became +as bold as he had at first been humble. The lady warned him he +must become her slave if he wished to prosecute his suit. Before +their interview terminated, the appearance of the beautiful lady was +changed into that of the most hideous hag in existence. A witch +from the spital or almshouse would have been a goddess in comparison +to the late beautiful huntress. Hideous as she was, Thomas felt +that he had placed himself in the power of this hag, and when she bade +him take leave of the sun, and of the leaf that grew on the tree, he +felt himself under the necessity of obeying her. A cavern received +them, in which, following his frightful guide, he for three days travelled +in darkness, sometimes hearing the booming of a distant ocean, sometimes +walking through rivers of blood, which crossed their subterranean path. +At length they emerged into daylight, in a most beautiful orchard. +Thomas, almost <!-- page 95--><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>fainting +for want of food, stretched out his hand towards the goodly fruit which +hung around him, but was forbidden by his conductress, who informed +him that these were the fatal apples which were the cause of the fall +of man. He perceived also that his guide had no sooner entered +this mysterious ground and breathed its magic air than she was revived +in beauty, equipage, and splendour, as fair or fairer than he had first +seen her on the mountain. She then proceeded to explain to him +the character of the country.</p> +<p>“Yonder right-hand path,” she says, “conveys the +spirits of the blest to paradise. Yon downward and well-worn way +leads sinful souls to the place of everlasting punishment. The +third road, by yonder dark brake, conducts to the milder place of pain, +from which prayer and mass may release offenders. But see you +yet a fourth road, sweeping along the plain to yonder splendid castle? +Yonder is the road to Elfland, to which we are now bound. The +lord of the castle is king of the country, and I am his queen; and when +we enter yonder castle, you must observe strict silence, and answer +no question that is asked you, and I will account for your silence by +saying I took your speech when I brought you from middle earth.”</p> +<p>Having thus instructed him, they journeyed on to the castle, and, +entering by the kitchen, found themselves in the midst of such a festive +scene as <!-- page 96--><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>might become +the mansion of a great feudal lord or prince.</p> +<p>Thirty carcasses of deer were lying on the massive kitchen board, +under the hands of numerous cooks, who toiled to cut them up and dress +them, while the gigantic greyhounds which had taken the spoil lay lapping +the blood, and enjoying the sight of the slain game. They came +next to the royal hall, where the king received his loving consort; +knights and ladies, dancing by threes, occupied the floor of the hall; +and Thomas, the fatigue of his journey from the Eildon Hills forgotten, +went forward and joined in the revelry. After a period, however, +which seemed to him a very short one, the queen spoke with him apart, +and bade him prepare to return to his own country.</p> +<p>“Now,” said the queen, “how long think you that +you have been here?”</p> +<p>“Certes, fair lady,” answered Thomas, “not above +these seven days.”</p> +<p>“You are deceived,” answered the queen; “you have +been seven years in this castle, and it is full time you were gone. +Know, Thomas, that the archfiend will come to this castle to-morrow +to demand his tribute, and so handsome a man as you will attract his +eye. For all the world would I not suffer you to be betrayed to +such a fate; therefore up, and let us be going.”</p> +<p>This terrible news reconciled Thomas to his departure <!-- page 97--><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>from +Elfinland; and the queen was not long in placing him upon Huntly Bank, +where the birds were singing. She took leave of him, and to ensure +his reputation bestowed on him the tongue which <i>could not lie</i>. +Thomas in vain objected to this inconvenient and involuntary adhesion +to veracity, which would make him, as he thought, unfit for church or +for market, for king’s court or for lady’s bower. +But all his remonstrances were disregarded by the lady; and Thomas the +Rhymer, whenever the discourse turned on the future, gained the credit +of a prophet whether he would or not, for he could say nothing but what +was sure to come to pass.</p> +<p>Thomas remained several years in his own tower near Ercildoun, and +enjoyed the fame of his predictions, several of which are current among +the country people to this day. At length, as the prophet was +entertaining the Earl of March in his dwelling, a cry of astonishment +arose in the village, on the appearance of a hart and hind, which left +the forest, and, contrary to their shy nature, came quietly onward, +traversing the village towards the dwelling of Thomas. The prophet +instantly rose from the board, and acknowledging the prodigy as the +summons of his fate, he accompanied the hart and hind into the forest, +and though occasionally seen by individuals to whom he has chosen to +show himself, he has never again mixed familiarly with mankind.</p> +<h2><!-- page 98--><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>FAIRY FRIENDS.</h2> +<p>It is a good thing to befriend the fairies, as the following stories +show:—</p> +<p>There have been from time immemorial at Hawick, during the two or +three last weeks of the year, markets once a week, for the disposal +of sheep for slaughter, at which the greater number of people, both +in the middle and poorer classes of life, have been accustomed to provide +themselves with their <i>marts</i>. A poor man from Jedburgh who +was on his way to Hawick for the purpose of attending one of these markets, +as he was passing over that side of Rubislaw which is nearest the Teviot, +was suddenly alarmed by a frightful and unaccountable noise. The +sound, as he supposed, proceeded from an immense number of female voices, +but no objects whence it could come were visible. Amidst howling +and wailing were mixed shouts of mirth and jollity, but he could gather +nothing articulate except the following words—</p> +<p>“O there’s a bairn born, but there’s naething to +pit on ’t.”</p> +<p><!-- page 99--><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>The occasion of +this elfish concert, it seemed, was the birth of a fairy child, at which +the fairies, with the exception of two or three who were discomposed +at having nothing to cover the little innocent with, were enjoying themselves +with that joviality usually characteristic of such an event. The +astonished rustic finding himself amongst a host of invisible beings, +in a wild moorland place, and far from any human assistance, should +assistance be required, full of the greatest consternation, immediately +on hearing this expression again and again vociferated, stripped off +his plaid, and threw it on the ground. It was instantly snatched +up by an invisible hand, and the wailings immediately ceased, but the +shouts of mirth were continued with increased vigour. Being of +opinion that what he had done had satisfied his invisible friends, he +lost no time in making off, and proceeded on his road to Hawick, musing +on his singular adventure. He purchased a sheep, which turned +out a remarkably good bargain, and returned to Jedburgh. He had +no cause to regret his generosity in bestowing his plaid on the fairies, +for every day afterwards his wealth multiplied, and he continued till +the day of his death a rich and prosperous man.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>About the beginning of harvest, there having been a want of meal +for <i>shearers</i>’ bread in the farmhouse of Bedrule, a small +quantity of barley (being all <!-- page 100--><span class="pagenum">p. 100</span>that +was yet ripe) was cut down, and converted into meal. Mrs. Buckham, +the farmer’s wife, rose early in the morning to bake the bread, +and, while she was engaged in baking, a little woman in green costume +came in, and, with much politeness, asked for a loan of a capful of +meal. Mrs. Buckham thought it prudent to comply with her request. +In a short time afterwards the woman in green returned with an equal +quantity of meal, which Mrs. Buckham put into the <i>meal-ark</i>. +This meal had such a lasting quality, that from it alone the gudewife +of Bedrule baked as much bread as served her own family and the reapers +throughout the harvest, and when harvest was over it was not exhausted.</p> +<h2><!-- page 101--><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>THE SEAL-CATCHER’S +ADVENTURE.</h2> +<p>There was once upon a time a man who lived upon the northern coasts, +not far from “Taigh Jan Crot Callow” (John-o’-Groat’s +House), and he gained his livelihood by catching and killing fish, of +all sizes and denominations. He had a particular liking for the +killing of those wonderful beasts, half dog half fish, called “Roane,” +or seals, no doubt because he got a long price for their skins, which +are not less curious than they are valuable. The truth is, that +the most of these animals are neither dogs nor cods, but downright fairies, +as this narration will show; and, indeed, it is easy for any man to +convince himself of the fact by a simple examination of his <i>tobacco-spluichdan</i>, +for the dead skins of those beings are never the same for four-and-twenty +hours together. Sometimes the <i>spluichdan</i> will erect its +bristles almost perpendicularly, while, at other times, it reclines +them even down; one time it resembles a bristly sow, at another time +a <i>sleekit cat</i>; and what dead skin, except itself, could perform +such cantrips? Now, it happened one day, as this <!-- page 102--><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>notable +fisher had returned from the prosecution of his calling, that he was +called upon by a man who seemed a great stranger, and who said he had +been despatched for him by a person who wished to contract for a quantity +of seal-skins, and that the fisher must accompany him (the stranger) +immediately to see the person who wished to contract for the skins, +as it was necessary that he should be served that evening. Happy +in the prospect of making a good bargain, and never suspecting any duplicity, +he instantly complied. They both mounted a steed belonging to +the stranger, and took the road with such velocity that, although the +direction of the wind was towards their backs, yet the fleetness of +their movement made it appear as if it had been in their faces. +On reaching a stupendous precipice which overhung the sea, his guide +told him they had now reached their destination.</p> +<p>“Where is the person you spoke of!” inquired the astonished +seal-killer.</p> +<p>“You shall see that presently,” replied the guide. +With that they immediately alighted, and, without allowing the seal-killer +much time to indulge the frightful suspicions that began to pervade +his mind, the stranger seized him with irresistible force, and plunged +headlong with him into the sea. After sinking down, down, nobody +knows how far, they at length reached a door, which, being open, led +them into a range of apartments, filled with inhabitants—not <!-- page 103--><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>people, +but seals, who could nevertheless speak and feel like human folk; and +how much was the seal-killer surprised to find that he himself had been +unconsciously transformed into the like image. If it were not +so, he would probably have died from the want of breath. The nature +of the poor fisher’s thoughts may be more easily conceived than +described. Looking at the nature of the quarters into which he +had landed, all hopes of escape from them appeared wholly chimerical, +whilst the degree of comfort, and length of life which the barren scene +promised him were far from being flattering. The “Roane,” +who all seemed in very low spirits, appeared to feel for him, and endeavoured +to soothe the distress which he evinced by the amplest assurances of +personal safety. Involved in sad meditation on his evil fate, +he was quickly roused from his stupor by his guide’s producing +a huge gully or joctaleg, the object of which he supposed was to put +an end to all his earthly cares. Forlorn as was his situation, +however, he did not wish to be killed; and, apprehending instant destruction, +he fell down, and earnestly implored for mercy. The poor generous +animals did not mean him any harm, however much his former conduct deserved +it, and he was accordingly desired to pacify himself, and cease his +cries.</p> +<p>“Did you ever see that knife before?” said the stranger +to the fisher.</p> +<p><!-- page 104--><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>The latter instantly +recognised his own knife, which he had that day stuck into a seal, and +with which it had escaped, and acknowledged it was formerly his own, +for what would be the use of denying it?</p> +<p>“Well,” rejoined the guide, “the apparent seal +which made away with it is my father, who has lain dangerously ill ever +since, and no means can stay his fleeting breath without your aid. +I have been obliged to resort to the artifice I have practised to bring +you hither, and I trust that my filial duty to my father will readily +excuse me.”</p> +<p>Having said this, he led into another apartment the trembling seal-killer, +who expected every minute to be punished for his own ill-treatment of +the father. There he found the identical seal with which he had +had the encounter in the morning, suffering most grievously from a tremendous +cut in its hind-quarter. The seal-killer was then desired, with +his hand, to cicatrise the wound, upon doing which it immediately healed, +and the seal arose from its bed in perfect health. Upon this the +scene changed from mourning to rejoicing—all was mirth and glee. +Very different, however, were the feelings of the unfortunate seal-catcher, +who expected no doubt to be metamorphosed into a seal for the remainder +of his life. However, his late guide accosting him, said—</p> +<p>“Now, sir, you are at liberty to return to your <!-- page 105--><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>wife +and family, to whom I am about to conduct you; but it is on this express +condition, to which you must bind yourself by a solemn oath, viz. that +you will never maim or kill a seal in all your lifetime hereafter.”</p> +<p>To this condition, hard as it was, he joyfully acceded; and the oath +being administered in all due form, he bade his new acquaintance most +heartily and sincerely a long farewell. Taking hold of his guide, +they issued from the place and swam up, till they regained the surface +of the sea, and, landing at the said stupendous pinnacle, they found +their former steed ready for a second canter. The guide breathed +upon the fisher, and they became like men. They mounted their +horse, and fleet as had been their course towards the precipice, their +return from it was doubly swift; and the honest seal-killer was laid +down at his own door-cheek, where his guide made him such a present +as would have almost reconciled him to another similar expedition, such +as rendered his loss of profession, in so far as regarded the seals, +a far less intolerable hardship than he had at first considered it.</p> +<h2><!-- page 106--><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>THE FAIRIES OF +MERLIN’S CRAIG.</h2> +<p>Early in the seventeenth century, John Smith, a barn-man at a farm, +was sent by his master to cast divots (turf) on the green immediately +behind Merlin’s Craig. After having laboured for a considerable +time, there came round from the front of the rock a little woman, about +eighteen inches in height, clad in a green gown and red stockings, with +long yellow hair hanging down to her waist, who asked the astonished +operator how he would feel were she to send her husband to <i>tir</i> +(uncover) his house, at the same time commanding him to place every +<i>divot</i> he had cast <i>in statu quo</i>. John obeyed with +fear and trembling, and, returning to his master, told what had happened. +The farmer laughed at his credulity, and, anxious to cure him of such +idle superstition, ordered him to take a cart and fetch home the <i>divots</i> +immediately.</p> +<p>John obeyed, although with much reluctance. Nothing happened +to him in consequence till that day twelve months, when he left his +master’s work at the usual hour in the evening, with a small <i>stoup</i> +<!-- page 107--><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>of milk in his hand, +but he did not reach home, nor was he ever heard of for years (I have +forgotten how many), when, upon the anniversary of that unfortunate +day, John walked into his house at the usual hour, with the milk-stoup +in his hand.</p> +<p>The account that he gave of his captivity was that, on the evening +of that eventful day, returning home from his labour, when passing Merlin’s +Craig, he felt himself suddenly taken ill, and sat down to rest a little. +Soon after he fell asleep, and awoke, as he supposed, about midnight, +when there was a troop of male and female fairies dancing round him. +They insisted upon his joining in the sport, and gave him the finest +girl in the company as a partner. She took him by the hand; they +danced three times round in a fairy ring, after which he became so happy +that he felt no inclination to leave his new associates. Their +amusements were protracted till he heard his master’s cock crow, +when the whole troop immediately rushed forward to the front of the +craig, hurrying him along with them. A door opened to receive +them, and he continued a prisoner until the evening on which he returned, +when the same woman who had first appeared to him when casting <i>divots</i> +came and told him that the grass was again green on the roof of her +house, which he had <i>tirred</i>, and if he would swear an oath, which +she dictated, never to discover what he had seen in fairyland, he should +be at liberty to return to his family. <!-- page 108--><span class="pagenum">p. 108</span>John +took the oath, and observed it most religiously, although sadly teased +and questioned by his helpmate, particularly about the “bonnie +lassie” with whom he danced on the night of his departure. +He was also observed to walk a mile out of his way rather than pass +Merlin’s Craig when the sun was below the horizon.</p> +<p>On a subsequent occasion the tiny inhabitants of Merlin’s Craig +surprised a shepherd when watching his fold at night; he was asleep, +and his bonnet had fallen off and rolled to some little distance. +He was awakened by the fairies dancing round him in a circle, and was +induced to join them; but recollecting the fate of John Smith, he would +not allow his female companion to take hold of his hands. In the +midst of their gambols they came close to the hillock where the shepherd’s +bonnet lay,—he affected to stumble, fell upon his bonnet, which +he immediately seized, clapping it on his head, when the whole troop +instantly vanished. This exorcism was produced by the talismanic +power of a Catechism containing the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ +Creed, which the shepherd most fortunately recollected was deposited +in the crown of his bonnet.</p> +<h2><!-- page 109--><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>RORY MACGILLIVRAY.</h2> +<p>Once upon a time a tenant in the neighbourhood of Cairngorm, in Strathspey, +emigrated with his family and cattle to the forest of Glenavon, which +is well known to be inhabited by many fairies as well as ghosts. +Two of his sons being out late one night in search of some of their +sheep which had strayed, had occasion to pass a fairy turret, or dwelling, +of very large dimensions; and what was their astonishment on observing +streams of the most refulgent light shining forth through innumerable +crevices in the rock—crevices which the sharpest eye in the country +had never seen before. Curiosity led them towards the turret, +when they were charmed by the most exquisite sounds ever emitted by +a fiddle-string, which, joined to the sportive mirth and glee accompanying +it, reconciled them in a great measure to the scene, although they knew +well enough the inhabitants of the nook were fairies. Nay, overpowered +by the enchanting jigs played by the fiddler, one of the brothers had +even the hardihood to propose that they should pay the occupants of +the <!-- page 110--><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>turret a short +visit. To this motion the other brother, fond as he was of dancing, +and animated as he was by the music, would by no means consent, and +he earnestly desired his brother to restrain his curiosity. But +every new jig that was played, and every new reel that was danced, inspired +the adventurous brother with additional ardour, and at length, completely +fascinated by the enchanting revelry, leaving all prudence behind, at +one leap he entered the “Shian.” The poor forlorn +brother was now left in a most uncomfortable situation. His grief +for the loss of a brother whom he dearly loved suggested to him more +than once the desperate idea of sharing his fate by following his example. +But, on the other hand, when he coolly considered the possibility of +sharing very different entertainment from that which rang upon his ears, +and remembered, too, the comforts and convenience of his father’s +fireside, the idea immediately appeared to him anything but prudent. +After a long and disagreeable altercation between his affection for +his brother and his regard for himself, he came to the resolution to +take a middle course, that is, to shout in at the window a few remonstrances +to his brother, which, if he did not attend to, let the consequences +be upon his own head. Accordingly, taking his station at one of +the crevices, and calling upon his brother three several times by name, +as use is, he uttered the most moving pieces of elocution he could <!-- page 111--><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>think +of, imploring him, as he valued his poor parents’ life and blessing, +to come forth and go home with him, Donald Macgillivray, his thrice +affectionate and unhappy brother. But whether it was the dancer +could not hear this eloquent harangue, or, what is more probable, that +he did not choose to attend to it, certain it is that it proved totally +ineffectual to accomplish its object, and the consequence was that Donald +Macgillivray found it equally his duty and his interest to return home +to his family with the melancholy tale of poor Rory’s fate. +All the prescribed ceremonies calculated to rescue him from the fairy +dominion were resorted to by his mourning relatives without effect, +and Rory was supposed lost for ever, when a “wise man” of +the day having learned the circumstance, discovered to his friends a +plan by which they might deliver him at the end of twelve months from +his entry.</p> +<p>“Return,” says the <i>Duin Glichd</i> to Donald, “to +the place where you lost your brother a year and a day from the time. +You will insert in your garment a <i>Rowan Cross</i>, which will protect +you from the fairies’ interposition. Enter the turret boldly +and resolutely in the name of the Highest, claim your brother, and, +if he does not accompany you voluntarily, seize him and carry him off +by force—none dare interfere with you.”</p> +<p>The experiment appeared to the cautious contemplative <!-- page 112--><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>brother +as one that was fraught with no ordinary danger, and he would have most +willingly declined the prominent character allotted to him in the performance +but for the importunate entreaty of his friends, who implored him, as +he valued their blessing, not to slight such excellent advice. +Their entreaties, together with his confidence in the virtues of the +<i>Rowan Cross</i>, overcame his scruples, and he at length agreed to +put the experiment in practice, whatever the result might be.</p> +<p>Well, then, the important day arrived, when the father of the two +sons was destined either to recover his lost son, or to lose the only +son he had, and, anxious as the father felt, Donald Macgillivray, the +intended adventurer, felt no less so on the occasion. The hour +of midnight approached when the drama was to be acted, and Donald Macgillivray, +loaded with all the charms and benedictions in his country, took mournful +leave of his friends, and proceeded to the scene of his intended enterprise. +On approaching the well-known turret, a repetition of that mirth and +those ravishing sounds, that had been the source of so much sorrow to +himself and family, once more attracted his attention, without at all +creating in his mind any extraordinary feelings of satisfaction. +On the contrary, he abhorred the sounds most heartily, and felt much +greater inclination to recede than to advance. But what was to +be done? Courage, character, and everything dear <!-- page 113--><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>to +him were at stake, so that to advance was his only alternative. +In short, he reached the “Shian,” and, after twenty fruitless +attempts, he at length entered the place with trembling footsteps, and +amidst the brilliant and jovial scene the not least gratifying spectacle +which presented itself to Donald was his brother Rory earnestly engaged +at the Highland fling on the floor, at which, as might have been expected, +he had greatly improved. Without losing much time in satisfying +his curiosity by examining the quality of the company, Donald ran to +his brother, repeating, most vehemently, the words prescribed to him +by the “wise man,” seized him by the collar, and insisted +on his immediately accompanying him home to his poor afflicted parents. +Rory assented, provided he would allow him to finish his single reel, +assuring Donald, very earnestly, that he had not been half an hour in +the house. In vain did the latter assure him that, instead of +half an hour, he had actually remained twelve months. Nor would +he have believed his overjoyed friends when his brother at length got +him home, did not the calves, now grown into stots, and the new-born +babes, now travelling the house, at length convince him that in his +single reel he had danced for a twelvemonth and a day.</p> +<h2><!-- page 114--><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>THE HAUNTED SHIPS.</h2> +<blockquote><p> “Though my +mind’s not<br /> +Hoodwinked with rustic marvels, I do think<br /> +There are more things in the grove, the air, the flood,<br /> +Yea, and the charnelled earth, than what wise man,<br /> +Who walks so proud as if his form alone<br /> +Filled the wide temple of the universe,<br /> +Will let a frail mind say. I’d write i’ the creed<br /> +O’ the sagest head alive, that fearful forms,<br /> +Holy or reprobate, do page men’s heels;<br /> +That shapes, too horrid for our gaze, stand o’er<br /> +The murderer’s dust, and for revenge glare up,<br /> +Even till the stars weep fire for very pity.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Along the sea of Solway, romantic on the Scottish side, with its +woodland, its bays, its cliffs, and headlands; and interesting on the +English side, with its many beautiful towns with their shadows on the +water, rich pastures, safe harbours, and numerous ships, there still +linger many traditional stories of a maritime nature, most of them connected +with superstitions singularly wild and unusual. To the curious +these tales afford a rich fund of entertainment, from the many diversities +of the same story; some dry and barren, and stripped of all the embellishments +of poetry; others dressed out in all the <!-- page 115--><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>riches +of a superstitious belief and haunted imagination. In this they +resemble the inland traditions of the peasants; but many of the oral +treasures of the Galwegian or the Cumbrian coast have the stamp of the +Dane and the Norseman upon them, and claim but a remote or faint affinity +with the legitimate legends of Caledonia. Something like a rude +prosaic outline of several of the most noted of the northern ballads, +the adventures and depredations of the old ocean kings, still lends +life to the evening tale; and, among others, the story of the Haunted +Ships is still popular among the maritime peasantry.</p> +<p>One fine harvest evening I went on board the shallop of Richard Faulder, +of Allanbay, and, committing ourselves to the waters, we allowed a gentle +wind from the east to waft us at its pleasure towards the Scottish coast. +We passed the sharp promontory of Siddick, and, skirting the land within +a stonecast, glided along the shore till we came within sight of the +ruined Abbey of Sweetheart. The green mountain of Criffel ascended +beside us; and the bleat of the flocks from its summit, together with +the winding of the evening horn of the reapers, came softened into something +like music over land and sea. We pushed our shallop into a deep +and wooded bay, and sat silently looking on the serene beauty of the +place. The moon glimmered in her rising through the tall <!-- page 116--><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>shafts +of the pines of Caerlaverock; and the sky, with scarce a cloud, showered +down on wood and headland and bay the twinkling beams of a thousand +stars, rendering every object visible. The tide, too, was coming +with that swift and silent swell observable when the wind is gentle; +the woody curves along the land were filling with the flood, till it +touched the green branches of the drooping trees; while in the centre +current the roll and the plunge of a thousand pellocks told to the experienced +fisherman that salmon were abundant.</p> +<p>As we looked, we saw an old man emerging from a path that wound to +the shore through a grove of doddered hazel; he carried a halve-net +on his back, while behind him came a girl, bearing a small harpoon, +with which the fishers are remarkably dexterous in striking their prey. +The senior seated himself on a large grey stone, which overlooked the +bay, laid aside his bonnet, and submitted his bosom and neck to the +refreshing sea breeze, and, taking his harpoon from his attendant, sat +with the gravity and composure of a spirit of the flood, with his ministering +nymph behind him. We pushed our shallop to the shore, and soon +stood at their side.</p> +<p>“This is old Mark Macmoran the mariner, with his granddaughter +Barbara,” said Richard Faulder, in a whisper that had something +of fear in it; “he knows every creek and cavern and quicksand +in Solway; has seen the Spectre Hound that haunts <!-- page 117--><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>the +Isle of Man; has heard him bark, and at every bark has seen a ship sink; +and he has seen, too, the Haunted Ships in full sail; and, if all tales +be true, he has sailed in them himself;—he’s an awful person.”</p> +<p>Though I perceived in the communication of my friend something of +the superstition of the sailor, I could not help thinking that common +rumour had made a happy choice in singling out old Mark to maintain +her intercourse with the invisible world. His hair, which seemed +to have refused all intercourse with the comb, hung matted upon his +shoulders; a kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned with a wooden +skewer round his neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing all his nether +garments as far as a pair of hose, darned with yarn of all conceivable +colours, and a pair of shoes, patched and repaired till nothing of the +original structure remained, and clasped on his feet with two massy +silver buckles. If the dress of the old man was rude and sordid, +that of his granddaughter was gay, and even rich. She wore a bodice +of fine wool, wrought round the bosom with alternate leaf and lily, +and a kirtle of the same fabric, which, almost touching her white and +delicate ankle, showed her snowy feet, so fairy-light and round that +they scarcely seemed to touch the grass where she stood. Her hair, +a natural ornament which woman seeks much to improve, was of bright +glossy brown, and encumbered rather than <!-- page 118--><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>adorned +with a snood, set thick with marine productions, among which the small +clear pearl found in the Solway was conspicuous. Nature had not +trusted to a handsome shape and a sylph-like air for young Barbara’s +influence over the heart of man, but had bestowed a pair of large bright +blue eyes, swimming in liquid light, so full of love and gentleness +and joy, that all the sailors from Annanwater to far Saint Bees acknowledged +their power, and sang songs about the bonnie lass of Mark Macmoran. +She stood holding a small gaff-hook of polished steel in her hand, and +seemed not dissatisfied with the glances I bestowed on her from time +to time, and which I held more than requited by a single glance of those +eyes which retained so many capricious hearts in subjection.</p> +<p>The tide, though rapidly augmenting, had not yet filled the bay at +our feet. The moon now streamed fairly over the tops of Caerlaverock +pines, and showed the expanse of ocean dimpling and swelling, on which +sloops and shallops came dancing, and displaying at every turn their +extent of white sail against the beam of the moon. I looked on +old Mark the mariner, who, seated motionless on his grey stone, kept +his eye fixed on the increasing waters with a look of seriousness and +sorrow, in which I saw little of the calculating spirit of a mere fisherman. +Though he looked on the coming tide, his eyes seemed to dwell particularly +on the black <!-- page 119--><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>and +decayed hulls of two vessels, which, half immersed in the quicksand, +still addressed to every heart a tale of shipwreck and desolation. +The tide wheeled and foamed around them, and, creeping inch by inch +up the side, at last fairly threw its waters over the top, and a long +and hollow eddy showed the resistance which the liquid element received.</p> +<p>The moment they were fairly buried in the water, the old man clasped +his hands together, and said: “Blessed be the tide that will break +over and bury ye for ever! Sad to mariners, and sorrowful to maids +and mothers, has the time been you have choked up this deep and bonnie +bay. For evil were you sent, and for evil have you continued. +Every season finds from you its song of sorrow and wail, its funeral +processions, and its shrouded corses. Woe to the land where the +wood grew that made ye! Cursed be the axe that hewed ye on the +mountains, the hands that joined ye together, the bay that ye first +swam in, and the wind that wafted ye here! Seven times have ye +put my life in peril, three fair sons have ye swept from my side, and +two bonnie grand-bairns; and now, even now, your waters foam and flash +for my destruction, did I venture my infirm limbs in quest of food in +your deadly bay. I see by that ripple and that foam, and hear +by the sound and singing of your surge, that ye yearn for another victim; +but it shall not be me nor mine.”</p> +<p><!-- page 120--><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>Even as the old +mariner addressed himself to the wrecked ships, a young man appeared +at the southern extremity of the bay, holding his halve-net in his hand, +and hastening into the current. Mark rose and shouted, and waved +him back from a place which, to a person unacquainted with the dangers +of the bay, real and superstitious, seemed sufficiently perilous; his +granddaughter, too, added her voice to his, and waved her white hands; +but the more they strove, the faster advanced the peasant, till he stood +to his middle in the water, while the tide increased every moment in +depth and strength. “Andrew, Andrew,” cried the young +woman, in a voice quavering with emotion, “turn, turn, I tell +you! O the Ships, the Haunted Ships!” But the appearance +of a fine run of fish had more influence with the peasant than the voice +of bonnie Barbara, and forward he dashed, net in hand. In a moment +he was borne off his feet, and mingled like foam with the water, and +hurried towards the fatal eddies which whirled and roared round the +sunken ships. But he was a powerful young man, and an expert swimmer; +he seized on one of the projecting ribs of the nearest hulk, and clinging +to it with the grasp of despair, uttered yell after yell, sustaining +himself against the prodigious rush of the current.</p> +<p>From a shealing of turf and straw, within the pitch of a bar from +the spot where we stood, came out an old woman bent with age, and leaning +on a <!-- page 121--><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>crutch. +“I heard the voice of that lad Andrew Lammie; can the chield be +drowning that he skirls sae uncannily?” said the old woman, seating +herself on the ground, and looking earnestly at the water. “Ou, +ay,” she continued, “he’s doomed, he’s doomed; +heart and hand can never save him; boats, ropes, and man’s strength +and wit, all vain! vain!—he’s doomed, he’s doomed!”</p> +<p>By this time I had thrown myself into the shallop, followed reluctantly +by Richard Faulder, over whose courage and kindness of heart superstition +had great power, and with one push from the shore, and some exertion +in sculling, we came within a quoitcast of the unfortunate fisherman. +He stayed not to profit by our aid; for, when he perceived us near, +he uttered a piercing shriek of joy, and bounded towards us through +the agitated element the full length of an oar. I saw him for +a second on the surface of the water, but the eddying current sucked +him down; and all I ever beheld of him again was his hand held above +the flood, and clutching in agony at some imaginary aid. I sat +gazing in horror on the vacant sea before us; but a breathing-time before, +a human being, full of youth and strength and hope, was there; his cries +were still ringing in my ears, and echoing in the woods; and now nothing +was seen or heard save the turbulent expanse of water, and the sound +of its chafing on the shores. We pushed back our shallop, <!-- page 122--><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>and +resumed our station on the cliff beside the old mariner and his descendant.</p> +<p>“Wherefore sought ye to peril your own lives fruitlessly,” +said Mark, “in attempting to save the doomed? Whoso touches +those infernal ships never survives to tell the tale. Woe to the +man who is found nigh them at midnight when the tide has subsided, and +they arise in their former beauty, with forecastle, and deck, and sail, +and pennon, and shroud! Then is seen the streaming of lights along +the water from their cabin windows, and then is heard the sound of mirth +and the clamour of tongues, and the infernal whoop and halloo and song, +ringing far and wide. Woe to the man who comes nigh them!”</p> +<p>To all this my Allanbay companion listened with a breathless attention. +I felt something touched with a superstition to which I partly believed +I had seen one victim offered up; and I inquired of the old mariner, +“How and when came these Haunted Ships there? To me they +seem but the melancholy relics of some unhappy voyagers, and much more +likely to warn people to shun destruction than entice and delude them +to it.”</p> +<p>“And so,” said the old man with a smile, which had more +of sorrow in it than of mirth; “and so, young man, these black +and shattered hulks seem to the eye of the multitude. But things +are not what they seem: that water, a kind and convenient <!-- page 123--><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>servant +to the wants of man, which seems so smooth and so dimpling and so gentle, +has swallowed up a human soul even now; and the place which it covers, +so fair and so level, is a faithless quicksand, out of which none escape. +Things are otherwise than they seem. Had you lived as long as +I have had the sorrow to live; had you seen the storms, and braved the +perils, and endured the distresses which have befallen me; had you sat +gazing out on the dreary ocean at midnight on a haunted coast; had you +seen comrade after comrade, brother after brother, and son after son, +swept away by the merciless ocean from your very side; had you seen +the shapes of friends, doomed to the wave and the quicksand, appearing +to you in the dreams and visions of the night, then would your mind +have been prepared for crediting the maritime legends of mariners; and +the two haunted Danish ships would have had their terrors for you, as +they have for all who sojourn on this coast.</p> +<p>“Of the time and the cause of their destruction,” continued +the old man, “I know nothing certain; they have stood as you have +seen them for uncounted time; and while all other ships wrecked on this +unhappy coast have gone to pieces, and rotted and sunk away in a few +years, these two haunted hulks have neither sunk in the quicksand, nor +has a single spar or board been displaced. Maritime legend says +that two ships of Denmark <!-- page 124--><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>having +had permission, for a time, to work deeds of darkness and dolor on the +deep, were at last condemned to the whirlpool and the sunken rock, and +were wrecked in this bonnie bay, as a sign to seamen to be gentle and +devout. The night when they were lost was a harvest evening of +uncommon mildness and beauty: the sun had newly set; the moon came brighter +and brighter out; and the reapers, laying their sickles at the root +of the standing corn, stood on rock and bank, looking at the increasing +magnitude of the waters, for sea and land were visible from Saint Bees +to Barnhourie. The sails of two vessels were soon seen bent for +the Scottish coast; and, with a speed outrunning the swiftest ship, +they approached the dangerous quicksands and headland of Borranpoint. +On the deck of the foremost ship not a living soul was seen, or shape, +unless something in darkness and form, resembling a human shadow could +be called a shape, which flitted from extremity to extremity of the +ship, with the appearance of trimming the sails, and directing the vessel’s +course. But the decks of its companion were crowded with human +shapes; the captain and mate, and sailor and cabin-boy, all seemed there; +and from them the sound of mirth and minstrelsy echoed over land and +water. The coast which they skirted along was one of extreme danger, +and the reapers shouted to warn them to beware of sandbank and rock; +but of this friendly counsel no <!-- page 125--><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>notice +was taken, except that a large and famished dog, which sat on the prow, +answered every shout with a long, loud, and melancholy howl. The +deep sandbank of Carsethorn was expected to arrest the career of these +desperate navigators; but they passed, with the celerity of water-fowl, +over an obstruction which had wrecked many pretty ships.</p> +<p>“Old men shook their heads and departed, saying, ‘We +have seen the fiend sailing in a bottomless ship; let us go home and +pray;’ but one young and wilful man said, ‘Fiend! +I’ll warrant it’s nae fiend, but douce Janet Withershins +the witch, holding a carouse with some of her Cumberland cummers, and +mickle red wine will be spilt atween them. Dod I would gladly +have a toothfu’! I’ll warrant it’s nane o’ +your cauld sour slae-water like a bottle of Bailie Skrinkie’s +port, but right drap-o’-my-heart’s-blood stuff, that would +waken a body out of their last linen. I wonder where the cummers +will anchor their craft?’ ‘And I’ll vow,’ +said another rustic, ‘the wine they quaff is none of your visionary +drink, such as a drouthie body has dished out to his lips in a dream; +nor is it shadowy and unsubstantial, like the vessels they sail in, +which are made out of a cockel-shell or a cast-off slipper, or the paring +of a seaman’s right thumb-nail. I once got a hansel out +of a witch’s quaigh myself—auld Marion Mathers, of Dustiefoot, +whom they tried to bury in the old kirkyard of <!-- page 126--><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>Dunscore; +but the cummer raise as fast as they laid her down, and naewhere else +would she lie but in the bonnie green kirkyard of Kier, among douce +and sponsible fowk. So I’ll vow that the wine of a witch’s +cup is as fell liquor as ever did a kindly turn to a poor man’s +heart; and be they fiends, or be they witches, if they have red wine +asteer, I’ll risk a drouket sark for ae glorious tout on’t.”</p> +<p>“‘Silence, ye sinners,’ said the minister’s +son of a neighbouring parish, who united in his own person his father’s +lack of devotion with his mother’s love of liquor. ‘Whist!—speak +as if ye had the fear of something holy before ye. Let the vessels +run their own way to destruction: who can stay the eastern wind, and +the current of the Solway sea? I can find ye Scripture warrant +for that; so let them try their strength on Blawhooly rocks, and their +might on the broad quicksand. There’s a surf running there +would knock the ribs together of a galley built by the imps of the pit, +and commanded by the Prince of Darkness. Bonnily and bravely they +sail away there, but before the blast blows by they’ll be wrecked; +and red wine and strong brandy will be as rife as dyke-water, and we’ll +drink the health of bonnie Bell Blackness out of her left-foot slipper.’</p> +<p>“The speech of the young profligate was applauded by several +of his companions, and away they flew to the bay of Blawhooly, from +whence they <!-- page 127--><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>never +returned. The two vessels were observed all at once to stop in +the bosom of the bay, on the spot where their hulls now appear; the +mirth and the minstrelsy waxed louder than ever, and the forms of maidens, +with instruments of music and wine-cups in their hands, thronged the +decks. A boat was lowered; and the same shadowy pilot who conducted +the ships made it start towards the shore with the rapidity of lightning, +and its head knocked against the bank where the four young men stood +who longed for the unblest drink. They leaped in with a laugh, +and with a laugh were they welcomed on deck; wine-cups were given to +each, and as they raised them to their lips the vessels melted away +beneath their feet, and one loud shriek, mingled with laughter still +louder, was heard over land and water for many miles. Nothing +more was heard or seen till the morning, when the crowd who came to +the beach saw with fear and wonder the two Haunted Ships, such as they +now seem, masts and tackle gone; nor mark, nor sign, by which their +name, country, or destination could be known, was left remaining. +Such is the tradition of the mariners; and its truth has been attested +by many families whose sons and whose fathers have been drowned in the +haunted bay of Blawhooly.”</p> +<p>“And trow ye,” said the old woman, who, attracted from +her hut by the drowning cries of the young fisherman, had remained an +auditor of the <!-- page 128--><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>mariner’s +legend,—“And trow ye, Mark Macmoran, that the tale of the +Haunted Ships is done? I can say no to that. Mickle have +mine ears heard; but more mine eyes have witnessed since I came to dwell +in this humble home by the side of the deep sea. I mind the night +weel; it was on Hallowmas Eve; the nuts were cracked, and the apples +were eaten, and spell and charm were tried at my fireside; till, wearied +with diving into the dark waves of futurity, the lads and lasses fairly +took to the more visible blessings of kind words, tender clasps, and +gentle courtship. Soft words in a maiden’s ear, and a kindly +kiss o’ her lip were old-world matters to me, Mark Macmoran; though +I mean not to say that I have been free of the folly of daunering and +daffin with a youth in my day, and keeping tryst with him in dark and +lonely places. However, as I say, these times of enjoyment were +passed and gone with me—the mair’s the pity that pleasure +should fly sae fast away—and as I couldna make sport I thought +I should not mar any; so out I sauntered into the fresh cold air, and +sat down behind that old oak, and looked abroad on the wide sea. +I had my ain sad thoughts, ye may think, at the time: it was in that +very bay my blythe good-man perished, with seven more in his company; +and on that very bank where ye see the waves leaping and foaming, I +saw seven stately corses streeked, but the dearest was the eighth. +It was a woful <!-- page 129--><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>sight +to me, a widow, with four bonnie boys, with nought to support them but +these twa hands, and God’s blessing, and a cow’s grass. +I have never liked to live out of sight of this bay since that time; +and mony’s the moonlight night I sit looking on these watery mountains +and these waste shores; it does my heart good, whatever it may do to +my head. So ye see it was Hallowmas Night, and looking on sea +and land sat I; and my heart wandering to other thoughts soon made me +forget my youthful company at hame. It might be near the howe +hour of the night. The tide was making, and its singing brought +strange old-world stories with it, and I thought on the dangers that +sailors endure, the fates they meet with, and the fearful forms they +see. My own blythe goodman had seen sights that made him grave +enough at times, though he aye tried to laugh them away.</p> +<p>“Aweel, atween that very rock aneath us and the coming tide, +I saw, or thought I saw—for the tale is so dreamlike that the +whole might pass for a vision of the night,—I saw the form of +a man; his plaid was grey, his face was grey; and his hair, which hung +low down till it nearly came to the middle of his back, was as white +as the white sea-foam. He began to howk and dig under the bank; +an’ God be near me, thought I, this maun be the unblessed spirit +of auld Adam Gowdgowpin the miser, who is doomed to dig for shipwrecked +treasure, <!-- page 130--><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>and count +how many millions are hidden for ever from man’s enjoyment. +The form found something which in shape and hue seemed a left-foot slipper +of brass; so down to the tide he marched, and, placing it on the water, +whirled it thrice round, and the infernal slipper dilated at every turn, +till it became a bonnie barge with its sails bent, and on board leaped +the form, and scudded swiftly away. He came to one of the Haunted +Ships, and striking it with his oar, a fair ship, with mast and canvas +and mariners, started up; he touched the other Haunted Ship, and produced +the like transformation; and away the three spectre ships bounded, leaving +a track of fire behind them on the billows which was long unextinguished. +Now wasna that a bonnie and fearful sight to see beneath the light of +the Hallowmas moon? But the tale is far frae finished, for mariners +say that once a year, on a certain night, if ye stand on the Borran +Point, ye will see the infernal shallops coming snoring through the +Solway; ye will hear the same laugh and song and mirth and minstrelsy +which our ancestors heard; see them bound over the sandbanks and sunken +rocks like sea-gulls, cast their anchor in Blawhooly Bay, while the +shadowy figure lowers down the boat, and augments their numbers with +the four unhappy mortals to whose memory a stone stands in the kirkyard, +with a sinking ship and a shoreless sea cut upon it. Then the +spectre ships <!-- page 131--><span class="pagenum">p. 131</span>vanish, +and the drowning shriek of mortals and the rejoicing laugh of fiends +are heard, and the old hulls are left as a memorial that the old spiritual +kingdom has not departed from the earth. But I maun away, and +trim my little cottage fire, and make it burn and blaze up bonnie, to +warm the crickets and my cold and crazy bones that maun soon be laid +aneath the green sod in the eerie kirkyard.” And away the +old dame tottered to her cottage, secured the door on the inside, and +soon the hearth-flame was seen to glimmer and gleam through the keyhole +and window.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell ye what,” said the old mariner, in a +subdued tone, and with a shrewd and suspicious glance of his eye after +the old sibyl, “it’s a word that may not very well be uttered, +but there are many mistakes made in evening stories if old Moll Moray +there, where she lives, knows not mickle more than she is willing to +tell of the Haunted Ships and their unhallowed mariners. She lives +cannily and quietly; no one knows how she is fed or supported; but her +dress is aye whole, her cottage ever smokes, and her table lacks neither +of wine, white and red, nor of fowl and fish, and white bread and brown. +It was a dear scoff to Jock Matheson, when he called old Moll the uncanny +carline of Blawhooly: his boat ran round and round in the centre of +the Solway—everybody said it was enchanted—and down it went +head foremost; and <!-- page 132--><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>hadna +Jock been a swimmer equal to a sheldrake, he would have fed the fish. +But I’ll warrant it sobered the lad’s speech; and he never +reckoned himself safe till he made old Moll the present of a new kirtle +and a stone of cheese.”</p> +<p>“O father!” said his granddaughter Barbara, “ye +surely wrong poor old Mary Moray; what use could it be to an old woman +like her, who has no wrongs to redress, no malice to work out against +mankind, and nothing to seek of enjoyment save a canny hour and a quiet +grave—what use could the fellowship of fiends and the communion +of evil spirits be to her? I know Jenny Primrose puts rowan-tree +above the door-head when she sees old Mary coming; I know the good-wife +of Kittlenaket wears rowan-berry leaves in the headband of her blue +kirtle, and all for the sake of averting the unsonsie glance of Mary’s +right ee; and I know that the auld Laird of Burntroutwater drives his +seven cows to their pasture with a wand of witch-tree, to keep Mary +from milking them. But what has all that to do with haunted shallops, +visionary mariners, and bottomless boats? I have heard myself +as pleasant a tale about the Haunted Ships and their unworldly crews +as any one would wish to hear in a winter evening. It was told +me by young Benjie Macharg, one summer night, sitting on Arbigland-bank: +the lad intended a sort of love meeting; but all that he could talk +of was about smearing sheep <!-- page 133--><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>and +shearing sheep, and of the wife which the Norway elves of the Haunted +Ships made for his uncle Sandie Macharg. And I shall tell ye the +tale as the honest lad told it to me.</p> +<p>“Alexander Macharg, besides being the laird of three acres +of peatmoss, two kale gardens, and the owner of seven good milch cows, +a pair of horses, and six pet sheep, was the husband of one of the handsomest +women in seven parishes. Many a lad sighed the day he was brided; +and a Nithsdale laird and two Annandale moorland farmers drank themselves +to their last linen, as well as their last shilling, through sorrow +for her loss. But married was the dame; and home she was carried, +to bear rule over her home and her husband, as an honest woman should. +Now ye maun ken that though the flesh-and-blood lovers of Alexander’s +bonnie wife all ceased to love and to sue her after she became another’s, +there were certain admirers who did not consider their claim at all +abated, or their hopes lessened by the kirk’s famous obstacle +of matrimony. Ye have heard how the devout minister of Tinwald +had a fair son carried away, and wedded against his liking to an unchristened +bride, whom the elves and the fairies provided; ye have heard how the +bonnie bride of the drunken Laird of Soukitup was stolen by the fairies +out at the back-window of the bridal chamber, the time the bridegroom +was groping his way to the chamber <!-- page 134--><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>door; +and ye have heard—but why need I multiply cases? Such things +in the ancient days were as common as candle-light. So ye’ll +no hinder certain water elves and sea fairies, who sometimes keep festival +and summer mirth in these old haunted hulks, from falling in love with +the weel-faured wife of Laird Macharg; and to their plots and contrivances +they went how they might accomplish to sunder man and wife; and sundering +such a man and such a wife was like sundering the green leaf from the +summer, or the fragrance from the flower.</p> +<p>“So it fell on a time that Laird Macharg took his halve-net +on his back, and his steel spear in his hand, and down to Blawhooly +Bay gaed he, and into the water he went right between the two haunted +hulks, and placing his net awaited the coming of the tide. The +night, ye maun ken, was mirk, and the wind lowne, and the singing of +the increasing waters among the shells and the peebles was heard for +sundry miles. All at once light began to glance and twinkle on +board the two Haunted Ships from every hole and seam, and presently +the sound as of a hatchet employed in squaring timber echoed far and +wide. But if the toil of these unearthly workmen amazed the laird, +how much more was his amazement increased when a sharp shrill voice +called out, ‘Ho, brother! what are you doing now?’ +A voice still shriller responded from the other haunted ship, ‘I’m +making <!-- page 135--><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>a wife to +Sandie Macharg!’ And a loud quavering laugh running from +ship to ship, and from bank to bank, told the joy they expected from +their labour.</p> +<p>“Now the laird, besides being a devout and a God-fearing man, +was shrewd and bold; and in plot and contrivance, and skill in conducting +his designs, was fairly an overmatch for any dozen land elves; but the +water elves are far more subtle; besides their haunts and their dwellings +being in the great deep, pursuit and detection is hopeless if they succeed +in carrying their prey to the waves. But ye shall hear. +Home flew the laird, collected his family around the hearth, spoke of +the signs and the sins of the times, and talked of mortification and +prayer for averting calamity; and, finally, taking his father’s +Bible, brass clasps, black print, and covered with calf-skin, from the +shelf, he proceeded without let or stint to perform domestic worship. +I should have told ye that he bolted and locked the door, shut up all +inlet to the house, threw salt into the fire, and proceeded in every +way like a man skilful in guarding against the plots of fairies and +fiends. His wife looked on all this with wonder; but she saw something +in her husband’s looks that hindered her from intruding either +question or advice, and a wise woman was she.</p> +<p>“Near the mid-hour of the night the rush of a horse’s +feet was heard, and the sound of a rider leaping from its back, and +a heavy knock came to <!-- page 136--><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>the +door, accompanied by a voice, saying, ‘The cummer drink’s +hot, and the knave bairn is expected at Laird Laurie’s to-night; +sae mount, good-wife, and come.’</p> +<p>“‘Preserve me!’ said the wife of Sandie Macharg, +‘that’s news indeed; who could have thought it? The +laird has been heirless for seventeen years! Now, Sandie, my man, +fetch me my skirt and hood.’</p> +<p>“But he laid his arm round his wife’s neck, and said, +‘If all the lairds in Galloway go heirless, over this door threshold +shall you not stir to-night; and I have said, and I have sworn it; seek +not to know why or wherefore—but, Lord, send us thy blessed mornlight.’ +The wife looked for a moment in her husband’s eyes, and desisted +from further entreaty.</p> +<p>“‘But let us send a civil message to the gossips, Sandy; +and hadna ye better say I am sair laid with a sudden sickness? though +it’s sinful-like to send the poor messenger a mile agate with +a lie in his mouth without a glass of brandy.’</p> +<p>“‘To such a messenger, and to those who sent him, no +apology is needed,’ said the austere laird; ‘so let him +depart.’ And the clatter of a horse’s hoofs was heard, +and the muttered imprecations of its rider on the churlish treatment +he had experienced.</p> +<p>“‘Now, Sandie, my lad,’ said his wife, laying an +arm particularly white and round about his neck as she spoke, ‘are +you not a queer man and a stern? <!-- page 137--><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>I +have been your wedded wife now these three years; and, beside my dower, +have brought you three as bonnie bairns as ever smiled aneath a summer +sun. O man, you a douce man, and fitter to be an elder than even +Willie Greer himself, I have the minister’s ain word for ’t, +to put on these hard-hearted looks, and gang waving your arms that way, +as if ye said, “I winna take the counsel of sic a hempie as you;” +I’m your ain leal wife, and will and maun have an explanation.’</p> +<p>“To all this Sandie Macharg replied, ‘It is written, +“Wives, obey your husbands”; but we have been stayed in +our devotion, so let us pray;’ and down he knelt: his wife knelt +also, for she was as devout as bonnie; and beside them knelt their household, +and all lights were extinguished.</p> +<p>“‘Now this beats a’,’ muttered his wife to +herself; ‘however, I shall be obedient for a time; but if I dinna +ken what all this is for before the morn by sunket-time, my tongue is +nae langer a tongue, nor my hands worth wearing.’</p> +<p>“The voice of her husband in prayer interrupted this mental +soliloquy; and ardently did he beseech to be preserved from the wiles +of the fiends and the snares of Satan; from witches, ghosts, goblins, +elves, fairies, spunkies, and water-kelpies; from the spectre shallop +of Solway; from spirits visible and invisible; from the Haunted Ships +and their unearthly tenants; from maritime spirits that plotted <!-- page 138--><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>against +godly men, and fell in love with their wives—’</p> +<p>“‘Nay, but His presence be near us!’ said his wife, +in a low tone of dismay. ‘God guide my gudeman’s wits: +I never heard such a prayer from human lips before. But, Sandie, +my man, Lord’s sake, rise. What fearful light is this? +Barn and byre and stable maun be in a blaze; and Hawkie, and Hurley, +Doddie, and Cherrie, and Damsonplum will be smoored with reek, and scorched +with flame.’</p> +<p>“And a flood of light, but not so gross as a common fire, which +ascended to heaven and filled all the court before the house, amply +justified the good-wife’s suspicions. But to the terrors +of fire Sandie was as immovable as he was to the imaginary groans of +the barren wife of Laird Laurie; and he held his wife, and threatened +the weight of his right hand—and it was a heavy one—to all +who ventured abroad, or even unbolted the door. The neighing and +prancing of horses, and the bellowing of cows, augmented the horrors +of the night; and to any one who only heard the din, it seemed that +the whole onstead was in a blaze, and horses and cattle perishing in +the flame. All wiles, common or extraordinary, were put in practice +to entice or force the honest farmer and his wife to open the door; +and when the like success attended every new stratagem, silence for +a little while ensued, and a long, loud, and shrilling laugh wound up +the <!-- page 139--><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>dramatic efforts +of the night. In the morning, when Laird Macharg went to the door, +he found standing against one of the pilasters a piece of black ship +oak, rudely fashioned into something like human form, and which skilful +people declared would have been clothed with seeming flesh and blood, +and palmed upon him by elfin adroitness for his wife, had he admitted +his visitants. A synod of wise men and women sat upon the woman +of timber, and she was finally ordered to be devoured by fire, and that +in the open air. A fire was soon made, and into it the elfin sculpture +was tossed from the prongs of two pairs of pitchforks. The blaze +that arose was awful to behold; and hissings and burstings and loud +cracklings and strange noises were heard in the midst of the flame; +and when the whole sank into ashes, a drinking-cup of some precious +metal was found; and this cup, fashioned no doubt by elfin skill, but +rendered harmless by the purification with fire, the sons and daughters +of Sandie Macharg and his wife drink out of to this very day. +Bless all bold men, say I, and obedient wives!”</p> +<h2><!-- page 140--><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>THE BROWNIE.</h2> +<p>The Scottish Brownie formed a class of being distinct in habit and +disposition from the freakish and mischievous elves. He was meagre, +shaggy, and wild in his appearance. Thus Cleland, in his satire +against the Highlanders, compares them to</p> +<blockquote><p>“Faunes, or Brownies, if ye will,<br /> +Or Satyres come from Atlas Hill.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the day-time he lurked in remote recesses of the old houses which +he delighted to haunt, and in the night sedulously employed himself +in discharging any laborious task which he thought might be acceptable +to the family to whose service he had devoted himself. But the +Brownie does not drudge from the hope of recompense. On the contrary, +so delicate is his attachment that the offer of reward, but particularly +of food, infallibly occasions his disappearance for ever. It is +told of a Brownie, who haunted a border family now extinct, that the +lady having fallen unexpectedly ill, and the servant, who was ordered +to ride to Jedburgh for the <i>sage-femme</i>, showing no great alertness +in setting out, <!-- page 141--><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>the +familiar spirit slipped on the greatcoat of the lingering domestic, +rode to the town on the laird’s best horse, and returned with +the midwife <i>en croupe</i>. During the short space of his absence, +the Tweed, which they must necessarily ford, rose to a dangerous height. +Brownie, who transported his charge with all the rapidity of the ghostly +lover of Lenore, was not to be stopped by the obstacle. He plunged +in with the terrified old lady, and landed her in safety where her services +were wanted. Having put the horse into the stable (where it was +afterwards found in a woful plight), he proceeded to the room of the +servant, whose duty he had discharged, and finding him just in the act +of drawing on his boots, he administered to him a most merciless drubbing +with his own horsewhip. Such an important service excited the +gratitude of the laird, who, understanding that Brownie had been heard +to express a wish to have a green coat, ordered a vestment of the colour +to be made, and left in his haunts. Brownie took away the green +coat, but was never seen more. We may suppose that, tired of his +domestic drudgery, he went in his new livery to join the fairies.</p> +<p>The last Brownie known in Ettrick Forest resided in Bodsbeck, a wild +and solitary spot, near the head of Moffat Water, where he exercised +his functions undisturbed, till the scrupulous devotion of an old lady +induced her to “hire him away,” as it was <!-- page 142--><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>termed, +by placing in his haunt a porringer of milk and a piece of money. +After receiving this hint to depart, he was heard the whole night to +howl and cry, “Farewell to bonnie Bodsbeck!” which he was +compelled to abandon for ever.</p> +<h2><!-- page 143--><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span>MAUNS’ +STANE.</h2> +<p>In the latter end of the autumn of 18--, I set out by myself on an +excursion over the northern part of Scotland, and during that time my +chief amusement was to observe the little changes of manners, language, +etc., in the different districts. After having viewed on my return +the principal curiosities in Buchan, I made a little ale-house, or “public,” +my head-quarters for the night. Having discussed my supper in +solitude, I called up mine host to enable me to discuss my bottle, and +to give me a statistical account of the country around me. Seated +in the “blue” end, and well supplied with the homely but +satisfying luxuries which the place afforded, I was in an excellent +mood for enjoying the communicativeness of my landlord; and, after speaking +about the cave of Slaines, the state of the crops, and the neighbouring +franklins, edged him, by degrees, to speak about the Abbey of Deer, +an interesting ruin which I had examined in the course of the day, formerly +the stronghold of the once powerful family of Cummin.</p> +<p><!-- page 144--><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>“It’s +dootless a bonnie place about the abbey,” said he, “but +naething like what it was when the great Sir James the Rose came to +hide i’ the Buchan woods wi’ a’ the Grahames rampagin’ +at his tail, whilk you that’s a beuk-learned man ’ill hae +read o’, an’ may be ye’ll hae heard o’ the saughen +bush where he forgathered wi’ his jo; or aiblins ye may have seen +’t, for it’s standing yet just at the corner o’ gaukit +Jamie Jamieson’s peat-stack. Ay, ay, the abbey was a brave +place once; but a’ thing, ye ken, comes till an end.” +So saying, he nodded to me, and brought his glass to an end.</p> +<p>“This place, then, must have been famed in days of yore, my +friend?”</p> +<p>“Ye may tak my word for that,” said he, “’Od, +it <i>was</i> a place! Sic a sight o’ fechtin’ as +they had about it! But gin ye’ll gan up the trap-stair to +the laft, an’ open Jenny’s kist, ye’ll see sic a story +about it, printed by ane o’ your learned Aberdeen’s fouk, +Maister Keith, I think; she coft it in Aberdeen for twal’ pennies, +lang ago, an’ battered it to the lid o’ her kist. +But gang up the stair canny, for fear that you should wauken her, puir +thing; or, bide, I’ll just wauken Jamie Fleep, an’ gar him +help me down wi’t, for our stair’s no just that canny for +them ’t’s no acquaint wi’t, let alane a frail man +wi’ your infirmity.”</p> +<p>I assured him that I would neither disturb the young lady’s +slumber nor Jamie Fleep’s, and begged <!-- page 145--><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>him +to give me as much information as he could about this castle.</p> +<p>“Weel, wishin’ your guid health again.—Our minister +ance said that Solomon’s Temple was a’ in ruins, wi’ +whin bushes, an’ broom and thistles growin’ ower the bonnie +carved wark an’ the cedar wa’s, just like our ain abbey. +Noo, I judge that the Abbey o’ Deer was just the marrow o ’t, +or the minister wadna hae said that. But when it was biggit, Lord +kens, for I dinna. It was just as you see it, lang afore your +honour was born, an’ aiblins, as the by-word says, may be sae +after ye’re hanged. But that’s neither here nor there. +The Cummins o’ Buchan were a dour and surly race; and, for a fearfu’ +time, nane near han’ nor far awa could ding them, an’ yet +mony a ane tried it. The fouk on their ain lan’ likit them +weel enough; but the Crawfords, an’ the Grahames, an’ the +Mars, an’ the Lovats, were aye trying to comb them against the +hair, an’ mony a weary kempin’ had they wi’ them. +But some way or ither they could never ding them; an’ fouk said +that they gaed and learned the black art frae the Pope o’ Room, +wha, I myself heard the minister say, had aye a colleague wi’ +the Auld Chiel. I dinna ken fou it was, in the tail o’ the +day, the hale country raise up against them, an’ besieged them +in the Abbey o’ Deer. Ye’ll see, my frien’” +(by this time mine host considered me as one of his cronies), “tho’ +we ca’ it the abbey, it had naething to do wi’ <!-- page 146--><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>papistry; +na, na, no sae bad as a’ that either, but just a noble’s +castle, where they keepit sodgers gaun about in airn an’ scarlet, +wi’ their swords an’ guns, an’ begnets, an’ +sentry-boxes, like the local militia in the barracks o’ Aberdeen.</p> +<p>“Weel, ye see, they surrounded the castle, an’ lang did +they besiege it; but there was a vast o’ meat in the castle, an’ +the Buchan fouk fought like the vera deil. They took their horse +through a miscellaneous passage, half a mile long, aneath the hill o’ +Saplinbrae, an’ watered them in the burn o’ Pulmer. +But a’ wadna do; they took the castle at last, and a terrible +slaughter they made amo’ them; but they were sair disappointed +in ae partic’ler, for Cummin’s fouk sank a’ their +goud an’ siller in a draw-wall, an’ syne filled it up wi’ +stanes. They got naething in the way of spulzie to speak o’; +sae out o’ spite they dang doon the castle, an’ it’s +never been biggit to this day. But the Cummins were no sae bad +as the Lairds o’ Federat, after a’.”</p> +<p>“And who were these Federats?” I inquired.</p> +<p>“The Lairds o’ Federat?” said he, moistening his +mouth again as a preamble to his oration. “Troth, frae their +deeds ane would maist think that they had a drap o’ the deil’s +blude, like the pyets. Gin a’ tales be true, they hae the +warmest place at his bink this vera minute. I dinna ken vera muckle +about them though, but the auldest fouk said they were just byous wi’ +cruelty. Mony a good man did <!-- page 147--><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>they +hing up i’ their ha’, just for their ain sport; ye’ll +see the ring to the fore yet in the roof o ’t. Did ye never +hear o’ Mauns’ Stane, neebour?”</p> +<p>“Mauns’ what?” said I.</p> +<p>“Ou, Mauns’ Stane. But it’s no likely. +Ye see it was just a queer clump o’ a roun’-about heathen, +waghlin’ may be twa tons or thereby. It wasna like ony o’ +the stanes in our countra, an’ it was as roun’ as a fit-ba’; +I’m sure it wad ding Professor Couplan himsel’ to tell what +way it cam’ there. Noo, fouk aye thought there was something +uncanny about it, an’ some gaed the length o’ saying that +the deil used to bake ginshbread upon’t; and, as sure as ye’re +sitting there, frien’, there was knuckle-marks upon ’t, +for my ain father has seen them as aften as I have taes an’ fingers. +Aweel, ye see, Mauns Crawford, the last o’ the Lairds o’ +Federat, an’ the deil had coost out (may be because the laird +was just as wicked an’ as clever as he was himsel’), an’ +ye perceive the evil ane wantit to play him a trick. Noo, Mauns +Crawford was ae day lookin’ ower his castle wa’, and he +saw a stalwart carle, in black claes, ridin’ up the loanin’. +He stopped at this chuckie o’ a stane, an’ loutin’ +himsel’, he took it up in his arms, and lifted it three times +to his saddle-bow, an’ syne he rade awa out o’ sight, never +comin’ near the castle, as Mauns thought he would hae done. +‘Noo,’ says the baron till himsel’, says he, ‘I +didna think that there was ony ane in a’ the land that could hae +<!-- page 148--><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>played sic a ploy; +but deil fetch me if I dinna lift it as weel as he did!’ +Sae aff he gaed, for there wasna sic a man for birr in a’ the +countra, an’ he kent it as weel, for he never met wi’ his +match. Weel, he tried, and tugged, and better than tugged at the +stane, but he coudna mudge it ava; an’ when he looked about, he +saw a man at his ilbuck, a’ smeared wi’ smiddy-coom, snightern +an’ laughin’ at him. The laird d---d him, an’ +bade him lift it, whilk he did as gin ’t had been a little pinnin. +The laird was like to burst wi’ rage at being fickled by sic a +hag-ma-hush carle, and he took to the stane in a fury, and lifted it +till his knee; but the weight o ’t amaist ground his banes to +smash. He held the stane till his een-strings crackit, when he +was as blin’ as a moudiwort. He was blin’ till the +day o’ his death,—that’s to say, if ever he died, +for there were queer sayings about it—vera queer! vera queer! +The stane was ca’d Mauns’ Stane ever after; an’ it +was no thought that canny to be near it after gloaming; for what says +the Psalm—hem!—I mean the sang—</p> +<blockquote><p>’Tween Ennetbutts an’ Mauns’ Stane<br /> +Ilka night there walks ane!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“There never was a chief of the family after; the men were +scattered, an’ the castle demolished. The doo and the hoodie-craw +nestle i’ their towers, and the hare mak’s her form on their +grassy hearth-stane.”</p> +<p>“Is this stone still to be seen?”</p> +<p><!-- page 149--><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>“Ou, na. +Ye see, it was just upon Johnie Forbes’s craft, an’ fouk +cam’ far an’ near to leuk at it, an’ trampit down +a’ the puir cottar-body’s corn; sae he houkit a hole just +aside it, and tumbled it intil ’t; by that means naebody sees’t +noo, but its weel kent that it’s there, for they’re livin’ +yet wha’ve seen it.”</p> +<p>“But the well at the Abbey—did no one feel a desire to +enrich himself with the gold and silver buried there?”</p> +<p>“Hoot, ay; mony a ane tried to find out whaur it was, and, +for that matter, I’ve may be done as foolish a thing myself; but +nane ever made it out. There was a scholar, like yoursel’, +that gaed ae night down to the Abbey, an’, ye see, he summoned +up the deil.”</p> +<p>“The deuce he did!” said I.</p> +<p>“Weel, weel, the deuce, gin ye like it better,” said +he. “An’ he was gaun to question him where the treasure +was, but he had eneuch to do to get him laid without deaving him wi’ +questions, for a’ the deils cam’ about him, like bees biggin’ +out o’ a byke. He never coured the fright he gat, but cried +out, ‘Help! help!’ till his very enemy wad hae been wae +to see him; and sae he cried till he died, which was no that lang after. +Fouk sudna meddle wi’ sic ploys!”</p> +<p>“Most wonderful! And do you believe that Beelzebub actually +appeared to him?”</p> +<p><!-- page 150--><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>“Believe +it! What for no?” said he, consequentially tapping the lid +of his snuff-horn. “Didna my ain father see the evil ane +i’ the schule o’ Auld Deer?”</p> +<p>“Indeed!”</p> +<p>“Weel, I wot he did that. A wheen idle callants, when +the dominie was out at his twal’-hours, read the Lord’s +Prayer backlans, an’ raised him, but couldna lay him again, for +he threepit ower them that he wadna gang awa unless he gat ane o’ +them wi’ him. Ye may be sure this put them in an awfu’ +swither. They were a’ squallin’ an’ crawlin’ +and sprawlin’ amo’ the couples to get out o’ his grips. +Ane o’ them gat out an’ tauld the maister about it, an’ +when he cam’ down, the melted lead was runnin’ aff the roof +o’ the house wi’ the heat, sae, flingin’ to the black +thief a young bit kittlen o’ the schule-mistress’s, he sank +through the floor wi’ an awsome roar. I mysel’ have +heard the mistress misca’in her man about offering up the puir +thing, baith saul and body, to Baal. But troth, I’m no clear +to speak o’ the like o’ this at sic a time o’ night; +sae if your honour bena for another jug, I’ll e’en wus you +a gude-night, for it’s wearin’ late, an I maun awa’ +to Skippyfair i’ the mornin’.”</p> +<p>I assented to this, and quickly lost in sleep the remembrance of +all these tales of the olden times.</p> +<h2><!-- page 151--><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>“HORSE +AND HATTOCK.”</h2> +<p>The power of the fairies was not confined to unchristened children +alone; it was supposed frequently to be extended to full-grown people, +especially such as in an unlucky hour were devoted to the devil by the +execrations of parents and of masters; or those who were found asleep +under a rock, or on a green hill, belonging to the fairies, after sunset, +or, finally, to those who unwarily joined their orgies. A tradition +existed, during the seventeenth century, concerning an ancestor of the +noble family of Duffers, who, “walking abroad in the fields near +to his own house, was suddenly carried away, and found the next day +at Paris, in the French king’s cellar, with a silver cup in his +hand. Being brought into the king’s presence, and questioned +by him who he was, and how he came thither, he told his name, his country, +and the place of his residence, and that on such a day of the month, +which proved to be the day immediately preceding, being in the fields, +he heard a noise of a whirlwind, and of voices crying ‘Horse and +hattock!’ (this is the word which <!-- page 152--><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>the +fairies are said to use when they remove from any place), whereupon +he cried ‘Horse and hattock!’ also, and was immediately +caught up and transported through the air by the fairies to that place, +where, after he had drunk heartily, he fell asleep, and before he woke +the rest of the company were gone, and had left him in the posture wherein +he was found. It is said the king gave him a cup which was found +in his hand, and dismissed him.” The narrator affirms “that +the cup was still preserved, and known by the name of the fairy cup.” +He adds that Mr. Steward, tutor to the then Lord Duffers, had informed +him that, “when a boy at the school of Forres, he and his school-fellows +were once upon a time whipping their tops in the churchyard, before +the door of the church, when, though the day was calm, they heard a +noise of a wind, and at some distance saw the small dust begin to rise +and turn round, which motion continued advancing till it came to the +place where they were, whereupon they began to bless themselves; but +one of their number being, it seems, a little more bold and confident +than his companion, said, ‘Horse and hattock with my top!’ +and immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the ground, but +could not see which way it was carried, by reason of a cloud of dust +which was raised at the same time. They sought for the top all +about the place where it was taken up, but in vain; and it was found +afterwards in <!-- page 153--><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>the +churchyard, on the other side of the church.” This legend +is contained in a letter from a learned gentleman in Scotland to Mr. +Aubrey, dated 15th March 1695, published in <i>Aubrey’s Miscellanies</i>.</p> +<h2><!-- page 154--><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>SECRET COMMONWEALTH.</h2> +<p><i>By</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Robert Kirk</span>, <i>Minister +of Aberfoyle</i>, 1691.</p> +<p>The Siths, or Fairies, they call <i>Sluagh Maith</i>, or the Goodpeople, +it would seem, to prevent the dint of their ill attempts (for the Irish +used to bless all they fear harm of), and are said to be of a middle +nature betwixt man and angel, as were demons thought to be of old, of +intelligent studious spirits, and light changeable bodies (like those +called astral), somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best +seen in twilight. These bodies be so pliable through the subtlety +of the spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or +disappear at pleasure. Some have bodies or vehicles so spongeous, +thin, and defecat [pure] that they are fed by only sucking into some +fine spirituous liquors, that pierce like pure air and oil; others feed +more gross on the foyson [abundance] or substance of corn and liquors, +or corn itself that grows on the surface of the earth, which these fairies +steal away, partly invisible, partly preying on the grain, as do crows +<!-- page 155--><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>and mice; wherefore +in this same age they are sometimes heard to break bread, strike hammers, +and to do such like services within the little hillocks they most do +haunt; some whereof of old, before the Gospel dispelled Paganism, and +in some barbarous places as yet, enter houses after all are at rest, +and set the kitchens in order, cleansing all the vessels. Such +drags go under the name of Brownies. When we have plenty, they +have scarcity at their homes; and, on the contrary (for they are not +empowered to catch as much prey everywhere as they please), their robberies, +notwithstanding, ofttimes occasion great ricks of corn not to bleed +so well (as they call it), or prove so copious by very far as was expected +by the owner.</p> +<p>Their bodies of congealed air are sometimes carried aloft, other +whiles grovel in different shapes, and enter into any cranny or clift +of the earth where air enters, to their ordinary dwellings; the earth +being full of cavities and cells, and there being no place, no creature, +but is supposed to have other animals (greater or lesser) living in +or upon it as inhabitants; and no such thing as a pure wilderness in +the whole universe.</p> +<p>We then (the more terrestrial kind have now so numerously planted +all countries) do labour for that abstruse people, as well as for ourselves. +Albeit, when several countries were uninhabited by us, these had their +easy tillage above ground, as we <!-- page 156--><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>now. +The print of those furrows do yet remain to be seen on the shoulders +of very high hills, which was done when the campaign ground was wood +and forest.</p> +<p>They remove to other lodgings at the beginning of each quarter of +the year, so traversing till doomsday, being impotent of staying in +one place, and finding some ease by so purning [journeying] and changing +habitations. Their chameleon-like bodies swim in the air near +the earth with bag and baggage; and at such revolution of time, seers, +or men of the second sight (females being seldom so qualified) have +very terrifying encounters with them, even on highways; who, therefore, +awfully shun to travel abroad at these four seasons of the year, and +thereby have made it a custom to this day among the Scottish-Irish to +keep church duly every first Sunday of the quarter to <i>seun</i> or +hallow themselves, their corn and cattle, from the shots and stealth +of these wandering tribes; and many of these superstitious people will +not be seen in church again till the next quarter begins, as if no duty +were to be learnt or done by them, but all the use of worship and sermons +were to save them from these arrows that fly in the dark.</p> +<p>They are distributed in tribes and orders, and have children, nurses, +marriages, deaths, and burials in appearance, even as we (unless they +so do for a mock-show, or to prognosticate some such things among us).</p> +<p><!-- page 157--><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>They are clearly +seen by these men of the second sight to eat at funerals [and] banquets. +Hence many of the Scottish-Irish will not taste meat at these meetings, +lest they have communion with, or be poisoned by, them. So are +they seen to carry the bier or coffin with the corpse among the middle-earth +men to the grave. Some men of that exalted sight (whether by art +or nature) have told me they have seen at these meetings a double man, +or the shape of some man in two places; that is a super-terranean and +a subterranean inhabitant, perfectly resembling one another in all points, +whom he, notwithstanding, could easily distinguish one from another +by some secret tokens and operations, and so go and speak to the man, +his neighbour and familiar, passing by the apparition or resemblance +of him. They avouch that every element and different state of +being has animals resembling those of another element; as there be fishes +sometimes at sea resembling monks of late order in all their hoods and +dresses; so as the Roman invention of good and bad demons, and guardian +angels particularly assigned, is called by them an ignorant mistake, +sprung only from this original. They call this reflex man a co-walker, +every way like the man, as a twin brother and companion, haunting him +as his shadow, as is oft seen and known among men (resembling the original), +both before and after the original is dead; and was often seen of old +to enter a house, by which <!-- page 158--><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>the +people knew that the person of that likeness was to visit them within +a few days. This copy, echo, or living picture, goes at last to +his own herd. It accompanied that person so long and frequently +for ends best known to itself, whether to guard him from the secret +assaults of some of its own folk, or only as a sportful ape to counterfeit +all his actions. However, the stories of old witches prove beyond +contradiction that all sorts of people, spirits which assume light airy +bodies, or crazed bodies coacted by foreign spirits, seem to have some +pleasure (at least to assuage some pain or melancholy) by frisking and +capering like satyrs, or whistling and screeching (like unlucky birds) +in their unhallowed synagogues and Sabbaths. If invited and earnestly +required, these companions make themselves known and familiar to men; +otherwise, being in a different state and element, they neither can +nor will easily converse with them. They avouch that a <i>heluo</i> +or great eater has a voracious elve to be his attender, called a joint-eater +or just-halver, feeding on the pith and quintessence of what the man +eats; and that, therefore, he continues lean like a hawk or heron, notwithstanding +his devouring appetite; yet it would seem they convey that substance +elsewhere, for these subterraneans eat but little in their dwellings, +their food being exactly clean, and served up by pleasant children, +like enchanted puppets.</p> +<p>Their houses are called large and fair, and (unless <!-- page 159--><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>at +some odd occasions) unperceivable by vulgar eyes, like Rachland and +other enchanted islands, having fir lights, continual lamps, and fires, +often seen without fuel to sustain them. Women are yet alive who +tell they were taken away when in childbed to nurse fairy children, +a lingering voracious image of them being left in their place (like +their reflection in a mirror), which (as if it were some insatiable +spirit in an assumed body) made first semblance to devour the meats +that it cunningly carried by, and then left the carcass as if it expired +and departed thence by a natural and common death. The child and +fire, with food and all other necessaries, are set before the nurse +how soon she enters, but she neither perceives any passage out, nor +sees what those people do in other rooms of the lodging. When +the child is weaned, the nurse dies, or is conveyed back, or gets it +to her choice to stay there. But if any superterraneans be so +subtle as to practise sleights for procuring the privacy to any of their +mysteries (such as making use of their ointments, which, as Gyges’ +ring, make them invisible or nimble, or cast them in a trance, or alter +their shape, or make things appear at a vast distance, etc.), they smite +them without pain, as with a puff of wind, and bereave them of both +the natural and acquired sights in the twinkling of an eye (both these +sights, when once they come, being in the same organ and inseparable), +or they strike <!-- page 160--><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>them +dumb. The tramontanes to this day place bread, the Bible, or a +piece of iron, to save their women at such times from being thus stolen, +and they commonly report that all uncouth, unknown wights are terrified +by nothing earthly so much as cold iron. They deliver the reason +to be that hell lying betwixt the chill tempests and the firebrands +of scalding metals, and iron of the north (hence the loadstone causes +a tendency to that point), by an antipathy thereto, these odious, far-scenting +creatures shrug and fright at all that comes thence relating to so abhorred +a place, whence their torment is either begun, or feared to come hereafter.</p> +<p>Their apparel and speech is like that of the people and country under +which they live; so are they seen to wear plaids and variegated garments +in the Highlands of Scotland, and suanachs [plaids] therefore in Ireland. +They speak but little, and that by way of whistling, clear, not rough. +The very devils conjured in any country do answer in the language of +the place; yet sometimes the subterraneans speak more distinctly than +at other times. Their women are said to spin very fine, to dye, +to tossue, and embroider; but whether it be as manual operation of substantial +refined stuffs, with apt and solid instruments, or only curious cobwebs, +unpalpable rainbows, and a phantastic imitation of the actions of more +terrestrial mortals, since it transcended <!-- page 161--><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>all +the senses of the seer to discern whether, I leave to conjecture as +I found it.</p> +<p>Their men travel much abroad, either presaging or aping the dismal +and tragical actions of some amongst us; and have also many disastrous +doings of their own, as convocations, fighting, gashes, wounds, and +burials, both in the earth and air. They live much longer than +we; yet die at last, or [at] least vanish from that state. ’Tis +one of their tenets that nothing perisheth, but (as the sun and year) +everything goes in a circle, lesser or greater, and is renewed and refreshed +in its revolutions; as ’tis another, that every body in the creation +moves (which is a sort of life); and that nothing moves but has another +animal moving on it; and so on, to the utmost minutest corpuscle that’s +capable of being a receptacle of life.</p> +<p>They are said to have aristocratical rulers and laws, but no discernible +religion, love, or devotion towards God, the blessed Maker of all: they +disappear whenever they hear His name invoked, or the name of Jesus +(at which all do bow willingly, or by constraint, that dwell above or +beneath, within the earth), (Philip, ii. 10); nor can they act ought +at that time after hearing of that sacred name. The Taiblsdear +or seer, that corresponds with this kind of familiars, can bring them +with a spell to appear to himself or others when he pleases, as readily +as Endor Witch did those of her own <!-- page 162--><span class="pagenum">p. 162</span>kind. +He tells they are ever readiest to go on hurtful errands, but seldom +will be the messengers of great good to men. He is not terrified +with their sight when he calls them, but seeing them in a surprise (as +often as he does) frights him extremely, and glad would he be quit of +such, for the hideous spectacles seen among them; as the torturing of +some wight, earnest, ghostly, staring looks, skirmishes, and the like. +They do not all the harm which appearingly they have power to do; nor +are they perceived to be in great pain, save that they are usually silent +and sullen. They are said to have many pleasant toyish books; +but the operation of these pieces only appears in some paroxysms of +antic, corybantic jollity, as if ravished and prompted by a new spirit +entering into them at that instant, lighter and merrier than their own. +Other books they have of involved, abstruse sense, much like the Rosurcian +[Rosicrucian] style. They have nothing of the Bible, save collected +parcels for charms and counter-charms; not to defend themselves withal, +but to operate on other animals, for they are a people invulnerable +by our weapons, and albeit werewolves’ and witches’ true +bodies are (by the union of the spirit of nature that runs through all +echoing and doubling the blow towards another) wounded at home, when +the astral assumed bodies are stricken elsewhere—as the strings +of a second harp, tuned to a unison, sound, though only one be <!-- page 163--><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>struck,—yet +these people have not a second, or so gross a body at all, to be so +pierced; but as air which when divided unites again; or if they feel +pain by a blow, they are better physicians than we, and quickly cure. +They are not subject to sore sicknesses, but dwindle and decay at a +certain period, all about an age. Some say their continual sadness +is because of their pendulous state (like those men, Luke xiii. 2-6), +as uncertain what at the last revolution will become of them, when they +are locked up into an unchangeable condition; and if they have any frolic +fits of mirth, ’tis as the constrained grinning of a mort-head +[death’s-head], or rather as acted on a stage, and moved by another, +ther [than?] cordially coming of themselves. But other men of +the second sight, being illiterate, and unwary in their observations, +learn from [differ from] those; one averring those subterranean people +to be departed souls, attending a while in this inferior state, and +clothed with bodies procured through their alms-deeds in this life; +fluid, active, ethereal vehicles to hold them that they may not scatter +nor wander, and be lost in the totum, or their first nothing; but if +any were so impious as to have given no alms, they say, when the souls +of such do depart, they sleep in an inactive state till they resume +the terrestrial bodies again; others, that what the low-country Scotch +call a wraith, and the Irish <i>taibhse</i>, or death’s messenger +(appearing sometimes <!-- page 164--><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>as +a little rough dog, and if crossed and conjured in time, will be pacified +by the death of any other creature instead of the sick man), is only +exuvious fumes of the man approaching death, exhaled and congealed into +a various likeness (as ships and armies are sometimes shaped in the +air), and called astral bodies, agitated as wild-fire with wind, and +are neither souls nor counterfeiting spirits; yet not a few avouch (as +is said) that surely these are a numerous people by themselves, having +their own politics, which diversities of judgment may occasion several +inconsonancies in this rehearsal, after the narrowest scrutiny made +about it.</p> +<p>Their weapons are most-what solid earthly bodies, nothing of iron, +but much of stone, like to yellow soft flint spa, shaped like a barbed +arrowhead, but flung like a dart, with great force. These arms +(cut by art and tools, it seems, beyond human) have somewhat of the +nature of thunderbolt subtlety, and mortally wounding the vital parts +without breaking the skin; of which wounds I have observed in beasts, +and felt them with my hands. They are not as infallible Benjamites, +hitting at a hair’s-breadth; nor are they wholly unvanquishable, +at least in appearance.</p> +<p>The men of the second sight do not discover strange things when asked, +but at fits and raptures, as if inspired with some genius at that instant, +which before did work in or about them. Thus I <!-- page 165--><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>have +frequently spoken to one of them, who in his transport told me he cut +the body of one of those people in two with his iron weapon, and so +escaped this onset, yet he saw nothing left behind of that appearing +divided; at other times he outwrested [wrestled?] some of them. +His neighbours often perceived this man to disappear at a certain place, +and about an hour after to become visible, and discover himself near +a bow-shot from the first place. It was in that place where he +became invisible, said he, that the subterraneans did encounter and +combat with him. Those who are <i>unseund</i>, or unsanctified +(called fey), are said to be pierced or wounded with those people’s +weapons, which makes them do somewhat very unlike their former practice, +causing a sudden alteration, yet the cause thereof unperceivable at +present; nor have they power (either they cannot make use of their natural +powers, or asked not the heavenly aid) to escape the blow impendent. +A man of the second sight perceived a person standing by him (sound +to other’s view) wholly gored in blood, and he (amazed like) bid +him instantly flee. The whole man laughed at his <i>airt</i> [notice] +and warning, since there was no appearance of danger. He had scarce +contracted his lips from laughter when unexpectedly his enemies leaped +in at his side and stabbed him with their weapons. They also pierce +cows or other animals, usually said to be Elf-shot, whose purest <!-- page 166--><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>substance +(if they die) these subterraneans take to live on, viz. the aërial +and ethereal parts, the most spirituous matter for prolonging of life, +such as aquavitæ (moderately taken) is amongst liquors, leaving +the terrestrial behind. The cure of such hurts is only for a man +to find out the hole with his finger, as if the spirits flowing from +a man’s warm hand were antidote sufficient against their poisoned +darts.</p> +<p>As birds, as beasts, whose bodies are much used to the change of +the free and open air, foresee storms, so those invisible people are +more sagacious to understand by the books of nature things to come, +than we, who are pestered with the grossest dregs of all elementary +mixtures, and have our purer spirits choked by them. The deer +scents out a man and powder (though a late invention) at a great distance; +a hungry hunter, bread; and the raven, a carrion; their brains, being +long clarified by the high and subtle air, will observe a very small +change in a trice. Thus a man of the second sight, perceiving +the operations of these forecasting invisible people among us (indulged +through a stupendous providence to give warnings of some remarkable +events, either in the air, earth, or waters), told he saw a winding +shroud creeping on a walking healthful person’s leg till it came +to the knee, and afterwards it came up to the middle, then to the shoulders, +and at last over the head, which was <!-- page 167--><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>visible +to no other person. And by observing the spaces of time betwixt +the several stages, he easily guessed how long the man was to live who +wore the shroud; for when it approached the head, he told that such +a person was ripe for the grave.</p> +<p>There be many places called fairy-hills, which the mountain people +think impious and dangerous to peel or discover, by taking earth or +wood from them, superstitiously believing the souls of their predecessors +to dwell there. And for that end (say they) a mole or mound was +dedicate beside every churchyard to receive the souls till their adjacent +bodies arise, and so became as a fairy-hill; they using bodies of air +when called abroad. They also affirm those creatures that move +invisibly in a house, and cast huge great stones, but do no much hurt, +because counter-wrought by some more courteous and charitable spirits +that are everywhere ready to defend men (Dan. x. 13), to be souls that +have not attained their rest, through a vehement desire of revealing +a murder or notable injury done or received, or a treasure that was +forgot in their lifetime on earth, which, when disclosed to a conjuror +alone, the ghost quite removes.</p> +<p>In the next country to that of my former residence, about the year +1676, when there was some scarcity of grain, a marvellous illapse and +vision strongly struck the imagination of two women in one night, living +at a good distance from one <!-- page 168--><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>another, +about a treasure hid in a hill called <i>Sith-bruthach</i>, or fairy-hill. +The appearance of a treasure was first represented to the fancy, and +then an audible voice named the place where it was to their awaking +senses. Whereupon both rose, and meeting accidentally at the place, +discovered their design; and jointly digging, found a vessel as large +as a Scottish peck full of small pieces of good money, of ancient coin; +and halving betwixt them, they sold in dishfuls for dishfuls of meal +to the country people. Very many of undoubted credit saw and had +of the coin to this day. But whether it was a good or bad angel, +one of the subterranean people, or the restless soul of him who hid +it, that discovered it, and to what end it was done, I leave to the +examination of others.</p> +<p>These subterraneans have controversies, doubts, disputes, feuds, +and siding of parties; there being some ignorance in all creatures, +and the vastest created intelligences not compassing all things. +As to vice and sin, whatever their own laws be, sure according to ours, +and equity, natural, civil, and revealed, they transgress and commit +acts of injustice and sin by what is above said, as to their stealing +of nurses to their children, and that other sort of plaginism in catching +our children away (may seem to heir some estate in those invisible dominions) +which never return. For swearing and intemperance, they are not +observed so subject to those <!-- page 169--><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>irregularities, +as to envy, spite, hypocrisy, lying, and dissimulation.</p> +<p>As our religion obliges us not to make a peremptory and curious search +into these abstrusenesses, so the histories of all ages give as many +plain examples of extraordinary occurrences as make a modest inquiry +not contemptible. How much is written of pigmies, fairies, nymphs, +syrens, apparitions, which though not the tenth part true, yet could +not spring of nothing; even English authors relate [of] Barry Island, +in Glamorganshire, that laying your ear into a cleft of the rocks, blowing +of bellows, striking of hammers, clashing of armour, filing of iron, +will be heard distinctly ever since Merlin enchanted those subterranean +wights to a solid manual forging of arms to Aurelius Ambrosius and his +Britons, till he returned; which Merlin being killed in a battle, and +not coming to loose the knot, these active vulcans are there tied to +a perpetual labour.</p> +<h2><!-- page 170--><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>THE FAIRY BOY +OF LEITH.</h2> +<p>“About fifteen years since, having business that detained me +for some time at Leith, which is near Edinburgh, in the kingdom of Scotland, +I often met some of my acquaintance at a certain house there, where +we used to drink a glass of wine for our refection. The woman +which kept the house was of honest reputation among the neighbours, +which made me give the more attention to what she told me one day about +a fairy boy (as they called him) who lived about that town. She +had given me so strange an account of him, that I desired her I might +see him the first opportunity, which she promised; and not long after, +passing that way, she told me there was the fairy boy, but a little +before I came by; and, casting her eye into the street, said, ‘Look +you, sir, yonder he is, at play with those other boys’; and pointing +him out to me, I went, and by smooth words, and a piece of money, got +him to come into the house with me; where, in the presence of divers +people, I demanded of him several astrological questions, which he answered +<!-- page 171--><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>with great subtlety; +and, through all his discourse, carried it with a cunning much above +his years, which seemed not to exceed ten or eleven.</p> +<p>“He seemed to make a motion like drumming upon the table with +his fingers, upon which I asked him whether he could beat a drum? +To which he replied, ‘Yes, sir, as well as any man in Scotland; +for every Thursday night I beat all points to a sort of people that +used to meet under yonder hill’ (pointing to the great hill between +Edinburgh and Leith). ‘How, boy?’ quoth I, ‘what +company have you there?’ ‘There are, sir,’ said +he, ‘a great company both of men and women, and they are entertained +with many sorts of music besides my drum; they have, besides, plenty +of variety of meats and wine, and many times we are carried into France +or Holland in the night, and return again, and whilst we are there, +we enjoy all the pleasures the country doth afford.’ I demanded +of him how they got under that hill? To which he replied that +there was a great pair of gates that opened to them, though they were +invisible to others, and that within there were brave large rooms, as +well accommodated as most in Scotland. I then asked him how I +should know what he said to be true? Upon which he told me he +would read my fortune, saying, I should have two wives, and that he +saw the forms of them over my shoulders; and both would be very handsome +women.</p> +<p><!-- page 172--><span class="pagenum">p. 172</span>“The woman +of the house told me that all the people in Scotland could not keep +him from the rendezvous on Thursday night; upon which, by promising +him some more money, I got a promise of him to meet me at the same place +in the afternoon, the Thursday following, and so dismissed him at that +time. The boy came again at the place and time appointed, and +I had prevailed with some friends to continue with me (if possible) +to prevent his moving that night. He was placed between us, and +answered many questions, until, about eleven of the clock, he was got +away unperceived by the company; but I, suddenly missing him, hastened +to the door, and took hold of him, and so returned him into the same +room. We all watched him, and, of a sudden, he was again got out +of doors; I followed him close, and he made a noise in the street, as +if he had been set upon, and from that time I could never see him.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 173--><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>THE DRACÆ.</h2> +<p>These are a sort of water-spirits who inveigle women and children +into the recesses which they inhabit, beneath lakes and rivers, by floating +past them, on the surface of the water, in the shape of gold rings or +cups. The women thus seized are employed as nurses, and after +seven years are permitted to revisit earth. Gervase mentions one +woman in particular who had been allured by observing a wooden dish, +or cup, float by her, while she was washing clothes in the river. +Being seized as soon as she reached the depths, she was conducted into +one of the subterranean recesses, which she described as very magnificent, +and employed as nurse to one of the brood of the hag who had allured +her. During her residence in this capacity, having accidentally +touched one of her eyes with an ointment of serpent’s grease, +she perceived, at her return to the world, that she had acquired the +faculty of seeing the <i>Dracæ</i>, when they intermingle themselves +with men. Of this power she was, however, deprived by the touch +of her ghostly mistress, <!-- page 174--><span class="pagenum">p. 174</span>whom +she had one day incautiously addressed. It is a curious fact that +this story, in almost all its parts, is current in both the Highlands +and Lowlands of Scotland, with no other variation than the substitution +of Fairies for Dracæ, and the cavern of a hill for that of a river. +Indeed many of the vulgar account it extremely dangerous to touch anything +which they may happen to find without saining (blessing) it, the snares +of the enemy being notorious and well-attested. A pool-woman of +Teviotdale having been fortunate enough, as she thought herself, to +find a wooden beetle, at the very time when she needed such an implement, +seized it without pronouncing a proper blessing, and, carrying it home, +laid it above her bed to be ready for employment in the morning. +At midnight the window of her cottage opened, and a loud voice was heard +calling up some one within by a strange and uncouth name. The +terrified cottager ejaculated a prayer, which, we may suppose, ensured +her personal safety; while the enchanted implement of housewifery, tumbling +from the bedstead, departed by the window with no small noise and precipitation. +In a humorous fugitive tract, Dr. Johnson has been introduced as disputing +the authenticity of an apparition, merely because the spirit assumed +the shape of a teapot and a shoulder of mutton. No doubt, a case +so much in point as that we have now quoted would have removed his incredulity.</p> +<h2><!-- page 175--><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>A SUCCINCT ACCOUNT<br /> +OF<br /> +MY LORD TARBAT’S RELATIONS,<br /> +IN A LETTER TO THE HONORABLE ROBERT BOYLE,<br /> +ESQUIRE, OF THE PREDICTIONS MADE BY<br /> +SEERS, WHEREOF HIMSELF WAS EAR-AND EYE-WITNESS.</h2> +<p>Sir,—I heard very much, but believed very little of the second +sight; yet its being assumed by several of great veracity, I was induced +to make inquiry after it in the year 1652, being then confined in the +north of Scotland by the English usurpers. The more general accounts +of it were that many Highlanders, yet far more Islanders, were qualified +with this second sight; and men, women, and children, indistinctly, +were subject to it, and children where parents were not. Sometimes +people came to age who had it not when young, nor could any tell by +what means produced. It is a trouble to most of them who are subject +to it, and they would be rid of it at any rate if they could. +The sight is of no <!-- page 176--><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>long +duration, only continuing so long as they can keep their eyes steady +without twinkling. The hardy, therefore, fix their look that they +may see the longer; but the timorous see only glances—their eyes +always twinkle at the first sight of the object. That which generally +is seen by them are the species of living creatures, and of inanimate +things, which be in motion, such as ships, and habits upon persons. +They never see the species of any person who is already dead. +What they foresee fails not to exist in the mode, and in that place +where it appears to them. They cannot well know what space of +time shall intervene between the apparition and the real existence. +But some of the hardiest and longest experience have some rules for +conjectures; as, if they see a man with a shrouding sheet in the apparition, +they will conjecture at the nearness or remoteness of his death by the +more or less of his body that is covered by it. They will ordinarily +see their absent friends, though at a great distance, sometimes no less +than from America to Scotland, sitting, standing, or walking in some +certain place; and then they conclude with an assurance that they will +see them so, and there. If a man be in love with a woman, they +will ordinarily see the species of that man standing by her, and so +likewise if a woman be in love. If they see the species of any +person who is sick to die, they see them covered over with the shrouding +sheet.</p> +<p><!-- page 177--><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>These generals +I had verified to me by such of them as did see, and were esteemed honest +and sober by all the neighbourhood; for I inquired after such for my +information. And because there were more of these seers in the +isles of Lewis, Harris, and Uist than in any other place, I did entreat +Sir James M’Donald (who is now dead), Sir Normand M’Loud, +and Mr. Daniel Morison, a very honest person (who are still alive), +to make inquiry in this uncouth sight, and to acquaint me therewith; +which they did, and all found an agreement in these generals, and informed +me of many instances confirming what they said. But though men +of discretion and honour, being but at second-hand, I will choose rather +to put myself than my friends on the hazard of being laughed at for +incredible relations.</p> +<p>I was once travelling in the Highlands, and a good number of servants +with me, as is usual there; and one of them, going a little before me, +entering into a house where I was to stay all night, and going hastily +to the door, he suddenly slipped back with a screech, and did fall by +a stone, which hit his foot. I asked what the matter was, for +he seemed to be very much frighted. He told me very seriously +that I should not lodge in that house, because shortly a dead coffin +would be carried out of it, for many were carrying of it when he was +heard cry. I, neglecting his words, and staying there, he said +to other of his servants he was sorry for it, and that surely what <!-- page 178--><span class="pagenum">p. 178</span>he +saw would shortly come to pass. Though no sick person was then +there, yet the landlord, a healthy Highlander, died of an apoplectic +fit before I left the house.</p> +<p>In the year 1653 Alexander Monro (afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel to +the Earl of Dumbarton’s regiment) and I were walking in a place +called Ullapool, in Loch Broom, on a little plain at the foot of a rugged +hill. There was a servant walking with a spade in the walk before +us; his back was to us, and his face to the hill. Before we came +to him he let the spade fall, and looked toward the hill. He took +notice of us as we passed near by him, which made me look at him, and +perceiving him to stare a little strangely I conjectured him to be a +seer. I called at him, at which he started and smiled. “What +are you doing?” said I. He answered, “I have seen +a very strange thing: an army of Englishmen, leading of horses, coming +down that hill; and a number of them are coming down to the plain, and +eating the barley which is growing in the field near to the hill.” +This was on the 4th May (for I noted the day), and it was four or five +days before the barley was sown in the field he spoke of. Alexander +Monro asked him how he knew they were Englishmen. He said because +they were leading of horses, and had on hats and boots, which he knew +no Scotchman would have there. We took little notice of the whole +story as other than a <!-- page 179--><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>foolish +vision, but wished that an English party were there, we being then at +war with them, and the place almost inaccessible for horsemen. +But in the beginning of August thereafter, the Earl of Middleton (then +Lieutenant for the King in the Highlands), having occasion to march +a party of his towards the South Highlands, he sent his Foot through +a place called Inverlawell; and the fore-party, which was first down +the hill, did fall off eating the barley which was on the little plain +under it. And Monro calling to mind what the seer told us in May +preceding, he wrote of it, and sent an express to me to Lochslin, in +Ross (where I then was), with it.</p> +<p>I had occasion once to be in company where a young lady was (excuse +my not naming of persons), and I was told there was a notable seer in +the company. I called him to speak with me, as I did ordinarily +when I found any of them; and after he had answered me several questions, +I asked if he knew any person to be in love with that lady. He +said he did, but he knew not the person; for, during the two days he +had been in her company, he perceived one standing near her, and his +head leaning on her shoulder, which he said did foretell that the man +should marry her, and die before her, according to his observation. +This was in the year 1655. I desired him to describe the person, +which he did, so that I could conjecture, by the description, <!-- page 180--><span class="pagenum">p. 180</span>of +such a one, who was of that lady’s acquaintance, though there +were no thoughts of their marriage till two years thereafter. +And having occasion in the year 1657 to find this seer, who was an islander, +in company with the other person whom I conjectured to have been described +by him, I called him aside, and asked if that was the person he saw +beside the lady near two years then past. He said it was he indeed, +for he had seen that lady just then standing by him hand in hand. +This was some few months before their marriage, and that man is now +dead, and the lady alive.</p> +<p>I shall trouble you but with one more, which I thought most remarkable +of any that occurred to me.</p> +<p>In January 1652, the above-mentioned Lieutenant, Colonel Alex. Monro, +and I, happened to be in the house of one William M’Clend, of +Ferrinlea, in the county of Ross. He, the landlord, and I, were +sitting in three chairs near the fire, and in the corner of the great +chimney there were two islanders, who were that very night come to the +house, and were related to the landlord. While the one of them +was talking with Monro, I perceived the other to look oddly toward me. +From this look, and his being an islander, I conjectured him a seer, +and asked him at what he stared. He answered by desiring me to +rise from that chair, for it was an unlucky one. I asked him why? +He answered, <!-- page 181--><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>because +there was a dead man in the chair next to me. “Well,” +said I, “if it be in the next chair, I may keep my own. +But what is the likeness of the man?” He said he was a tall +man, with a long grey coat, booted, and one of his legs hanging over +the arm of the chair, and his head hanging dead to the other side, and +his arm backward, as if it was broken. There were some English +troops then quartered near that place, and there being at that time +a great frost after a thaw, the country was covered all over with ice. +Four or five of the English riding by this house some two hours after +the vision, while we were sitting by the fire, we heard a great noise, +which proved to be those troopers, with the help of other servants, +carrying in one of their number, who had got a very mischievous fall, +and had his arm broke; and falling frequently in swooning fits, they +brought him into the hall, and set him in the very chair, and in the +very posture that the seer had prophesied. But the man did not +die, though he recovered with great difficulty.</p> +<p>Among the accounts given me by Sir Normand M’Loud, there was +one worthy of special notice, which was thus:—There was a gentleman +in the Isle of Harris, who was always seen by the seers with an arrow +in his thigh. Such in the Isle who thought those prognostications +infallible, did not doubt but he would be shot in the thigh before he +died. Sir Normand told me that he heard it the <!-- page 182--><span class="pagenum">p. 182</span>subject +of their discourse for many years. At last he died without any +such accident. Sir Normand was at his burial at St. Clement’s +Church in the Harris. At the same time the corpse of another gentleman +was brought to be buried in the same very church. The friends +on either side came to debate who should first enter the church, and, +in a trice, from words they came to blows. One of the number (who +was armed with bow and arrows) let one fly among them. (Now every +family in that Isle have their burial-place in the Church in stone chests, +and the bodies are carried in open biers to the burial-place.) +Sir Normand having appeased the tumult, one of the arrows was found +shot in the dead man’s thigh. To this Sir Normand was a +witness.</p> +<p>In the account which Mr. Daniel Morison, parson in the Lewis, gave +me, there was one, though it be heterogeneous from the subject, yet +it may be worth your notice. It was of a young woman in this parish, +who was mightily frightened by seeing her own image still before her, +always when she came to the open air; the back of the image being always +to her, so that it was not a reflection as in a mirror, but the species +of such a body as her own, and in a very like habit which appeared to +herself continually before her. The parson kept her a long while +with him, but had no remedy of her evil, which troubled her exceedingly. +I was told afterwards that when she was four or five years older she +saw it not.</p> +<p><!-- page 183--><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>These are matters +of fact, which I assure you they are truly related. But these +and all others that occurred to me, by information or otherwise, could +never lead me into a remote conjecture of the cause of so extraordinary +a phenomenon. Whether it be a quality in the eyes of some people +in these parts, concurring with a quality in the air also; whether such +species be everywhere, though not seen by the want of eyes so qualified, +or from whatever other cause, I must leave to the inquiry of clearer +judgments than mine. But a hint may be taken from this image which +appeared still to this woman above mentioned, and from another mentioned +by Aristotle, in the fourth of his Metaphysics (if I remember right, +for it is long since I read it), as also from the common opinion that +young infants (unsullied with many objects) do see apparitions which +were not seen by those of elder years; as likewise from this, that several +did see the second sight when in the Highlands or Isles, yet when transported +to live in other countries, especially in America, they quite lose this +quality, as was told me by a gentleman who knew some of them in Barbadoes, +who did see no vision there, although he knew them to be seers when +they lived in the Isles of Scotland.</p> +<p><i>Thus far my Lord Tarbat</i>.</p> +<h2><!-- page 184--><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>THE BOGLE.</h2> +<p>This is a freakish spirit who delights rather to perplex and frighten +mankind than either to serve or seriously hurt them. The <i>Esprit +Follet</i> of the French, Shakespeare’s Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, +and Shellycoat, a spirit who resides in the waters, and has given his +name to many a rock and stone on the Scottish coast, belong to the class +of bogles. One of Shellycoat’s pranks is thus narrated:—Two +men in a very dark night, approaching the banks of the Ettrick, heard +a doleful voice from its waves repeatedly exclaim, “Lost! lost!” +They followed the sound, which seemed to be the voice of a drowning +person, and, to their astonishment, found that it ascended the river; +still they continued to follow the cry of the malicious sprite, and, +arriving before dawn at the very sources of the river, the voice was +now heard descending the opposite side of the mountain in which they +arise. The fatigued and deluded travellers now relinquished the +pursuit, and had no sooner done so, than they heard Shellycoat applauding, +in loud bursts of laughter, his successful roguery.</p> +<h2><!-- page 185--><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span>DAOINE SHIE, +OR THE MEN OF PEACE.</h2> +<p>They are, though not absolutely malevolent, believed to be a peevish, +repining, and envious race, who enjoy, in the subterranean recesses, +a kind of shadowy splendour. The Highlanders are at all times +unwilling to speak of them, but especially on Friday, when their influence +is supposed to be particularly extensive. As they are supposed +to be invisibly present, they are at all times to be spoken of with +respect. The fairies of Scotland are represented as a diminutive +race of beings, of a mixed or rather dubious nature, capricious in their +dispositions, and mischievous in their resentment. They inhabit +the interior of green hills, chiefly those of a conical form, in Gaelic +termed <i>Sighan</i>, on which they lead their dances by moonlight, +impressing upon the surface the marks of circles, which sometimes appear +yellow and blasted, sometimes of a deep green hue, and within which +it is dangerous to sleep, or to be found after sunset. The removal +of those large portions of turf, which thunderbolts sometimes scoop +out of the ground with singular regularity, is also ascribed to their +agency. Cattle <!-- page 186--><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>which +are suddenly seized with the cramp, or some similar disorder, are said +to be elf-shot, and the approved cure is to chafe the parts affected +with a blue bonnet, which, it may be readily believed, often restores +the circulation. The triangular flints frequently found in Scotland, +with which the ancient inhabitants probably barbed their shafts, are +supposed to be the weapons of fairy resentment, and are termed elf arrowheads. +The rude brazen battle-axes of the ancients, commonly called “celts,” +are also ascribed to their manufacture. But, like the Gothic duergar, +their skill is not confined to the fabrication of arms; for they are +heard sedulously hammering in linns, precipices, and rocky or cavernous +situations, where, like the dwarfs of the mines mentioned by George +Agricola, they busy themselves in imitating the actions and the various +employments of men. The Brook of Beaumont, for example, which +passes in its course by numerous linns and caverns, is notorious for +being haunted by the fairies; and the perforated and rounded stones +which are formed by trituration in its channels are termed by the vulgar +fairy cups and dishes. A beautiful reason is assigned by Fletcher +for the fays frequenting streams and fountains. He tells us of</p> +<blockquote><p>“A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks<br /> +The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds<br /> +By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes<br /> +Their stolen children, so to make them free<br /> +From dying flesh and dull mortality.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 187--><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>It is sometimes +accounted unlucky to pass such places without performing some ceremony +to avert the displeasure of the elves. There is upon the top of +Minchmuir, a mountain in Peeblesshire, a spring called the Cheese Well, +because, anciently, those who passed that way were wont to throw into +it a piece of cheese as an offering to the fairies, to whom it was consecrated.</p> +<p>Like the <i>feld elfen</i> of the Saxons, the usual dress of the +fairies is green; though, on the moors, they have been sometimes observed +in heath-brown, or in weeds dyed with the stone-raw or lichen. +They often ride in invisible procession, when their presence is discovered +by the shrill ringing of their bridles. On these occasions they +sometimes borrow mortal steeds, and when such are found at morning, +panting and fatigued in their stalls, with their manes and tails dishevelled +and entangled, the grooms, I presume, often find this a convenient excuse +for their situation, as the common belief of the elves quaffing the +choicest liquors in the cellars of the rich might occasionally cloak +the delinquencies of an unfaithful butler.</p> +<p>The fairies, besides their equestrian processions, are addicted, +it would seem, to the pleasures of the chase. A young sailor, +travelling by night from Douglas, in the Isle of Man, to visit his sister +residing in Kirk Merlugh, heard a noise of horses, the holloa of a huntsman, +and the sound of a horn. <!-- page 188--><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>Immediately +afterwards, thirteen horsemen, dressed in green, and gallantly mounted, +swept past him. Jack was so much delighted with the sport that +he followed them, and enjoyed the sound of the horn for some miles, +and it was not till he arrived at his sister’s house that he learned +the danger which he had incurred. I must not omit to mention that +these little personages are expert jockeys, and scorn to ride the little +Manx ponies, though apparently well suited to their size. The +exercise, therefore, falls heavily upon the English and Irish horses +brought into the Isle of Man. Mr. Waldron was assured by a gentleman +of Ballafletcher that he had lost three or four capital hunters by these +nocturnal excursions. From the same author we learn that the fairies +sometimes take more legitimate modes of procuring horses. A person +of the utmost integrity informed him that, having occasion to sell a +horse, he was accosted among the mountains by a little gentleman plainly +dressed, who priced his horse, cheapened him, and, after some chaffering, +finally purchased him. No sooner had the buyer mounted and paid +the price than he sank through the earth, horse and man, to the astonishment +and terror of the seller, who, experienced, however, no inconvenience +from dealing with so extraordinary a purchaser.</p> +<h2><!-- page 189--><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>THE DEATH “BREE.”</h2> +<p>There was once a woman, who lived in the Camp-del-more of Strathavon, +whose cattle were seized with a murrain, or some such fell disease, +which ravaged the neighbourhood at the time, carrying off great numbers +of them daily. All the forlorn fires and hallowed waters failed +of their customary effects; and she was at length told by the wise people, +whom she consulted on the occasion, that it was evidently the effect +of some infernal agency, the power of which could not be destroyed by +any other means than the never-failing specific—the juice of a +dead head from the churchyard,—a nostrum certainly very difficult +to be procured, considering that the head must needs be abstracted from +the grave at the hour of midnight. Being, however, a woman of +a stout heart and strong faith, native feelings of delicacy towards +the sanctuary of the dead had more weight than had fear in restraining +her for some time from resorting to this desperate remedy. At +length, seeing that her stock would soon be annihilated by the destructive +career <!-- page 190--><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>of the disease, +the wife of Camp-del-more resolved to put the experiment in practice, +whatever the result might be. Accordingly, having with considerable +difficulty engaged a neighbouring woman as her companion in this hazardous +expedition, they set out a little before midnight for the parish churchyard, +distant about a mile and a half from her residence, to execute her determination. +On arriving at the churchyard her companion, whose courage was not so +notable, appalled by the gloomy prospect before her, refused to enter +among the habitations of the dead. She, however, agreed to remain +at the gate till her friend’s business was accomplished. +This circumstance, however, did not stagger the wife’s resolution. +She, with the greatest coolness and intrepidity, proceeded towards what +she supposed an old grave, took down her spade, and commenced her operations. +After a good deal of toil she arrived at the object of her labour. +Raising the first head, or rather skull, that came in her way, she was +about to make it her own property, when a hollow, wild, sepulchral voice +exclaimed, “That is my head; let it alone!” Not wishing +to dispute the claimant’s title to this head, and supposing she +could be otherwise provided, she very good-naturedly returned it and +took up another. “That is my father’s head,” +bellowed the same voice. Wishing, if possible, to avoid disputes, +the wife of Camp-del-more took up another head, when the <!-- page 191--><span class="pagenum">p. 191</span>same +voice instantly started a claim to it as his grandfather’s head. +“Well,” replied the wife, nettled at her disappointments, +“although it were your grandmother’s head, you shan’t +get it till I am done with it.” “What do you say, +you limmer?” says the ghost, starting up in his awry habiliments. +“What do you say, you limmer?” repeated he in a great rage. +“By the great oath, you had better leave my grandfather’s +head.” Upon matters coming this length, the wily wife of +Camp-del-more thought it proper to assume a more conciliatory aspect. +Telling the claimant the whole particulars of the predicament in which +she was placed, she promised faithfully that if his honour would only +allow her to carry off his grandfather’s skull or head in a peaceable +manner, she would restore it again when done with. Here, after +some communing, they came to an understanding; and she was allowed to +take the head along with her, on condition that she should restore it +before cock-crowing, under the heaviest penalties.</p> +<p>On coming out of the churchyard and looking for her companion, she +had the mortification to find her “without a mouthful of breath +in her body”; for, on hearing the dispute between her friend and +the guardian of the grave, and suspecting much that she was likely to +share the unpleasant punishments with which he threatened her friend, +at the bare recital of them she fell down in a faint, from <!-- page 192--><span class="pagenum">p. 192</span>which +it was no easy matter to recover her. This proved no small inconvenience +to Camp-del-more’s wife, as there were not above two hours to +elapse ere she had to return the head according to the terms of her +agreement. Taking her friend upon her back, she carried her up +a steep acclivity to the nearest adjoining house, where she left her +for the night; then repaired home with the utmost speed, made <i>dead +bree</i> of the head ere the appointed time had expired, restored the +skull to its guardian, and placed the grave in its former condition. +It is needless to add that, as a reward for her exemplary courage, the +“<i>bree</i>” had its desired effect. The cattle speedily +recovered, and, so long as she retained any of it, all sorts of diseases +were of short duration.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLK-LORE AND LEGENDS***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 17071-h.htm or 17071-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/7/17071 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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