When Dun Lachlan was on his deathbed his nephew came to see him, and in the hope of frightening the old fellow into repentance, went through a stream near the house and came in with his shoes full of water. “My sister’s son,” said Lachlan, “why is there water in your shoe?” (_a mhic mo pheathar, c’ arson tha bogan a’a bhróig?_) The nephew then told that the _two_ companions who had been along with Lachlan in the performance of the _taghairm_, and who were both by this time long dead, had met him near the house, and to escape from them he had several times to cross the running stream: that they told him their position was now in the bad place, and that they were waiting for his uncle, who, if he did not repent, would have to go along with them. The old man, on hearing this melancholy message, said, “If I and my two companions were there, and we had three short swords that would neither bend nor break, there is not a devil in the place but we would make a prisoner of.”[97] After this the nephew gave up all hopes of leading him to repentance. A native of the island of Coll and his wife came to see him. Lachlan asked them what brought them? “To ask,” said the Coll man, “a yoke of horses you yourself got from the devil” (_dh’ iarraidh seirreach each fhuair thu fhein o’n douus_). Lachlan refused this and sent the man away, but he sent a person to overhear what remarks the man and his wife might make after leaving. The wife said, “What a wild eye the man had?” (_Nach b’ fhiadhaich an t-sùil bh’aig an duin ’ud?_) Her husband replied, “Do you suppose it would be an eye of softness and not a soldier’s eye, as should be?” (_Saoil am bi suil an t-slauchdain, ach sùil an t-saighdeir mar bu chòir?_) On this being reported to Lachlan, he called the Coll man back and gave him what he wanted. Martin, in his _Description of the Western Islands_, p. 110, quoted by Scott (_Lady of the Lake_, note 2 T), after describing a mode of _Taghairm_ by taking a man by the feet and arms to a boundary stream and bumping him against the bank till little creatures came from the sea to answer the question of which the solution was sought, says:—“I had an account from the most intelligent and judicious men in the Isle of Skie, that about sixty-two years ago the oracle was thus consulted only once, and that was in the parish of Kilmartin, on the east side, by a wicked and mischievous set of people, who are now extinguished, both root and branch.” The _Taghairm_ here referred to seems to be that above-mentioned as having been performed by the M‘Quithens in the Make-believe or False Cave on East Side, Skye. The race have not borne a good reputation, if any value is to be attached to a rhyme concerning them and other minor septs in Skye:— “The M‘Cuthan, expert in lies, The M‘Quithens, expert in base flattery, The M‘Vannins, expert as thieves, Though no bigger than a dagger handle.”[98]