She can also be caught and mastered and made to communicate her information at the point of the sword. Oscar, son of the poet Ossian, met her on his way to the Cairbre’s feast, at which the dispute arose which led to his death. She was encountered by Hugh of the Little Head on the evening before his last battle, and left him as her parting gift (_fàgail_), that he should become the frightful apparition he did after death, the most celebrated in the West Highlands. SONG. The song of the Fairy woman foreboded great calamity, and men did not like to hear it. Scott calls it “The fatal Banshi’s boding scream,” but it was not a scream, only a wailing murmur (_torman mulaid_) of unearthly sweetness and melancholy. GLAISTIG. The Banshi is sometimes confounded with the Glaistig, the apparition of a woman, acting as tutelary guardian of the site to which she is attached. Many people use Banshi and Glaistig as convertible terms, and the confusion thence arising extends largely to books. The true Glaistig is a woman of human race, who has been put under enchantments, and to whom a Fairy nature has been given. She wears a _green_ dress, like Fairy women, but her face is wan and grey, whence her name Glaistig, from _glas_, grey. She differs also in haunting castles and the folds of the cattle, and confining herself to servant’s work. ELFIN QUEEN. The Banshi is, without doubt, the original of the Queen of Elfland, mentioned in ballads of the South of Scotland. The Elfin Queen met Thomas of Ercildoune by the Eildon tree, and took him to her enchanted realm, where he was kept for seven years. She gave him the power of foretelling the future, ‘the tongue that never lied.’ At first she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but when he next looked— “The hair that hung upon her head, The half was black, the half was grey, And all the rich clothing was away That he before saw in that stead; Her eyes seemed out that were so grey, And all her body like the lead.” In Gaelic tales seven years is a common period of detention among the Fairies, the _leannan sìth_ communicates to her lover the knowledge of future events, and in the end is looked upon by him with aversion. There is no mention, however, of Fairyland, or of an Elfin King or Queen, and but rarely of Fairies riding. True Thomas, who is as well known in Highland lore as he is in the Lowlands, is said to be still among the Fairies, and to attend every market on the look-out for suitable horses. When he has made up his complement he will appear again among men, and a great battle will be fought on the Clyde. PROTECTION AGAINST FAIRIES.