Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland: Collected Entirely from Oral SourcesCampbell, John Gregorson
History
Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland: Collected Entirely from Oral Sources
Campbell, John Gregorson
Folklore -- Scotland
It is also told of this Elfin wife that while three hunters were
passing the night in a bothy on Ben Breck, the Carlin wife came to the
door and sought admittance. A dog that accompanied the hunters sprang
up to attack her. She retreated and asked one of the men to tie up his
dog. He refused. She asked him again, and a second time he refused. She
asked a third time, and he replied he had nothing to tie it with. She
pulled a hair out of her head and told him to tie his dog with that, it
was strong enough to hold a four-masted ship at anchor. He pretended to
consent, and the hag, on trying again to enter, found the dog was not
secured. She then went away, saying it was well for the hunter the dog
had not been tied, and threatening to come again. It does not appear,
however, that she ever came back.
She was last seen about twenty years ago in Lochaber. Age had told
severely upon her. Instead of being ‘broad and tall,’ she had become no
bigger than a teapot! She wore a little grey plaid or shawl about her
shoulders.
DONALD, SON OF PATRICK.
Donald, the son of Patrick (_Dòmhnull Mac Phàruig_), or, as others say,
the son of Lachlan, was a _brocair_, that is, a foxhunter or destroyer
of ground vermin, in Lorn. Persons following this profession were
employed by the hill farmers, and had generally long tracts of country
to travel over. Their companions were their gun, a pack of terriers,
and perhaps a wiry deer-hound. With these they led as lonely a life as
anyone who had at all to descend to the strath and men’s houses could
do. Many a lonely night they watched by the fox’s cairn in some remote
corrie for an opportunity ‘to put a hole in the red rogue’s hide,’
and they often passed the night in bothies and shielings far from the
haunts of men. One day Donald, the son of Patrick, killed a roe, and
took it to a bothy in the hills. He kindled a fire with the flint of
his gun, and having cut up the roe, roasted pieces of the flesh by a
large fire. As he helped himself, he threw now and then a piece to his
dogs. Before long he observed, the night being moonlit, a large dark
shadow coming about the door, and then a woman snatching at the pieces
of flesh he threw to the dogs. She had one tooth as big as a distaff
projecting from her upper gum. The dogs prevented her entering the hut,
so that she got but little of the food. She asked Donald to leash up
his dogs, and on his refusing, cried out, “This is poor hospitality for
the night, Donald, son of Patrick.” Donald answered, “It will be no
better and no worse than that.” “You proved expert at raising a fire,”
she said. “How do you know?” he asked. “I was,” she said, “on the top
of the Cruach of Rannoch (a hill far away) the first click you gave to
the flint, and this is poor hospitality for the night, Donald, son of
Patrick.” “It will,” he said, “be no better and no worse than that.”
In a while again she said, “This is poor hospitality for the night,
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