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
A shepherd in Lorn came to the top of a rock, and in a nest or lair
below him he saw two pups about two months old with green backs and
sides. They were larger and longer than his own dogs. He got afraid
and fled before the old hound made her appearance. His dogs also were
afraid. So the tradition says.
DOGS CHASING FAIRIES.
Two men from Mull were engaged building a march dyke across the hills
in Kintail. To be near their work, they took up their residence by
themselves in a hut among the hills. One night, before retiring to
rest, they heard a horrible screaming coming in the direction of the
hut. They went out with sticks of firewood in their hands. Though they
could see nothing, they knew something was approaching. The shrieks
came nearer and nearer, and at last a large dark object passed. A
little dog, ‘Dun-foot’ by name, which accompanied the men, gave chase.
When it returned there was no hair on any part of it but on its ears,
and no hair ever grew after but a sort of down.
A number of young men were out at night on the moorlands of Cornaigbeg
farm in Tiree watching the cattle, to keep them from wandering into
the crop lands. They went to the moss about a mile away for peats,
which at the time (some sixty years ago) were plentiful in Tiree,
but becoming in some way alarmed they turned back on the road. When
returning they heard strange noises coming towards them, and a dog that
accompanied them began to course round and round between them and the
noise. At last the noise passed, with sounds like the trampling of a
herd of sheep, and the dog went off in pursuit. On its return its hair
was found scraped off, as if by long sharp nails, and the whole skin
was left bare and white, except where here and there it was torn and
bloody. It died in a short time after.
A man in Mull was sent on a journey after nightfall, and about
midnight, when crossing the hills from Loch Tuath (the North Loch) and
Loch Cuän (_Loch Cumhan_, the narrow loch), saw a light in the face of
a hillock. He was accompanied by his dog, and before long he heard the
noise of dogs fighting, mixed with sounds of lovely music. He made off
as fast as he could, and, on arriving at the house to which he had been
sent, was offered supper. He was unable to take any. Before bed-time
his dog came with every hair on its body pulled off. It smelt its
master’s clothes all over, lay down at his feet, and was dead in a few
minutes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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