Then he turned round to me abruptly. I was jotting down notes for an
article I contemplated in the 'Revue Celtique,' so my thoughts were far
away from the present. The man recalled me by demanding fiercely, "Do ye
believe in God?"
I gave him some sort of answer in the affirmative.
"Then do ye believe in the Devil?" he asked.
The reply must have been less satisfactory, for he came forward and
flung himself violently into the chair before me.
"What do ye ken about it?" he cried. "You that bides in a southern toun,
what can ye ken o' the God that works in thae hills and the Devil--ay,
the manifold devils--that He suffers to bide here? I tell ye, man, that
if ye had seen what I have seen ye wad be on your knees at this moment
praying to God to pardon your unbelief. There are devils at the back o'
every stane and hidin' in every cleuch, and it's by the grace o' God
alone that a man is alive upon the earth." His voice had risen high and
shrill, and then suddenly he cast a frightened glance towards the window
and was silent.
I began to think that the man's wits were unhinged, and the thought did
not give me satisfaction. I had no relish for the prospect of being left
alone in this moorland dwelling with the cheerful company of a maniac.
But his next movements reassured me. He was clearly only dead-tired, for
he fell sound asleep in his chair, and by the time his sister brought
tea and wakened him, he seemed to have got the better of his excitement.
When the window was shuttered and the lamp lit, I sat myself again to
the completion of my notes. The shepherd had got out his Bible, and was
solemnly reading with one great finger travelling down the lines. He was
smoking, and whenever some text came home to him with power he would
make pretence to underline it with the end of the stem. Soon I had
finished the work I desired, and, my mind being full of my pet hobby, I
fell into an inquisitive mood, and began to question the solemn man
opposite on the antiquities of the place.
He stared stupidly at me when I asked him concerning monuments or
ancient weapons.
"I kenna," said he. "There's a heap o' queer things in the hills."
"This place should be a centre for such relics. You know that the name
of the hill behind the house, as far as I can make it out, means the
'Place of the Little Men.' It is a good Gaelic word, though there is
some doubt about its exact interpretation. But clearly the Gaelic
peoples did not speak of themselves when they gave the name; they must
have referred to some older and stranger population."
The shepherd looked at me dully, as not understanding.
"It is partly this fact--besides the fishing, of course--which interests
me in this countryside," said I, gaily.
Again he cast the same queer frightened glance towards the window. "If
ye'll tak the advice of an aulder man," he said, slowly, "ye'll let well
alane and no meddle wi' uncanny things."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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