Within the present century, a native of Glen Erochty (_Gleann
Eireachdaidh_), the valley that leads from Athole to Rannoch, was
similarly afflicted. Every evening he went to meet the evil spirit, at
a small circle of trees, on the top of the hill above the clachan of
Strowan. The last occasion of his doing so, was after the shinty playing
on New-Year’s day. He took with him a large stick, which had been cut
that same day in the wood, and had served one of the players for a
shinty stick. Next day this stick was found at the scene of the nightly
meetings, twisted like a withe, while all round within a circle the snow
was trampled, as if there had been a struggle. There were marks of a
man’s foot and of a knee.
THE UNEARTHLY WHISTLE.
About seventy years ago, a young man, a native of the village of Cornaig,
in Tiree, went in the evening to another village, _Cruaidh-ghortain_,
about two miles distant. When he reached it, he reclined on a bed,
and being tired fell fast asleep. He awoke with a start, and thinking
from the clearness of the night (it was full moon) daylight had come,
hurried off home. His way lay across a desolate moor, called the Yellow
Ridge (_Druim Buidhe_), and when halfway he heard a loud whistle behind
him, but in a different direction from that in which he had come, at a
distance, as he thought, of above a mile. The whistle was so unearthly
loud, he thought every person in the island must have heard it. He
hurried on, and when opposite the Sharp-pointed Rock (_An Carragh
biorach_) he heard the whistle again, as if at the place where he himself
had been when he heard it first. The whistle was so clear and loud,
that it sent a shiver through his very marrow. With a beating heart he
quickened his pace, and when at the gateway adjoining the village he
belonged to, he heard the whistle at the Pointed Rock. He here made off
the road, and managed to reach home before being overtaken. He rushed
into the barn, where he usually slept, and, after one look towards the
door at his pursuer, buried himself below a pile of corn. His brother
was in a bed in the same barn asleep. His father was in the house, and
three times, with an interval between each call, heard a voice at the
door saying, “Are you asleep? Will you not go to look at your son? He is
in danger of his life, and in risk of all he is worth” (_an geall na’s
fhiach e_). Each call became more importunate, and at last the old man
rose and went to the barn. After a search he found his son below a pile
of sheaves, and nearly dead. The only account the young man could give
was, that when he stood at the door, he could see the sky between the
legs of his pursuer, who came to the door and said it was fortunate for
him he had reached shelter; and that he (the pursuer) was such a one who
had been killed in the Field of Birds (_Blàr nam Big-ein_) in the Moas, a
part of Tiree near hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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