Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 1

liv INTRODUCTION.
and he sat down and he fell asleep ; and then she cut away all
the dress, you see, round about, this way, and left it in his fist
and ran away ; and when he awoke, he threw what he had over
his shoulder, this way ; and he said (something in Manks which
I could not catch).
" Well, you see, one night the ould fellow sent all the women
to bed, and he put on a cap and a woman's dress, and he sat
down by the fire and he began to spin ; and the young glashans,
they came in, and they began saying something in Manks that
means ' Are you turning the wheel ? are you trying the reel ?'
Well, the ould glashan, he was outside, and he knew better than
the young ones ; he knew it was the ould fellow himself, and he
was telling thom, but they did not mind him ; and so the ould
man threw a lot of hot turf, you see, it was turf they burned then,
over them and burned them ; and the ould one said (something
in Manks). ' You'll not understand that, now?' 'Yes, I do,
pretty nearly.' ' Ah, well.' And so the glashans went away and
never came back any more.''
" Have you many stories like that, guidwife ?" "Ah," said
she, " there were plenty of people that could tell these stories
once. When I was a little girl, I used to hear them telling them
in Manks over the fire at night ; but people is so changed with
pride now that they care for nothing."
Now here is a story Avliich is all over the High-
lands in various shapes. Sometimes it is a Brollichan
son of the Fuath, or a yoimg water horse transformed into
the likeness of a man, which attacks a lonely woman,
and gets burned or scalded, and goes away to his
friends outside. In the islands, the woman generally
says her name is myself ; and the gohlin answers,
when asked who bm-ned him, " myself" This Manks
story is manifestly the same, though tliis incident is
left out. I have heard it in Lewes, and in many places
besides, and part of it is best omitted.
Tlie Glashan, as I found out afterwards, frequented
neighbouring farms till within a very late period. He
wore no clothes, and was haiiy ; and, according to