Ossian Collection > Folk tales and fairy lore in Gaelic and English

THE FAIRIES OF CORRIE CHAORACIIAIN.
Many years ago Donald Post carried letters between
Ballachulish and Fort-William. A part of the road
he had to travel was pretty lonely and uncanny, and
it had the name of being full of fairies and other bogles.
On a Hallow-e'en, Donald, after getting his business
over, was returning to Corrie Chaorachain where he
was staying. A good while before he reached the
house, what did he see before him but a dozen fairies
dancing and leaping hither and thither across the
road. As soon as they noticed him coming, one of
them, a slender, red-haired fairy, cried: " We will take
Donald Post with us." But another, a fine fellow,
replied: " We will not take Donald Post with us, for
he is the poor post of our own farm." Donald then
happened to look up the hill above him, and what did
he behold on the green plain on the summit but a large
troop of fairies wheeling and dancing like the merry-
dancers. The troop on the high road also noticed
them, and instantly one of them cried: " Let us leave
this," and in the twinkling of an eye they were on the
summit of the hill with the other troop.
Donald did not wait to see the end of the merry-
making, but kept on his way and got home in safety.
After that night he never saw the fairies; but on cer-
tain evenings of the year he used to hear the murmur
of their voices in the place where he had once beheld
them.