Ossian Collection > Sketches descriptive of picturesque scenery, on the southern confines of Perthshire

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rent, or wide ftretched lake ; often, in
their journeys, linking under the pref-
iure of fatigue and hunger ; or borne
down by the rigors of an inclement fky ;
their imagination was naturally led to
afcribe every difafler to the influence of
fuperior powers, in whofe charader, the
predominating feature ncceilarily was
malignity towards the human race.
Every Lake had its Kelpie, or water
horfe, often feen by the Shepherd, as he
fat in a fummer's evening, upon the
brow of a rock, dafhing along the furface
of the deep, or browfing on the pafture
ground, on its verge *. Often did this
malignant genius of the waters allure
women and children to his fubaqueous
haunts, there to be immediately devour-
ed. A mofl difaftrous event of this kind
is fliil current in tradition concerning
the
* So far this opinion of the Highlanders, con-
cerning the Kelpie, corresponds exactly with the ac-
counts given by Bruce and Sparrman of the Hippopo-
tamusy which certainly, however, never existed in
this country.