Sutherland and the Reay country

FOLK LORE. 1 39
the farmer's wife had a visit from a little woman, who said
she wanted a warming. Inquiry as to who she was revealed
that she was a resident in the neighbouring broch for ages,
and that the cattle plague was sent on them as a punishment
for the destruction of her home. Restitution of the stones
taken away was promised, and the good graces of the little
wise people could again be won only by the lighting of the
teine eigin (fire of necessity). Ere this could be effectually
lighted, every fire in the district must be extinguished, and
the hearths allowed to grow quite cold. The whole popula-
tion must then congregate on a small island in the river,
for water must necessarily be all around them. There, by
means of two dried sticks, and a considerable amount of
elbow grease, they managed to get a light. From this, the
household fires were rekindled, the plague stayed, and glad-
ness reigned once more in that district.
Theories galore to account for the origin of the belief
in fairies have been advanced, but the following is quite as
plausible as any, and is the one most commonly accepted
here. Before the Christian era, when the Celts came to
Scotland, they found a very small limbed section of the
Picts settled in the north. These, they gradually drove
further and further into the wilds, where they built the
numerous underground dwellings which are still in existence.
But the Picts had greater intelligence than the large limbed
Celts and gave them so much trouble that the belief soon
gained ground that they were of supernatural origin. There
still, indeed, lingers a belief in the deadly efficacy of the
fairy arrow (saighead sithich), the flint heads of which are
still embedded in the moorlands. If a Celt or any of his
animate possessions fell dead pierced by such an arrow, and