Devil in Scotland

a bairn, an5 clum in Sandie’s boat, whaur I thoucht I
would see the best of the employ. My grandsire gied
Sandie a siller tester to pit in his gun wi’ the leid draps,
bein’ mair deidly again bogles. And then the ae boat set
aff for North Berwick, an’ the tither lay whaur it
was and watched the wanchancy thing on the brae-
side.
A’ the time we lay there it lowped and flang and
capered and span like a teetotum, and whiles we could
hear it skelloch as it span. I hae seen lassies, the daft
queans, that would lowp and dance a winter’s nicht, and
still be lowping and dancing when the winter’s day cam
in. But there would be folk there to hauld them com¬
pany, and the lads to egg them on; and this thing was its
lee-lane. And there would be a fiddler diddling his el-
bock in the chimney-side; and this thing had nae music
but the skirling of the solans. And the lassies were bits
o’ young things wi’ the reid life dinnling and stending
in their members; and this was a muckle, fat, creishy
man, and him fa’n in the vale o’ years. Say what ye like,
I maun say what I believe. It was joy was in the crea-
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