Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/101

 Collectanea. 89

teachan does not like to be disturbed when washing, and, if a person should come too near her at such a time, he might expect to get a switch with the shroud across his legs which would take them off. They seem irritable creatures, for we are told that near the Free Church in Bernera, Harris, two of them were seen fighting.

There is a large flat stone in Gleann-na-gaoithe in Islay with a deep hole scooped out of its surface, and this is called the Caoin- teachan's tub. A man on his way to Portnahaven crossing the Glen put his foot on the so-called tub, and immediately his head was twisted round until his face was almost at his back. As this uncomfortable condition continued for some time, he was advised to go and sit on the tub till the Caonteach came to him, and then boldly to refuse to move until she put his head right. She made her appearance in due course, and in answer to his request she promised to cure him on condition that he would never put his foot on her tub again. This he was glad to undertake, and she fulfilled her part of the bargain.

This same fairy myth appears in Ross-shire and Sutherlandshire, the name applied being the "Vow." The most notorious locality at which she is said to appear is the river Carron. The Vow is not here spoken of as audibly plaintive, but she is said to show malevolence, which takes the form of causing death by drowning to those crossing the waters she frequents ; she loses her importance, therefore, where fords have been replaced by bridges. They speak of her also as a "kelpie" who warns those to be drowned. Kelpies are of either sex. The Highland each-uisge (water horse) and tarbh-uisge (water bull) are other forms of the kelpie ; compare Icelandic kai/r; O.H.G. chalba a calf, also the calf of the leg; Lhuyd, colpach, a colt, bullock, or heifer. Local information tells us nothing of outcry in case of the Vow. The localities frequented by her are fords, and her occupation is that of beetling clothes on a fiat stone, like the "V/asher Woman." A Gaelic speaker de- scribed her appearance, as seen when he was fishing in the Carron, as  cruban at a place on the river where was a ford." Cruban (sitting squat) is Gaelic for a " crab," and is applied to a " claw, hoof, or paw," and, as -already mentioned, the Bean Nighidh is credited with peculiar feet and could crouch under a low bush.