Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/438



The following legend of the “water-horse,” and the place where it is said to have occurred, have been well known to the writer from his earliest years.

The story is that the water-horse came in the shape of a young man (riochd fleasgaich) out of his native element, and sat down beside a girl who was herding cattle on the banks of the loch. After some pleasant conversation he laid his head in her lap, in a fashion not unusual in old times, and fell asleep. She began to examine his head, and to her alarm found that his hair was full of sand and mud. She at once knew that it was none other than the “Each-Uisge,” who would certainly conclude his attentions by carrying her on his back into the depths of the loch. She accordingly proceeded as dexterously as she could to get rid of her skirt, leaving it under the head of the monster. No sooner did he awaken than he jumped up and shook the skirt, crying out several times, “Ma’s duine tha’n so’s aotram e, mu’n dubhairt an-t-Each-Uisge” (“If this be human it’s light, as the water-horse said”), then rushed down the brae and plunged into the lake. The girl’s brother met the creature next morning at the same spot, and after a severe hand-to-hand fight killed it with his sword.

The scene of the above legend is a little knoll on the island of Lewis, which bears the name of “Cnoc-na-Bèist,” the hillock of the monster. It lies on the border of a fresh-water loch named “Loch-à-Mhuileinn,” the loch of the mill. Its ancient Norse name was “Loch-brae-vat,” i.e. the beautiful water. The writer often sat and played there with other youngsters, discussing the origin of the name of the little knoll, and the incidents of the legend from which it derived its name, never dreaming that it was “a cock and bull story.”

There was a place in the march between Bragar and Shawbost; island of Lewis, less than a mile from where I was brought