Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/439

Rh up famous in my young days as "Lag-a' Bhocain," i.e. the hollow of the spectre or apparition. But times have so changed since that one scarcely hears any allusion to it nowadays. It got its name from the fact that a ghost or spectre met solitary pedestrians who had occasion to pass through that neighbourhood alone at night. It grappled with the person it met alone and threw him down, and greatly disconcerted the individual so treated. This superstition had its origin in the belief that the ghost of a murdered person ever haunted during the night the spot where he was murdered, until it met with one stronger than itself who threw it down in wrestling and forced it to speak and give an account of itself. Or in Gaelic: "Gus na thachair duine ris a thug comhradh as, or cha b' urrainn e tàmh oidche gabhail gus an tachradh so. An deigh sin cha choinnicheadh e ri duine tuilledh" (i.e. until it met with one that forced it to speak, it could not rest at night). After that, however, it would never be seen again. I often heard from old people the name of the man in the neighbourhood, well known for muscular strength, who met it, wrestled with it, and forced it to speak, after which it was never seen again.

In another part of the same island, at a place called "Braighe na-h-Uidhe," a man down on his back after a wrestle with a "Tan- nasg," i.e. a ghost, was asked by the spectre, "An e so an càs as cruaidhe anns an robh thu riamh? Ma ta ars' easan cha'n e? Coid eil arsa'm Bochan? Càs is cruaidhe anns an robh mise riamh, an uair' bha mi eadar an Fhèile agus an Aimbairt, agus a' cumail na-h-uaisle suas a dh-aindoin. Is maith a chur sin ruit arsa an 'Tamasg.' Eirich agus bi dol or cha tachair an càs sin ruitsa tuilleadh" (i.e. If this were the worst plight he ever was in? "Not at all," said he. "What then?" said the ghost. "The worst plight I ever was in was when I was between Hospitality and Want, and keeping up gentility in spite of all." "Well it is for you that the case is so," said the ghost. "That was hard work," said the ghost, "but get up, you'll never encounter those two again.") And so he let him go.

This is the supposed origin of the common proverb, "An uaisle ga cumail suas a dh' aindòin."