Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/617

Rh (Folk-Lore, vol. xxxiii. p. 201 et seqq.) II.

(i) Two shepherd lads at Talisker occupied the same bed, and one was much concerned to see how thin and wasted his companion was becoming. By a great effort he kept awake at night, and, while pretending to be asleep, he was able to observe what took place. To his horror, he saw the mistress of the house come in, wave a halter over his sleeping companion's head, and say some magic words. He was quite unable to keep awake longer, and so saw no more. The next night, however, he offered to take his companion's place at the front of the bed. The mistress once more came in, treated him as she had treated his friend, and rode away, using him as a horse. During her journey she stopped at an inn. There he removed the halter, and, as he was evidently on the roof, for the riding was through the air, he climbed down till he was over the door. As the woman came out of the inn, he threw the halter over her, saying the magical words, and she was transformed into a horse. Then he turned the tables on her, rode her to a smithy, where he caused her to be shod. The next day the mistress of the farm pled illness, and was unable to leave her bed; but the strange discovery that she wore horses' shoes was soon made, and this led to the disclosure of her misdeeds.

(2) Two women, living at Sconser, were one night asked by a stranger coming to their door if they would give her a bed. When asked where she would like to sleep, she answered, looking to the different corners of the house, that she feared to sleep anywhere but between the two sisters. In the middle of the night the sister sleeping on the outside of the bed felt something wet, and by the light of the peat fire she saw it was blood. That something had happened to her sister she was now aware, and, getting up, she fled from the house and managed to reach running water. As she did so the cock crew, and the stranger, now transformed into a water horse, was unable to follow, and she was saved.