Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/165

 Rh and half decayed, may now be found in every moss. Magnificent forests they must have been, but the dragon set fire to them with his fiery breath, as he rolled over the whole land. Men fled from before his face, and women fainted when his shadow crossed the sky-line. He made the whole land a desert. And it came to pass, that this evil spirit, whom the people called "the Beast," and Dhu guisch (of the black firs), came nigh to Dornoch, as near as to Lochfinn, from whence he could see the town, and the spire of St. Gilbert—his church. "Pity of you, Dornoch!" roared the dragon. "Pity of you, Dornoch!" said St. Gilbert; and taking with him five long and sharp arrows, and a little lad to carry them, he went out to meet the "Beast." When he came over against it he said, "Pity of you!" and drew his bow. The first arrow shot the Beast through the heart. He was buried by the townspeople. Men are alive now who reckoned distance by so or so far from "the stone of the Beast," on the moor between Skibo and Dornoch. The moor is now planted, and a wood called Caermore waves over the ashes of the fir-destroying dragon.—(From Alexander the Coppersmith.)

vi.—.

The dragon killed by St. Gilbert (before-mentioned) must have been a salamander, since it was born from a fire which has lasted seven years. It lived in fire, and its breath burnt all the forests of the Highlands: only a man who should see it before it saw him had power to slay it. St. Gilbert dug a hole and hid himself in it, so as to get the first sight of it.

Gilbert finished his cathedral in Dornoch by witchcraft; he worked at it himself, and he used to fling up the nail to the spot he meant it to occupy, and sent the enchanted hammer after it. They both did their duty, and the hammer then returned to the hands of this "master-mason." He is called "Holy Gilbert," and sometimes "Gilbert Saor."—(From Mrs. McKay.)

[Holy Gilbert was really a bishop of Caithness, surnamed Carthophilax.