Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/234

 226 at times, "May the Lord preserve me." So he escaped unhurt, and the Vaugh and her brolachan left the mill.

That same night a woman, going by the place, was chased by the still infuriated parent, and could not have been saved had she not been nimble enough to reach her own door in time to leave nothing for the Vaugh to catch but her heel. This heel was torn off, and the woman went lame all the rest of her days.—(Widow M. Calder.)

[This creature is called a glashan, or brounie, in the Isle of Man. At Skipness, in Argyllshire, he is called grugach. He is the boneless bug or goblin mentioned by Reginald Scot in his Witchcraft.']

ix.—.

This great witch was once suspected of having enchanted all the deer of the Reay forest, by which means they became bullet-proof. Lord Reay, who was exceedingly angry, was yet at a loss how to remedy the evil, or to break the spell. His man, William, promised to find out all about it. He watched the witch for a whole night, and by some counter-spell contrived to be present in the morning, when he detected her milking the hinds. They stood about round the door of her hut, but one of them took a fancy to a skein of blue worsted that hung from a nail, and ate it. The witch, in a rage, struck the animal. "Ah!" she cried, "the spell is off you now, and Lord Reay's bullet will be your death to-day." William repeated this to his master, who would, however, hardly believe that he had spent the night in the hut of the great witch. But a fine hind was ' shot that very day, and a hank of blue yarn found in her stomach established at once the reputation of the servant and of the Calleach mohr of Ben Clibrek.

William determined to pay her another visit, well-knowing that this wicked old woman, though very rich, never gave anything away, and had never asked any one to sit down in her house. He accordingly walked into her kitchen. She turned round, and craved to know the stranger's name and his destination. "I come from the south, and I am going to the north," he answered curtly. "But what is your name?" "My name is William Sitdoun." "Sit-doun!" she