150 ScotTisH MERMAIDS. 
was that which John had heard tell of, and he at once stated the 
“wishes three,’’ the fulfilment of which he desired. The first was 
that neither he himself nor any of his friends should perish by sea ; 
the second, that he should be uninterruptedly fortunate in all his 
undertakings ; the third wish he never communicated to anyone 
except the mermaid—and yet, somehow, nobody ever failed to 
guess it! These stated, “Quit and have!’’ exclaimed the mer- 
maid, and as he released his hold, she sprang into the sea. John 
was soon able to put the genuineness of her promise to the test. 
Continuing his walk, he came upon Helen Stuart reclining on the 
grass, and setting himself beside her, he pursued his wooing with 
such success that not long afterwards she became his bride. And 
the mermaid proving as good as her word in every particular, it is 
needless to say that they lived happily ever afterwards. 
The more terrible side of the mermaid’s character is nowhere 
more grimly illustrated than in another of Hugh Miller’s northern 
legends. Where the parish of Tarbat borders on that of Fearn is 
situated Loch Slin, “a dark, sluggish sheet of water, bordered on 
every side by thick, tangled hedges of reed and rushes.’’ The 
very atmosphere is pervaded with the uncanniness of the story. 
A little girl from a cottage some distance off was passing by the 
loch one evening on her way home, just when the dusk had begun 
to draw round its shores, when she heard a strange sound as of 
continuous knocking. Then she discovered what seemed to be a 
tall female standing in the water, by the edge -of the loch, 
engaged, apparently, in beating clothes on a stone with the sort of 
bludgeon still (or at least in Hugh Miller’s time) used in the north 
country for the purpose. Something told the girl that this must 
be the mermaid of Loch Slin, of whom such eerie tales were told 
round the fires of a winter’s night, and terror-stricken she took to 
her heels. But as she hurried past she could not help noticing 
that the woman “seemed to ply her work with a malignant 
pleasure, and that on the grass plot directly opposite where she 
stood there were spread out as if to dry thirty smocks and shirts 
all horribly dappled with blood.’’ Breathless and horrified as 
she was, the girl was still able to relate her adventure when she 
arrived home, and there was much speculation as to what this 
strange spectacle might portend. It was but in keeping with the 
reputation of the mermaid that it should imply some impending 
calamity. This surmise proved only too true. On the following 
a 
