154 ScottTisH MERMAIDS. 
she was unable to find it. She was on the point of giving up the 
search in despair, when the child said she knew where her father 
kept an old skin bundled up. Sure enough, this proved to be 
the identical article for which she was seeking, and slipping 
away from her child with it clasped close in her arms, she made 
quickly for the beach. Arrived at the water’s edge, no time was 
lost in putting on the skin, and with a glad shout she sprang into 
the sea. Swimming rapidly towards a group of seals not far 
distant, she was greeted with warmth on her return to her kith 
and kin, the demonstrations of a large male seal which had been 
often noticed in the neighbourhood being particularly marked. 
Just then the guidman happened to be returning from the fishing, 
and as his boat sailed past what was his astonishment to hear 
himself addressed as follows :— 
‘‘Guidman o’ Wastness, fareweel tae dee! 
I liket dee weel; doo were guid tae me. 
But I loo better my man o’ da sea!’’ 
When he arrived home he found it was no trick that was being 
played upon him; and what his youngest child had to tell soon 
enlightened him as to the manner in which he had lost his help- 
meet. Distracted, he haunted the sea-shore for several days and 
nights ; but never a trace did he again see of his “ selkie ’’ wife. 
A story of a different kind is that relating the experience of 
a fisherman from Papa Stour who landed on the Ve Skerries 
with some others to secure some seals. A number had been 
stunned and skinned, when the rising of a tremendous swell 
caused the men to dash for their boat. In the hurry, one man 
was left behind. Realising that he had been deserted by his 
comrades, he returned to the spot where the carcases of the seals 
had been left lying. There, to his astonishment, he found what 
appeared to be a large number of human beings, busy attending 
to some others who lay on the ground. It was the “ selkie-folk ”’ 
who had come to the rescue of their stunned companions. The 
plight of the latter, even when they had recovered from their 
swoon, was a sad one, for the fishermen had not forgotten the 
skins in their haste. Instead of the marooned seal-hunter being, 
as he had expected, set upon by the “selkie-folk’’ and put to 
death for what had taken place, he was courteously approached 
and questioned concerning the possibility of the recovery of the 
