58 The Kelpie. 



David Deans, you may remember, used to tell " with great 

 awe ' ' of the attempted rescue of the " tall black man ' ' who, in 

 the act of crossing a ford to join the congregation of Covenanters, 

 " lost ground, and was carried down apparently by the force of 

 the stream." " But " (to continue the recital of Peter Walker's 

 version of the incident) " famous John Semple, of Carsphairn, saw 

 the whaup in the rape 'Quit the rope!' he cried to us (for I 

 that was but a callant had a haud o' the rape mysell), 'it is the 

 Great Enemy ! He will burn, but not drown ; his design is to 

 disturb the good wark, by raising wonder and confusion in your 

 minds ; to put off from your spirits all that ye hae heard and felt.' 

 Sae we let go the rape, and he went adown the water screeching 

 and buUering like a Bull of Bashan, as he's ca'd in Scripture." 



In "The Fair Maid of Perth," too — "Did not the Devil 

 appear in the midst oC the Tay, dressed in a scapular, gambolling 

 like a pellach amongst the waves, the morning when our stately 

 bridge was swept away?" A Kelpie living in a "red heugh " 

 near Montrose is even said to have wandered about with cloven 

 feet, horns, and pointed tail complete, and on one old woman 

 quoting Scripture to him, he promptly disappeared. 



A sacred name or word, indeed, generally proved an effective 

 weapon against the Kelpie. Lachlan Buachaille, the cow-herd, 

 for example, only saved himself by this expedient from a terrible 

 death. Lachlan had persistently declared his disbelief in the 

 existence of the Each-uisge, as he had never seen him with his 

 own eyes. One stormy night, as he sat alone in his bothy, 

 he heard a gentle knocking at the door, and found it w-as a little, 

 bent, old woman seeking shelter from the wind and rain 

 Lachlan brought her in and gave her a chair beside the fire ; but 

 she refused to accept anything to eat or cirink. She always, shf 

 said, had plenty of fish, but she gave a grim assent to the sugges- 

 tion that perhaps she liked flesh better. Nor would she have 

 the covering Lachlan pressed on her instead of her drenched 

 cloak — she needed none of his coats or blankets, for water would 

 never hurt Ker. Soon Lachlan became drowsy, and as once or 

 twice he awoke with a start the figure of the old woman, sitting 

 by the fire and lit up by the flicker of the dying flames, seemed 

 to grow larger and larger. On his making a remark to this effect 

 she rejoined that she was probably " expanding to the warmth." 



