The Kelpie. 59 



Then at last she started up erect, and as she gave a horrible 

 laugh, that became first a wild shriek and then a wilder neigh, a 

 fearsome change passed over her. " The dark-grey locks that 

 had peeped from under her red hood now waved a snaky mane. 

 On the forehead of the monster was a star-like mark of bright 

 scarlet, quivering like burning fire ; the nostrils breathed, as it 

 were, flame, whilst the eyes flashed on poor Lachlan like light- 

 ning." Then Lachlan found himself snatched up and borne 

 swiftly towards the dark waters of Loch Dorch. And assuredly 

 he would have been engulfed in its depths had not the drops of 

 spray from a waterfall, in passing, brought him to his senses. 

 As he remembered and pronounced aloud " the Name of Names 

 that was engraved on the breast-plate of the High Priest of 

 Israel," the monster dropped him with a shudder and a shriek, 

 and disappeared in the loch. When daylight came Lachlan was 

 found bruised and insensible at its very edge. Never again did 

 he cast doubt on the existence of the Each-uisge ; nor would he 

 return to the hut where he had had so terrifying an experience. 



Yet another, though rarer, form assumed by the Kelpie in 

 order to entrap his intended victims was that of a black boat, 

 sometimes hing temptingly by the side of the loch or river, with 

 oars ready in the rowlocks, at others drifting gently past within 

 reach of the shore, with set sails idly flapping. This disguise 

 was sometimes resorted to by the Each-uisge of Loch Chrois, of 

 whose fiendishness an instance has already been given. . One old 

 woman was wont to relate an adventure she had one summer 

 night. She had lost her way in the mist, and when she found 

 herself at the edge of the loch she did not realise her where- 

 abouts. Thinking it was another sheet of water, she was in the 

 act of stepping into a boat which was drawn up close to the shore, 

 with the object of rowing across, when she caught sight of a 

 boulder she recognised. With a prayer on her lips she hastily 

 drew back, and hurried off full of thankfulness for what she 

 realised was a narrow escape from the clutches of the demon. 



The death of the Kelpie could not be encompassed without 

 some supernatural aid. The Each-uisge of Loch Dorch was 

 killed by being shot with a crooked sixpence — silver being " thn 

 blessed metal from a cup of which the Saviour drank his las' 

 draught on earth " — reinforced by the utterance of the phrase, 

 " The Cross be betwixt me and thee ! ' ' 



