1 56 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



ever, the sun set, he again took aim, and on firing 

 the object fell dead in the actual shape of a deer. 

 Murdoch being then suddenly overpowered by sleep, 

 laid down in the heather to rest, when in a few 

 minutes a voice thundered in his ear : " Murdoch, 

 Murdoch, you have this day slain the only maid 

 of the Doune ! " and, jumping up, he retorted : 

 "If I have killed her, you may eat her!" while 

 he at once bolted off as fast as his legs would 

 carry him. In the present prosaic days this story 

 sounds uncommonly as if stalker Murdoch had a 

 weakness for the whiskey bottle, but be that as it 

 may, his successors claim that the celebrated Mr. 

 Sheridan was descended from one of Murdoch's 

 daughters. Another commonly prevalent supersti- 

 tion was the belief in a Leannan Stieth or fairy 

 sweetheart, and all those stalkers who passed their 

 days and nights in the forest were credited with such 

 a connection, from which the earthly wife was ever 

 supposed to be in great danger on account of the evil 

 v/ishes and designs of the fairy one. 



