I A Gossip on a Sutherland Hill-side 287 



by pulling the cairns to pieces must not be surprised 

 if he find nothing. 



I know of three enormous cairns in Sutherland 

 which have been arranged on a sort of ' pea-and- 

 thimble ' principle. Open the right one, and you 

 are a made man ; open either of the wrong, and 

 you are a dead one. I decline to point out their 

 exact situation, as I may some day be driven to 

 take the fearful bet myself. ' Do you think I should 

 hit the right one, Donald ? ' 



' 'Deed, sir, I don't think it's right to meddle 

 with a cairn ; it's the same as a grave in a kirkyard, 

 and there may be a bonnie lad lying under it, who 

 wadna wish his bones to be moved till he was called 

 for at the judgment. They tell wild old stories 

 about the evil that fell on men who moved them ; 

 but I think they were no that very gude and likely 

 to prosper before they tried it. But, 'deed, it's no 

 wonder that the old folks were supersteetious, for 

 there were awfu' things in the forests, — things like 

 men, that lived with the deer, and sucked the hinds 

 and ate grass, and went on all fours like the beasts. 

 There was one seen, and there's no doubt aboot it, 

 aboot a hundred years ago. 



' The first time it was seen it came to a shepherd's 

 house in Kildonan, and was naked almost, only a 

 clout or two aboot it, and it scared the shepherd's 

 wife and bairns out of their wits, as it stood girning 

 and making as if it could not speak. The wife 

 thought it was hunger that moved it, and gave it 



