380 ANGUS BAILLIE. 



whole host of Caithness freebooters, with the gun, called 

 Glamabhean, at that time a novel and dreaded engine of 

 destruction. Baillie was likewise renowned for his dex- 

 terity as a bowman and deer-stalker, and thus excited the 

 jealousy of one of the midland foresters, who went down 

 to Sutherland to compete with him. 



This stranger, being recommended to BailhVs superiors, 

 talked boastingly of his pre-eminence over the Sutherland 

 foresters, either at open feats, or in executing cunning 

 devices for overcoming an opponent. Nay, he said he 

 could kill more deer than Baillie on his own ground, and 

 finished his rodomontade by saying to his face, " You can 

 no more be compared to me, as a forester, than your old 

 shaggy garron can, as an animal, be compared to the finest 

 antlered stag on the hills." 



A day was fixed for their competition, and Baillie ac- 

 companied the stranger to Ben-Ormin. 



He thought himself a stronger man than his blustering 

 visitor, and was determined to vindicate his slighted 

 prowess by making the challenger appear as ridiculous as 

 his boasting had been offensive: little recked he of the 

 consequences. 



Now this, our Sutherland man, had no aversion to any 

 awkward trick or gambol, by means of which he could dis- 

 tress his opponent. He was, moreover, learned in tradi- 

 tions, and had heard in what manner a Danish giant was 

 said to have been captured by a man of diminutive size ; 

 he, therefore, privately directed one of his men to kill a 

 deer, and to spread the fresh skin of the animal immediately 

 within his bothy, with the inner side uppermost. When 

 Baillie and his challenger arrived at the door, the latter 



