The which an athar is the genitive) is one of the 



Summer evasive names used by the Gael for Satan 

 era s. ^ \\\&t proud and glorious angel, the 



Father of Evil, who fell from his high estate 

 through ineonquerabie pride. Why, then, 

 was the bat the malformed creature of Satan ? 

 It was years afterwards before I had the story 

 told me, for my old nurse (from whom I heard 

 the phrase) did not think the tale fitting for a 

 child's ears. When Judas hanged himself on 

 a tree, so the tale ran, and his soul went out 

 lamenting on the wind, the Haughty Father 

 flung that wretched spirit contemptuously 

 back into the world. But first he twisted it 

 and altered it four hundred and forty -four 

 times, till it was neither human nor bird nor 

 beast, but was likest a foul rat with leathern 

 wings. * Stay there till the last day,' he said, 

 'in blindness and darkness, and be accursed 

 for ever' . . . and that is why the bat (the 

 triollachan dhorcliadas, 'the little waverer of 

 the dark,' or triollachan fheasgair, or little 

 waverer of the dusk, as a more merciful 

 legend has it) flies as he does, maimed, blind, 

 accursed and feared, and shrieking in his 

 phantom voice Gu la bais ! Gu Id bais ! 

 ('till the day of death' . . . i.e., the Last 

 Day). 



In some parts of Argyll the bat is said to 

 152 



