PEREMPTORY KIPPER. 223 



years on the Plora craig ;* but had I pu'd at the lyams, 

 the kipper behooved to turn, an' he might ha' ta'en 

 down the throat tap water, an' I wad ha' lost my 

 waster an' lyams, or pu'd it out o' his back. That I 

 had nae mind to do. 



" I never was f ear'd for drownin' in my life ; at ony 

 rate never in the Queed. I strack into the water 

 breast deep, an' wonder sin' syne how I keepit my feet; 

 but I had on a pair o' guid cloutit shoon. The kipper 

 tired o' the trade o' gaun against the strength o' the 

 throat, an' tralin' the lyams, turned down the deep side 

 of the water atween me an' the brae. I got haud o' the 

 shaft o' the waster, but to try to grund him was need- 

 less, sae I keepit down the shank, an' that made the 

 force o' the water raise the fish to the tap, an' I push'd 

 him to the side, following as I best could, an' pressed 

 him to the brae, when I lifted him out. Wi' the help 

 o' Sandie (who had, when he saw the blood, gotten rid 

 o' his fear o' the deil), I carried him to the head o' the 

 rack, and when I got him on my back, my certie I was 

 a massy man ! I was aye vext I didna weigh him, but 

 tny belief was he was forty guid pounds, Dutch weight. 

 As I waded the water wi' him, leaclin' Sandie by the 

 hand, his neb was above my head, an' his tail plash'd 

 in the water on my heels. 



* I know not the derivation of lyams ; the word is only used, as 

 far as I know, to denote a small twisted rope usually made of goats' 

 hair, for the sake of elasticity, and fastened to the bow of the clod- 

 ding leister : it is coiled on the left arm at the other end in such a 

 manner as to go freely off when the leister is thrown. Jamieson in 

 his Dictionary derives the word from the French lien. 



