PEREMPTORY KIPPER. 203 



wi' the lyams about him ! I durst na draw however. 

 I had nae fear o' their breaking, for they were spun of 

 the hair o' the grey auld buck that gaed for mony years 

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

 the kipper behooved to turn, an' he might ha' taen 

 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 feard 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' gude clouted 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 

 my belief was he was forty gude pounds, Dutch weight. 



* 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 

 clodding 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. 



