PEREMPTORY KIPPER 213 



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

 on the Flora 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 needless, 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. 

 As I waded the water wi' him, leadin' 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 

 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. 



