192 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



little sensation among the Trows — if we may take her 

 mother's word — but we cannot suppose that she had 

 found the life altogether so agreeable as the one she 

 had quitted, for she gave many instructions how to 

 provide against the enchantments used by Trows for 

 the purpose of decoying unsuspecting girls into their 

 imhaUowed domain, and her parting advice was, " Noo, 

 mam, mind ye hae da por lasses weel cost-aboot whan 

 da grey womman-stalers are waunderin." 



I understand the Trows to be a speculative race, for 

 their eagerness to become possessed of human female 

 infants seems boundless. Evidently they ponder deeply 

 on the inconveniences attending their want of wives 

 and daughters, and perhaps they experiment in the 

 " bringing up " of girls. Much trouble would be saved 

 if they restricted their experiments to grown women, 

 but experience, doubtless, has taught them that children 

 who never knew another land or life than that of the 

 Trows would be more reconciled to it than the brides 

 who are torn from earthly homes in the flower of their 

 age. Some instances have been known of girls, who 

 had been carried away in infancy, coming back in 

 maiden prime with a wild unearthly beauty and 

 glamour on them, and an unbroken silence regarding 

 the land of their captivity. But they never came 

 back to live. They seemed to have but the choice 

 between death and the Trows, and they preferred " to 

 follow death." 



There are certain precautions taken by careful nurses 

 to preserve baby girls from the Trows. If the necessary 



