RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



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neath the lake, whicli her loquacious agitation could not conceal : 

 but^insisted on endeavouring to trace them. It was in vain she 

 reminded him of v^ater-kelpies, of a Bishop of Galloway, whose 

 body was half-changed to glass by their enchantments, and of a 

 Dumfries-shire gentleman carried off on one of their white nags. 

 The adventurous gipsy held her arm with a firm hand, and his 

 pistols in the other, till he walked round all the windings and 

 creeks of the Glen. No inlet betrayed a human habitation, but 

 a peculiar agitation of the waters discovered, what is called, a 

 deep " pot of the linn." The receding current left the edges of 

 this cauldron bare ; and Mause, whose curiosity began to struggle 

 with her superstitions, pointed out an opening to which it might 

 be necessary sometimes to dive under the shallow water. She 

 hesitated to accompany him farther, and he paused himself, till a 

 touching sight determined them. A child sat under the narrow 

 arch feeding a starling, which cried in a shrill tone, " Binnorie — 

 O Binnorie !" This unfortunate boy had been already two days 

 alone, waiting for him who would return no more, and had shared 

 his last morsel with his favourite bird. No doubt remained. The 

 adventurers entered, and climbed the ascent hewn in this cavern, 

 till it brought them to a higher chamber, now lighted only by a 

 crevice in the side, which shewed the rich incrustations of spar 

 and stalactite on its roof. The table remained, and the lonely 

 sofa covered with white linen. Mause's unknown companion 

 raised it slowly, and saw the young and beautiful Countess of Cas- 

 silis, whose elopement from a fond husband with a gipsy youth 

 had been long ascribed to witchcraft. It was the Earl himself 

 who now looked upon her. Hoping to redeem his only son, he 

 had come disguised to this glen, guided by the track of the gip- 

 sy gang with whom he suspected Mause of confederacy. But 

 Tam Len, the real Dougal Caird, only profited by the aged Car- 

 line's superstition to supply his unsuspected retreat with milk and 

 vegetables, and conceal his visits even from his tribe. Lord Cas- 

 silis gave generous pity to the fate of his unhappy wife as he re- 

 moved her from the sohtary chamber in the gipsy's cave to the 

 grave he dug for her himself near Mause's cabin. Nor did the 

 good Carline forget to cover it with the gilliflowers and bush of 

 woodbine due to those who die in travail. The heir of Cassihs 

 went home with the father from whom he had been stolen ; and 

 his half-sister, born in guilt and misery, remained under the care 



