DWELLINGS.
An old man kept a green hillock, near his house, on which he frequently reclined in summer, very clean, sweeping away any filth or cow or horse droppings he might find on it. One evening, as he sat on the hillock, a little man, a stranger to him, came and thanked him for his care of the hillock, and added, that if at any time the village cattle should leave their enclosure during the night, he and his friends would show their gratitude by keeping them from the old man’s crops. The village in these days was in common, ridge about, and the Fairy promise, being tested, was found good.
Of hills having the reputation of being tenanted by Fairies may be mentioned Schiehallion (Sith-chaillionn), in Perthshire, and Ben-y-ghloe (Beinn a Ghlotha); and in Argyllshire,Sìthein na Rapaich, ‘the Fairy dwelling of tempestuous weather,’ in Morvern and Dunniquoich (Dùn Cuaich, the Bowl-shaped hill) Dùn-deacainn and Shien-sloy (sìthein sluaigh, the multitude’s residence), near Inverary. The three latter hills are in sight of each other, and the preference of the Fairies for the last is mentioned in a popular rhyme:
Dùn-deacainn is Dùn-cuaichSìthein sluaigh is Airde-slios;Nam faighinnsa mo roghainn de ’n triùirB’e mo rùn a bhi san t-slios.
Dùn-deacainn is Dùn-cuaichSìthein sluaigh is Airde-slios;Nam faighinnsa mo roghainn de ’n triùirB’e mo rùn a bhi san t-slios.
Dùn-deacainn is Dùn-cuaichSìthein sluaigh is Airde-slios;Nam faighinnsa mo roghainn de ’n triùirB’e mo rùn a bhi san t-slios.
Dùn-deacainn is Dùn-cuaich
Sìthein sluaigh is Airde-slios;
Nam faighinnsa mo roghainn de ’n triùir
B’e mo rùn a bhi san t-slios.
At the head of Glen-Erochty (Gleann-Eireochd-aidh, the Shapely glen), in Athol, in Perthshire, there is a mound known asCàrn na Sleabhach, which at one time was of much repute as a Fairy haunt. Alasdair Challum, a poor harmless person, who went about the country making divinations for his entertainers by means of a small four-sided spinning top (dòduman), was asked by a widow where her late husband now was. Alasdair spun round his teetotum and, examining it attentively, said, “He is a baggage horse to the Fairies in Slevach Cairn, with a twisted willow withe in his mouth.”36
A native of the Island of Coll went to pull some wild-briar plants (fearra-dhris). He tried to pull one growing in the face of a rock. The first tug he gave he heard some one calling to him from the inside of the rock, and he ran away without ever looking behind. To this day he says no one need try to persuade him there are no Fairies, for he heard them himself.
A shepherd at Lochaweside, coming home with a wedder sheep on his back, saw an open cave in the face of a rock where he had never noticed a cave before. He laid down his burden, and stepping over to the entrance of the cave, stuck his knife into a fissure of the rock forming a side of the entrance. He then leisurely looked in, and saw the cave full of guns and arms and chests studded with brass nails, but no appearance of tenants. Happening to turn his head for a moment to look at the sheep, and seeing it about to move off, he allowed the knife to move from its place. On looking again at the rock, he only saw water trickling from the fissure from which the knife had been withdrawn.
A person who had a green knoll in front of his house and was in the habit of throwing out dirty water at the door, was told by the Fairies to remove the door to the other side of the house, as the waterwas spoiling their furniture and utensils. He did this, and he and the Fairies lived on good terms ever after.
In the evening a man was tethering his horse on a grassy mound. A head appeared out of the ground, and told him to drive his tether pin somewhere else, as he was letting the rain into their house, and had nearly killed one of the inmates by driving the peg into his ear.
Beinn Feall is one of the most prominent hills in the Island of Coll. It is highly esteemed for the excellence of its pasture, and was of old much frequented by the Fairies. A fisherman going to his occupation at night saw it covered with green silk, spread out to dry, and heard all night the sound of a quern at work in the interior. On another occasion, similar sounds were heard in the same hill, and voices singing:
“Though good the haven we left,Seven times better the haven we found.”37
“Though good the haven we left,Seven times better the haven we found.”37
“Though good the haven we left,Seven times better the haven we found.”37
“Though good the haven we left,
Seven times better the haven we found.”37
A man who avoided tethering horse or cow on a Fairy hillock near his house, or in any way breaking the green sward that covered it, was rewarded by the Fairies driving his horse and cow to the lee of the hillock in stormy nights.