The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
The water-horse in question was a monster among a race
of monsters. Often had the Monach folks dehberated as
to how they might rid themselves of his evil presence; but
all their schemings came to nought. Calamity followed
upon calamity, until at last they resolved to abandon
Monach. Thereupon upspake a native woman named
NicLeoid, who urged that for some years she had been
feeding and pampering a powerful bull in the hope that one
day he might prove more than a match for the cach-iiisge
dwelling in the Loch of the Virtues. So the Monach people
decided to postpone its exodus until NicLeoid' s bull had
been given an opportunity of demonstrating his prowess.
At length NicLeoid led her bull forth to do battle. While
he grazed by the margin of the lake, she stood some little
distance away, waiting every moment for the appearance
of the water-horse. Soon the bull became restive : soon
he commenced to tear at the sod with hoof and horn, roaring
the while in expectation of the tussle with the foe. Covered
with weeds and mud. the water-horse emerged from the
lake ; and
the contest began. The bull was more at home
on dry land than was the water-horse, who soon began to
retreat strategically toward the water's edge again. The
bull, alas ! over-confident of victory, followed him too far.
He was out as of his element in water as the water-horse had
been on dry land when the combat commenced. And so
great was the commotion of the water caused by the
struggle, that only occasionally could the Monach folks get
even a glimpse either of the bull or of the water-horse ; and
even then no more than a horn or a hoof could be seen.
Suddenly the commotion ceased. The troubled waters
now gradually settled down. All became silent, and it was
plain that matters were ended.
On the following day there floated ashore a pair of lungs
but so mutilated were they that the natives could not tell
whether they had belonged to the bull or to the water-horse.
But it is said that to this very day one may trace by the
margin of Loch nam Buadh the marks made on the sod by
hoof and horn, when NicLeoid's bull was spoiling for the
This folk-tale is reminiscent of a similar one about the
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