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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
This, no doubt, was the sea-serpent seen by an Islesman
at Kylerhea some years ago. " Yess, yess," averred the
Islesman in question, " one day I saw the fearful head of
the beast go down the Kyle; and,
"
before his tail passed !
indeed, it wass a week
By the roadside up near Scallasaig there is a serpentmound,
where the people in olden times used to worship the
serpent.
" How long ago would that be, John? " I asked the late
John MacRae, aforementioned, a year or two before his
death.
" Och, about two thousand years ago, I am sure,"
responded John, now prepared to dilate considerably on the
matter of serpents and serpent-mounds. And then I sat
silently with my note-book and pencil, and wrote down the
following statement, word for word, from the lips of John
MacRae " : The mound was in the shape of a serpent ; and
when the chief of the people would die, he would be buried
in the head of the serpent. One from London, that was
going about searching things like that, opened the mound,
and they found in the mound a big stone cofifin with a big
stone slab on the top. And there the bowl was found with
the ashes of the chief of the people at that time. The bowl
was taken to the Manse. That's about fifty years ago. It
was there for a few months ; and
they took it to Edinburgh,
to some museum or something. They were saying that
there was a funny noise in the Manse when the bowl was
lying there. If there was any treasure in the bowl, or in the
grave along with the bowl, it was taken out before. You see,
had he any treasure—the chief like—
guns and money and
the like—I'm sure they wouldn't be putting much money
in the grave. It would be going into the grave with the
dead man, so, when he would rise in the next world, he
would be ready to start at the same game as he was carrying
on here on earth."
A very bewildering statement, I grant you !
At Cosaig there is another serpent-mound. Some years
ago the suggestion was made by a number of archa?ologists
that it also should be opened. Indeed, all the arrangements
for the excavation of the site had been completed. But a
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