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

THE SPIRIT-MULTITUDE
enjoyed his transportation to the isles lying to the northward
; and he confessed that he regretted nothing of his
experience except that, at the bidding of the faery throng,
he had dropped from the eddy an arrow that killed on the
Isle of Skye a speckled cow.
And from that day until his death the folks of Tiree knew
Donald by no other name than Black Donald of the Faery
Throng.
The Invisible Host.
When the faeries lea^'e home in numbers, they travel
through the air in eddies of wind. In calm, summer
weather, when there is not a breath of breeze, a momentary
rustling of grass-blade or leaf may be observed, or a whirl
of dust. These are evidences, it is held, that batches of
faeries are travelling by.
In the Gaelic such an eddy is called the Little People's
Puff of Wind. If it be suspected that, while travelling in
this wise, the faeries are taking away with them men,
women, children, or even animals and necessary household
utensils, they are compelled to drop whatsoever they may
be carrying, should the person suspecting them of such be
quick enough to throw his left shoe into such an eddy, or
pitch his bonnet toward it, remarking while so doing " Is
"
Icat-sa so: is leam-sa sin!—This is yours : that is mine !
In the Hebrides to this day instances are recorded in
which ordinary mortals, when going home in the dark, have
been caught up in the Little People's Puff of Wind, and
transported far from their destination. When eventually
such victims have been allowed to return to earth, it has
taken them some time to recover their senses sufficiently to
enable them to recognise their own kith and kin and their
homes. And, even in broad daylight, earth-bound dwellers,
swept off their feet by faery eddies, have been borne across
deep water from one island to another, and they fearing
all the time lest they should drop into the sea.
Carried Away in an Eddy of Wind.
On the Island of Islay there lived a young woman, who
was about to be given in marriage to a wealthy neighbour.
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