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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
fox at the Mull of Kintyre that was careful never to pursue
his depredations within a twenty-mile limit of his lair.
When he would be raiding the sheep-folds of Kintvre, the
farmers and crofters used to send their dogs after him
and it was believed that the fox was in the habit of evading
his pursuers by leaping across a certain gorge in the
neighbourhood. After each chase, one or two dogs were
always found dead at the base of the gorge, but never a
fox. How the fox was able to find a footing on the
opposite side of the gorge, no one knew, for there was not
even a cranny large enough for the feet of a small bird, or
even of a squirrel. It was obvious, however, that the
dogs
gorge.
in their pursuit simply leapt to their death at this
For years the inhabitants of Kintyre were puzzled at the
manner in which this fox evaded capture, and in which the
pursuit of him always resulted in the loss of a dog or two.
So, they set out for the gorge one day, provided with a long
rope, and accompanied by a young fellow who was
accredited
Down the
with being
gorge they
more daring than his neighbours.
lowered the young fellow, and he
carefully examining every nook of the rocks as they lowered
him. Several feet from the top, and on the same side, a
number of plane and ash saplings grew out of a cleft. On
examining these closely, he found that a certain ash sapling,
more lithe than the others, had a few curious scratches upon
it, and that this sapling, when he pressed upon it with his
foot, was bent to an angle that might permit of a small
creature hopping from the end of it to a tiny ledge on the
opposite wall of the gorge, if such creature had but the
weight to bend the sapling to the required angle. He
noticed, too, that, precarious as was the foot-hold just at
the point where the tip of the sapling tended to touch the
farther side of the gorge, there led away from that point
a ledge that seemed wide enough to accommodate the feet
of a deft-footed fox. And, so, before the young man came
to the top again, he cut through the sapling wherebv he
suspected the fox habitually effected his escape. Instead of
removing it altogether, however, he bound it with a flimsy
thread or two, merely to maintain it in its original position.
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