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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
Stretches of moorland in the locahty of Glen Bretil, and
owned large flocks of sheep. One day Norman's wife
chanced to be reclining in a dreamy way on her bed, while
her young child was seated on the lap of a kindly neighbour,
who crooned to it by the fire. The neighbour, too, was
feeling a little drowsy ; and before long she was quite overcome
with the sleep induced by the warmth of the fire.
Now, the mother, though dovering, was sufficiently awake
to be conscious of everything that was going on around her.
On glancing casually in the direction of the fire, she espied
to her amazement three little women gathered round the
sleeping neighbour and the babe. They secretly had entered
the house. Unable to recognise them, she concluded that
they were banshees bent on mischief. Nor was she far
wrong, for she overheard the senior of them whisper to the
one standing near her " : Raise the babe, and we'll depart
"
with it !
" Oh " ! she heard the other banshee say, " leave with the
poor woman MacSweyn this one babe, as already you have
"
had so many of her children !
It was not until then that the third banshee broke silence
by expressing a similar desire, having taken pity on the poor
mother.
Angry, indeed, was the senior banshee that her sisters had
thwarted her plan. To their suggestion that the child should
be left, she responded : " If, then, I must yield to your
entreaties, we will not bear the child away; but this I declare
—when the caoran (a little peat) I see smouldering on the
hearth before me shall be burned out, the child will surely
die."
The three banshees then crept out of the house. Little
did the neighbour know of what had taken place during her
snooze. But, no sooner had the banshees taken their
departure than the mother of the child, having listened
breathlessly to their conversation and altercation, rose
speedily and poured over the fire the content of a large
jorum that stood near by. The sodden caoran, to which the
banshee had referred, she snatched off the hearth ; and,
having wrapped it carefully in a cloth, she hid it in a kist,
and thereafter returned to bed.
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