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

WITCH TALES AND THE EVIL EYE
wine-cellars had run dry ; and, as he was expecting a number
of guests, he sent forth his butler with an empty cask to
obtain, as best he could, its fill of wine. As the butler was
passing by the reedy shore of the Lake of Menteith, weary
with the weight of the cask, two local witches, each seated
astride a sheaf of bulrushes by the edge of the lake,
beckoned to him. To the witches' beckoning he responded
and to their enquiry he explained the object of his
journeying through the countryside with a toom cask. In
a trice he found himself mounted irresistibly on another
sheaf of bulrushes, and he holding on with grim
determination to the cask. Willy-nilly, the witches escorted
him through the ether to the wine-cellars beneath the palace
of the King of France, where they urged him to fill his cask
to its utmost capacity.
And thus it was that the butler returned to the table of
his master, Graham of Menteith, with wine, the excellence
of which drew green envy from the guests.
It is said, moreover, that the butler also brought back
with him to Menteith a silver drinking-cup, on which was
engraved the fleiir-de-lys of France.
Loch of the Sword.
Perhaps one of the best known witch tales in Scotland
is that associated with a small loch lying a mile or so to the
north of Rannoch Station, in the very heart of Scotland,
exactly where the boundaries of the three great counties of
Inverness, Argyll, and Perth meet. The loch, which is of
no great dimensions, goes by a Gaelic name meaning the
Loch of the Sword ; and as such it is shown on the map.
It is related that, about three centuries ago, there arose
between representatives of the family of Atholl and Locheil,
Chief of the Clan Cameron, a dispute as to the ownership of
some lands in the neighbourhood. Wellnigh every means
of settlement had been exhausted ; and the two clans, weary
of continual warfare, eagerly sought to compose their
difference by mutual agreement. So, after a considerable
amount of fruitless strife, Atholl and the worthy Chief of
the Camerons arranged that they would meet one another
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