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

FAERIES : THEIR PROPENSITIES AND ACTIVITIES
Thereafter, it is said, ill-luck pursued both Farquharson
and the Laird of Blelack.
How THE Faeries Persecuted Luran.
A little distance above the Ardnamurchan shore, just by
the northern end of the Sound of Mull, there is a prominent
hillock known as the Charmed Knowe. Here, upon a time,
lived a tenant-farmer named Luran, Son of the Dark Man.
Owing to some mysterious agency, every morning Luran
found one of his cows dead. His suspicions were
immediately directed toward the occupants of the Culver
the name given to a brugh forming part of the Charmed
Knowe, and said to be the abode of Faery Folk. So
Luran decided to keep an eye on his cows for a night or two,
in the hope of solving the mystery of their dying. During
his first vigil, he saw the Culver open, and a band of faery
folk stream forth from it to encompass one of his cows.
Forthwith the cow was herded into the Culver; and,
according to the Gaelic rendering of this tale, no one was
more active at the herding of the cow than was Luran
himself. The cow was killed and skinned right duly.
Sewn up in the cow's hide was an elfin tatlor who, while
seated on the top of the brugh, plying his needle as a mortal,
was seized by the faeries.
That night the faery festivities were inaugurated when
the cow-hide and its elfin content were taken to the door of
the Culver, and rolled down the slope in front of it. Luran
again took part in this operation, endeavouring by so doing
to show the Faery Folk that he neither suspected them for
the loss of his cows, nor desired them any ill will.
On the faeries' dining-table stood many precious goblets.
These Luran eyed covetously. When he imagined that
none of the inhabitants of the Culver was watching him,
he stole a glittering goblet, since he regarded his possession
of it to be meet compensation for all his dead cows. But
the faeries observed his theft; and they lost no time in
pursuing him.
" Not so swift would be Luran,
But for the hardness of his bread."
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