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

GHOST TALES AND HAUNTED PLACES
man of substance, certainly so far as tiocks and herds were
concerned ; and this man had a daughter who one evening,
while wandering home with a young lad about her own
age, observed a phantom angler standing on a stone but a
few feet ofifshore, accompanied by a yellow dog. The
angler's back was to the young couple as they neared the
side of the loch ; and, when they came upon him, the lassie
said to the lad : " Call ye to him, and ask whether he has
trout, and, if
"
supper !
so, whether he will give us a couple for our
At first the lad feared the consequences of such a
question, since the Devil Himself had been known to fish
Loch Shin from this very stone. When he had mustered
courage, he approached him quietly and asked " : Have ye
got fish ? "
" And will ye give us a trout or two for our supper? "
continued the lassie, ere the fisher could have replied to the
previous question put to him.
At sound of human voice, up rose the angler from the
stone, and blazed away in a great flame that set fire to the
heather by the loch-side. The flames rolled up to the very
feet of the young couple. When, terror-stricken, they
returned home, they recounted their experience. And it
was agreed by all the grown-up folks that the angler they
had seen was none other than the Great Mischief Himself !
Ocean of the Spectre.
Long before the MacNeil Chiefs evacuated Kisimul Castle
to take up residence at Eoligarry, in the northern peninsula
of the Island of Barra, the following folk-tale was prevalent
in Mingulay, and indeed throughout the Barra Isles.
In the days before local girls were employed so
extensively during the fishing seasons at Castlebay and
similar herring-curing ports, it was customary for Barra
girls to seek domestic employment in Ireland. In those
days there was a continual coming and going between Barra
and Ireland. Irish cargo boats, carrying seed potatoes and
the like, frequently called at Castlebay ; and the captains of
these vessels usually were willing to convey over to Erin
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