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

FAERIES : THEIR PROPENSITIES AND ACTIVITIES
But the temptation was too great for him; and he dashed
off with the cup before he had as much as tasted its content.
The faeries immediately unleashed one of their dogs, and
sent it forth in pursuit of Ewen. But Ewen outran the
dog; and he actually deponed to having heard the faeries
recall their dog with " Farhhainn! Farbhainn! "
It is said that this cup remained for centuries in the
possession of the MacLeods of Raasay, who were a branch
of the ancient and hapless MacLeods of Lewis.
Red Donald of the Faeries.
The herd at the Spittal, above Dalnacardoch, used to see
red faeries when a boy, they say; but that was in the days
before General Wade built his military road through this
wild countryside. On one occasion the herd was transferred
by mysterious agency during the night to the house of his
father, in Rannoch, several miles away. In the morning,
however, despite the fact that the door and windows were
bolted and snibbed, he was found dozing before the
smouldering peat-fire in his own home at the Spittal. And
so the members of his household surmised that he must
have entered by the chimney.
And ever after that episode the herd at the Spittal was
known as Red Donald of the Faeries.
Dancing in Faeryland.
Not very long ago (so I was assured recently in the
Highlands, at any rate !), two young men were returning
in the small hours from New Year festivities at Ferintosh,
each of them carrying on his shoulder a small cask of
whisky. They came to a spot at which they heard laughter
and merriment and the strains of music, for which there
appeared to be no accounting. On proceeding to investigate
matters, they beheld a doorway open in a mound by the
roadside, beyond which lay a large apartment brightly
illumined, on the floor of which danced an inordinate
number of wee people. They both entered ; and one of
them, impatient to be at the dancing too, hastened on to the
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