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

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
floor without as much as depositing his cask. His
companion, more suspicious of his surroundings, stuck a pin
in the door-post as he entered, so as to permit of his leaving
whenever he felt inclined.
Toward dawn he decided to quit the scene of
merriment, taking with him his cask of whisky. But his
companion, perforce, was obliged to dance on indefinitely.
A twelve-month later he returned to the scene in the hope of
being able to rescue his friend. There, to be sure, he found
him, completely enchanted, dancing and dancing and
dancing, with the cask of whisky on his shoulder, and
resentful of any suggestion that he should be escorted home
until he had finished the reel then in progress.
When, eventually, his friend was able to persuade the
Little Folk to release him from his enchantment, and once
more brought him into the daylight, it w^as observed that
he had danced himself away to mere skin and bone. Here
was a man under faery spell, who, like Rip Van Winkle and
Mary Rose, was unconscious of the lapse of time during his
enchantment, since in Faeryland a year is as a day !
A Host of Faeries.
Mention of the cask of whisky reminds one of a glen in
Balloch that long was regarded as the abode of a tribe of
faeries. To this day the old folks of Loch Lomondside
recite the tale that tells of how a certain Donald MacGregor
was waylaid while returning one autumn evening to his
croft in the Pass of Balmaha. Donald had been visiting
some old cronies, who lived by the Gareloch. Their
generosity did not end at giving him as much whisky as he
could carry away inwardly : it went the length of presenting
him with a full keg on his departure. Fearful was Donald
lest, on his way back to Balmaha, he should meet anyone who
would insist on being " treated," or who possibly might
wrest from him his precious keg. So, stealthily he crept
through the Lennox, keeping as far as possible from the
beaten track to Balmaha.
In course of time he arrived in a small glen near Balloch.
There he sat down to take a nip or two in camera, as he
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