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

FAERIES : THEIR FkOPENSlTlES AND ACTIVITIES
thought—and fell asleep. He was not long in the land of
dreams when singing and dancing and the scurrying of
little feet rudely awakened him to the grim reality that he
had fallen asleep in a faery dene. Before him stood a
giant tree, into the base of which led a doorway thronged
with little men and little women, who were attired in bluebell
tunics and green, broad-rimmed hats. In a trice a
score of them surrounded him, and proceeded to share out
the content of his keg. When the the keg had been
drained to the lees, the Little Folk tripped back through
the doorway; and the magic tree vanished. In a state of
dire confusion, Donald arose and fled to the Endrick as
quickly as mere legs could bear him. Over that river he
leapt in a manner never before nor since witnessed. But
it was not until some day afterwards that, at a ceilidh round
his own fireside in the Pass of Balmaha, he came to his
senses, and recounted to his family the strange way in which
he had been deprived of his keg of whisky.
The Faery Dyers.
In the valley between Ben Ime and Ben Vane, the
tributary of the Inveruglas Water, known as AUt Coire
Grogain, receives a number of trickling burns. Near the
head of this valley is Lag Uaine, Green Hollow, with a faery
pool in it. Upon a time the faeries of the Lennox had a
dyeing factory by the side of this pool in the Green Hollow.
Far removed from tlie interferences of men, they were able
to keep to themselves the secret processes whereby they dyed
such articles as were sent to them from time to time.
Came a day, however, when the folks of Loch Lomond-
side, and indeed of Loch Fyneside too, became inquisitive
about the manner in which the Inveruglas faeries conducted
their business in the Green Hollow. The incessant
interruptions of prying neighbours sorely had tried the
patience of the faeries; and they eventually began to feel
that the Green Hollow was losing the seclusion that in
pristine years had been so conducive to good dyeing.
Many attempts to take them by surprise, while in the act of
dyeing, had proved abortive. But one day a faery from
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