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

FAERY MUSIC
Faeries. This knowe is also said to be the meeting-place of
they fey folks inhabiting the secret recesses of Rothiemurchus
and of the Braes of Abernethy. Not so long ago
a man, who was in the habit of boasting that he had no
illusions about faeries and the like, was passing by this loch,
when he heard the sound of distant bagpipes. As the sound
drew nearer to him, he began to look around him for the
piper. But, nearer and nearer and louder and louder though
the piping came, there was no sign anywhere of the player.
So close to him came the music eventually that he actually
stepped aside, so as to allow the invisible piper to pass.
The man, who had this strange experience by the shore of
Loch Morlich, declared emphatically that, as he stepped
aside, he felt on his cheeks the gusts of wind that were
issuing from the drones of the bagpipes. When he told
this to his friends in Spey-side, they all were of opinion that
he had heard the faery bagpipes, played by none other than
Big Donald, King of the Faeries.
Robin Og and the Faery Pipes.
There was a certain Robin Og who frequently listened
to the music of faery pipes as he passed by the sithean of
Big Donald, King of the Faeries. Robin Og came to learn
that there were ways in which even ordinary mortals
like himself could obtain favours from the faery folk.
Therefore, in passing the sithean one day, he flung his
bonnet into the air in accordance with custom, and whispered
in the gaelic " : Is leat-sa so: is leam-sa sin!—This is yours :
that is mine !
" In so saying, he flung his knitted bonnet
toward the sithean. In exchange for the bonnet, there
immediately fell at his feet a tiny set of bagpipes.
Og scarcely could believe his eyes as he stopped to
Robin
pick up
this precious gift, and placed it deftly in an inside pocket
of his jacket. When he returned home, however, he could
find in his pocket nothing but a puff-ball and a crumpled
fragment of willow-reed.
Faery Music among the Moonlit Snows.
One moonlit night in winter two children, who were
brother and sister, set out for Kennavarra Hill, in Tiree,
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