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

FEW
CHAPTER III
FAERY DOGS AND FAERY CATTLE.
objects produced more terror among the Isles-
folks than the cii sith, or faery dog, a creature of ill
omen they sometimes encountered on dark nights,
moving swiftly and noiselessly from place to place. Faery
dogs are said to be about the size of a two-year-old stirk.
For the most part, they are dark green in colour, though
toward the feet the green takes on a lighter hue. Some
possess long tails, which they coil over their backs : others
have a flat tail, " plaited like the straw rug of a packsaddle."
Their motion is silent and rhythmical, and is
always in a straight line. Their bark has been described as
a rude clamour. It sounds not unlike that of an ordinary
dog, but it is louder. Faery dogs, they say in the Isles,
bark only three times; and there is usually a fair interval
between each bark, which gives to the terror-stricken hearer
a chance of making for safety before he heards the third
bark. Otherwise, he is liable to be overtaken and destroyed
by the faery dog.
The footprints of the faery dog are said to be very large.
Some aver that they are as broad as the spread of the
human hand. They have been traced in snow, in muddy
places, and upon the sands.
The following folk-tales, many of which are still
recounted round the peat-fires in the Highlands and Islands,
testify to the activities of this creature, as also to the attitude
adopted toward it by an imaginative and superstitious
people.
Imprints upon the Sand.
There is a folk-tale still told in Tiree of how an islander,
when crossing the machar near Kennavarra, came within
sight of one such dog crouching bv a sand-dune, and
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