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

THE BROWNIE
of giving a sharp skelp in the dark to any inmate guilty of
dirtiness or untidiness about the house. Indeed, it is less
than half a century since persons were alive in Argyll who
deponed to their having received a flick or two at the hands
of the meticulous Brownie.
On one occasion a man was taken out of his bed, and did
not realise it until he woke to find himself standing stark
naked before the smouldering fire. On another occasion a
herdswoman, delayed one evening in setting out to bring the
cows home, could not locate them. When she returned to
the steading, she found them duly tied up in the byre. For
both of these strange happenings the Brownie of Cara was
deemed responsible.
This Brownie, it is said, has neither been seen nor heard
on the mainland of Kintyre since the modern residence was
built. But he is still heard on the islet of Cara. In truth,
Dr. Kenneth MacLeod, parish minister of Gigha, assures me
that, whenever he crosses from Gigha to Cara, he always
makes a point of paying his respects to the Brownie, and of
sitting in quietude for several minutes in the Brownie's chair,
whence he derives inspiration.
The Little One of Kintyre.
The MacDonalds of Largie were not the only family in
Kintyre ministered to by a Brownie, since a family named
MacKay, also living on this peninsula, had a guardian of
this order, who throughout the countryside was known as
the Little One, and who is said to have maintained an active
interest and participation in the family's affairs up till about
the middle of the nineteenth century. When Colonel
MacKay went off to the Peninsular War, the Little One
accompanied him. Through some of the fiercest episodes
of that campaign the Colonel came unscathed; and, when
the War was ended, the surviving soldiers returning to
Scotland used to describe how the Colonel could be seen
riding into battle with the Little One perched on the peak
of the saddle in front of him, warding off the bullets that
showered down about him.
At the conclusion of hostilities. Colonel MacKay and the
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