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

ONE
CHAPTER V
THE GLAISTIG
of the best known tutelary beings in the
Highlands and Islands was the Glaistig, a thin, grey
woman with yellow hair reaching to her heels, and
attired in green raiment. From the colour of her clothes
and her somewhat green physiognomy, she became known
as the Green Glaistig. Usually she took up her abode at
farms where there were cows. She was more than
ordinarily amicable toward persons of weak intellect, since
she regarded the care of such as her peculiar province ; but
dogs she hated profoundly.
The Glaistig, moreover, was a creature of singularly
solitary habits. Never were two or more of them seen
together, nor known to haunt the same place, except when
they happened to be the mother-glaistig accompanied by one
or more of her young. The Glaistig was noted for the
strength of her lungs. She could yell so loudly as to
awaken the echo of the most distant hill within sight of
her; and, although she was seen but seldom, she was often
heard when attending to the cattle, or when arranging
utensils in the dairy. Lack of appreciation of her services
to the milk-giving stock on the farm where she resided was
resented by her in no uncertain manner. And woe betide
those who, when milking the cows in the byre or at the
summer shielings, omitted to pour out a small quantity of
milk for her, or did so grudgingly or with a bad grace !
Scarcely ever was the Glaistig seen, except sometimes
when she came at milking-time to partake of her modest
share of the milk. The Glaistig inhabitant of Castle
Camus, in the Sleat of Skye, who resided there in the days
of the Lords of the Isles, could be seen occasionally at
night-fall, standing by the stone, in the cavity in which her
allowance of milk was placed at milking-time.
The other occasion on which the Glaistig was liable to be
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