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

THE GLAISTIG
name of Livingstone to kindle or re-fuel a fire on lona
while a meal stood ready for consumption.
" A Grey Stone overgrown with Lichen."
Not unlike the activities of the Brownie were the
— ;
activities of the Glaistig that took up her residence at a
farmhouse in Glen Duror of Appin, in Argyll. This
Glaistig interested herself chiefly in the Glen Duror cattle
and she regarded it as her especial duty to prevent the
calves from suckling their mothers during the night.
This Glaistig did not follow the tenants of the farm from
place to place. The farmhouse in Glen Duror was her
permanent residence. Incoming tenants were told of her
by those outgoing, and were handed over to her charge
certainly so far as the milk-giving stock was concerned. This
Glaistig, it is said, was alive as late as 1870, and may still
be alive for all we know !
Those
who claimed to having
seen her described her facial expression as resembling " a
grey stone overgrown with lichen."
Every evening for several generations a small quantity
of milk was poured into a stone for this Glaistig; and this
stone is still referred to in Duror of Appin as the Clach na
Glaistig, the Glaistig's Stone. But there came to the
farmhouse in course of time a new tenant who omitted to
supply this offering, with the result that next morning the
calves were found among the cows (where God meant them
to be!), and there was no milk in their udders for the
porridge.
When a servant lassie at this farm was asked whether
she had any fear of giving displeasure to the Glaistig, she
ridiculed the idea. The result was that, when she was
proceeding to a stream nearby to obtain a pailful of water
in the dark, she received a sharp slap on the cheek that gave
a twist to her neck. Howbeit, when on the same errand the
following evening, she received another slap on the other
cheek that corrected the twist
A Strathglas Glaistig.
Upon a time the home of Mac 'ic Alasdair in Strathglas
was haunted by a Glaistig, who was never seen, but who
E 65
!