FUATH.
This word means literally aversion, hatred, but in Ross-shire is a common word to denote an apparition, ghost, spectre. In this latter sense, it is rare in Argyleshire. In the poem of the Muireartach or Muileartach, which may be translated, “Western Sea,” foster-mother of Manus, King of Lochlin, describing her attack upon Fin MacCoul and his men, it is said:
“The name of the daring spectre (fuath)
Was the bold, red, white-maned Westlin Sea;
Her face was dusky, of the hue of coal,
The teeth of her jaws crooked red;
In her head there glared a single eye,
That swifter moved than bait-pursuing mackerel;
And on her head there bristled dark-grey hair,
Like brushwood covered with hoar-frost.”[33]
The attributes of the Fuath are different in different tales, and Mr. Campbell (Tales of the West Highlands, ii. 191) has fallen into the error of conjoining attributes ascribed in several stories, and representing the Fuath as a water spirit, having web-feet, tail, mane, etc. The name of a desolate moor near Ullapool, in Ross-shire, “The Flat-stoned Declivity of Fuaths” (Leathad leacanta nam Fuath), is alone convincing it was not deemed particularly a water spirit.
The following tales will illustrate the character of Highland hobgoblins and such-like objects of terror better than a lengthened disquisition.