[264] Marshall's "Historic Scenes in Perthshire," pp. 383-84. Mr. Grant Stewart, in his "Popular Superstitions" (as quoted in the Scots Magazine, 1823, vol. 13, p. 40), states that "the workmen of the great Michael Scott were all Fairies; and it is only in that way that it could be accounted for, that some stupendous bridges in the north country were built by him in the course of a single night." With this compare the above statement as to the Earl of Menteith's workmen, and all the foregoing references to "Pechts" and "Fairies" in similar circumstances; as also the "fierce tribe of Firbolgic origin, the Gowanree," who are said to have built the earthworks of the Rath of Cruachan in a single day, working as the unwilling serfs of an apparently Gaelic lord.
[265] Dr. Graham, "Sketches of the Picturesque Scenery of Perthshire," Edinburgh, 1806, p. 19.
[266] A slip of Scott's for "Bailie Nicol Jarvie."
[267] See "Rob Roy," chap. xxviii., and Note G.
[268] This spelling is only tentative. On hearing it thus pronounced, a resident in that district corrected the pronunciation to Doo'n, or Doo'an, which may signify a quite different meaning from Dùn.
[269] One would like to regard tradition as infallible in this respect. But, unfortunately, the age of the "sheeans" is so far back, that the term may now be used to denote any "conical hill," by Gaelic-speaking persons. However, a strong and persistent local tradition would far outweigh this modern misuse of the term sithean, in its general application, if such misuse (of which the dictionaries give a hint) is really common.
[270] The Continental examples are, of course, very numerous. In Denmark alone, according to J. M. Thiele, tradition points out as chambered mounds "two hills, Mangelbierg and Gillesbierg, in the environs of Hirschholm, on Hösterkiöb Mark": "a hill called Wheel-hill, at Gudmandstrup, in the Lordship of Odd": "a large knoll called Steensbierg, at Ouröe, near Joegerspriis": "the high ridge on which the church stands, at Kundebye, in the Bailiewick of Holbeck"; and, in the same bailiewick, at a place between the towns of Mamp and Aagerup, "near the Strand": Gultebierg also supplies another to the list: while "between Jerslöse and Söbierg, lies Söbierg bank, which is the richest knoll in the land." (For similar references in this neighbourhood, see also Mr. W. G. Black's "Heligoland.") And Thorpe's "Northern Mythology" specifies many such mounds. M. Pol de Mont (in his Flemish "Volkskunde," ii. 5, pp. 89-90) points out an "Aschberg," at Casterlé, in the province of Antwerp, which is said to have held fifty bergmannetjes, or hill-dwarfs. (With this may fitly be compared three Eskimo "mounds" at Hopedale, Labrador, which, though they are now deserted, "more than one hundred persons of both sexes and all ages are said to have inhabited.") But every Continental "Venusberg," into which men of the taller race were tempted by the attractions of the dwarf women, and every "berg" that is affirmed to have been the residence of a "berg-fee," comes under the same denomination as the special examples already cited.
[271] There is a Rob Roy's Town in Lanarkshire, celebrated as the scene of Wallace's capture, and even if the name is no older than Harry the Minstrel (who uses it), it indicates a "Rob Roy" ante-dating Sir Walter Scott's by a couple of centuries.
[272] Scott, who gives this definition ("Lady of the Lake," Note 2 Q), says it is the literal one. This, however, is not the literal meaning of "Uruisgean." But it is enough to know that the people so named were believed to be wild, "shaggy" men.
[273] Armstrong's "Gaelic Dictionary," s.v. Uruisg.