[44] This version was originally taken down in Gaelic from the recitation of Malcolm Sinclair, Balefuill, Tiree. The tale was known in Ireland, and the reputation of it still survives very extensively throughout the Highlands.
[45] This rendering of the popular incantation differs somewhat from that given by Mr. Campbell himself. The Gaelic version is the best the writer has been able to fall in with. Var. An laogh maol carrach is miosa na ainm, “the polled-scabbed calf, that is worse than its name, take off your head,” etc.
[46] This version of the story is from Skye. A version from Uist is given in Campbell’s Tales of the West Highlands, ii. 68. It varies merely in representing the thirsty man as a traveller, who, in consequence of refusing from the Fairy the drink for which he had wished, was drowned at the next ferry.
[47] This creature, haunting the pastures of the cattle, partakes more strongly of the character of the Glaistig, afterwards to be described, than of the Fairy women.
“Paidhir de na cailean guagach
Cuir mu’n cuairt na brathuinn-oran.”
[49] The same incident is related of the Sron-Charmaig Glaistig.
[50] Both names have the same meaning, being derived from a kind of head-dress (ceann-eididh, cuaraig) peculiar to the clan.
[51] The last two lines suggest this to be a modern composition, and not a popular tradition. Supernatural beings do not go away in flames in Highland superstition.