There are old people still living in Iona who remember a man driving a nail into a bull that had fallen over a rock, to keep away the Fairies.
A man in Ruaig, Tiree, possessed of the second sight, saw a wether sheep (molt) belonging to himself whirled through the sky, and was so satisfied the Fairies had taken it in their eddy wind, that he did not, when the animal was killed, eat any of its mutton.
DWELLINGS.
An old man kept a green hillock, near his house, on which he frequently reclined in summer, very clean, sweeping away any filth or cow or horse droppings he might find on it. One evening, as he sat on the hillock, a little man, a stranger to him, came and thanked him for his care of the hillock, and added, that if at any time the village cattle should leave their enclosure during the night, he and his friends would show their gratitude by keeping them from the old man’s crops. The village in these days was in common, ridge about, and the Fairy promise, being tested, was found good.
Of hills having the reputation of being tenanted by Fairies may be mentioned Schiehallion (Sith-chaillionn), in Perthshire, and Ben-y-ghloe (Beinn a Ghlotha); and in Argyllshire, Sìthein na Rapaich, ‘the Fairy dwelling of tempestuous weather,’ in Morvern and Dunniquoich (Dùn Cuaich, the Bowl-shaped hill) Dùn-deacainn and Shien-sloy (sìthein sluaigh, the multitude’s residence), near Inverary. The three latter hills are in sight of each other, and the preference of the Fairies for the last is mentioned in a popular rhyme:
Dùn-deacainn is Dùn-cuaich
Sìthein sluaigh is Airde-slios;
Nam faighinnsa mo roghainn de ’n triùir
B’e mo rùn a bhi san t-slios.