of
Soukitup was stolen by the fairies out at the back window of the bridal
chamber, the time the bridegroom was groping his way to the chamber door;
and ye have heard—but why need I multiply cases? such things in the
ancient days were as common as candle-light. So ye’ll no hinder certain
water elves and sea fairies, who sometimes keep festival and summer mirth
in these old haunted hulks, from falling in love with the weel-faured wife
of Laird Macharg; and to their plots and contrivances they went, how they
might accomplish to sunder man and wife; and sundering such a man and such
a wife was like sundering the green leaf from the summer, or the fragrance
from the flower.
"So it fell on a time
that Laird Macharg took his half-net on his back, and his steel spear in
his hand, and down to Blawhooly Bay gade he, and into the water he went
right between the two haunted hulks, and, placing his net, awaited the
coming of the tide. The night, ye maun ken, was mirk, and the wind lowne,
and the singing of the increasing waters among the shells and the peebles
was heard for sundry miles. All at once lights began to glance and twinkle
on board the two Haunted Ships from every hole and seam, and presently the
sound as of a hatchet employed in squaring timber echoed far and wide. But
if the toil of these unearthly workmen amazed the laird, how much more was
his amazement increased when a sharp shrill voice called out, ‘Ho!
brother, what are you doing now?’ A voice still shriller responded from
the other haunted ship, ‘I’m making a wife to Sandie Macharg!’ and a
loud quavering laugh, running from ship to ship, and from bank to bank,
told the joy they expected from their labour.
"Now the laird,
besides being a devout and a God-fearing man, was shrewd and bold; and in
plot, and contrivance, and skill in conducting his designs, was fairly an
overmatch for any dozen land elves. But the water elves are far more
subtle; besides, their haunts and their dwellings being in the great deep,
pursuit and detection is hopeless if they succeed in carrying their prey
to the waves. But ye shall hear. Home flew the laird,—collected his
family around the hearth,—spoke of the signs and the sins of the time;
and talked of mortification and prayer for averting calamity; and finally,
taking his father’s Bible, brass clasps, black print, and covered with
calf-skin, from the shelf, he proceeded without let or stint to perform
domestic worship. I should have told ye that he bolted and locked the
door, shut up all inlet to the house, threw salt into the fire and
proceeded in every way like a man skilful in guarding against the plots of
fairies and fiends. His wife looked on all this with wonder; but she saw
something in her husband’s looks that hindered her from intruding either
question. or advice, and a wise woman was she.
"Near the mid hour of
the night the rush of a horse’s feet was heard, and the sound of a rider
leaping from its back, and a heavy knock came to the door, accompanied by
a voice, saying, ‘The cummer drink’s hot, and the knave bairn is
expected at Laird Laurie’s to-night; sae mount, gudewife, and come.’
"'Preserve me!' said
the wife of Sandie Macharg; ‘that’s news indeed! who could have
thought it? the laird has been heirless for seventeen years! Now Sandie,
my man, fetch me my skirt and hood.’
"But he laid his arm round his
wife’s neck, and said, ‘If all the lairds in Galloway go heirless,
over this door threshold shall you not
stir to-night; and I have said, and I have sworn it: seek not to know why
or wherefore - but, Lord, send us thy blessed mornlight.’ The wife
looked for a moment in her husband’s eyes, and desisted from further
entreaty.
"‘But let us send a
civil message to the gossips, Sandie; and had nae ye better say I am sair
laid with a sudden sickness? though its sinful-like to send the poor
messenger a mile agate with a lie in his mouth without a glass of brandy.’
"To such a messenger,
and to those who sent him, no apology is needed,’ said the austere
laird, ‘so let him depart.’ And the clatter of a horse’s hoofs was
heard, and the muttered imprecations of its rider on the churlish
treatment he had experienced.
"Now Sandie, my lad,’
said his wife, laying an arm particularly white and round about his neck
as she spoke, ‘are you not a queer man and a stern? I have been your
wedded wife now these three years; and, beside my dower, have brought you
three as bonnie bairns as ever smiled aneath a summer sun. O man, you a
douce man, and fitter to be an elder than even Willie Greer himself—I
have the minister’s ain word for’t,—to put on these hard-hearted
looks, and gang waving your arms that way, as if ye said, "I winna
take the counsel of sic a hempie’ as you." I’m your ain leal
wife, and will and maun have an explanation.’
"To all this Sandie
Macharg replied, ‘It is written— "Wives, obey your
husbands;" but we have been stayed in our devotion, so let us pray;’
and down he knelt. His wife knelt also, for she was as devotit as bonnie;
and beside them knelt their household, and all lights were extinguished.
"Now this beats a’,’ muttered his
wife to herself; ‘however, I shall be obedient for a time; but if I
dinna ken what all this is for before the morn by sunket-time,’ my
tongue is nae langer a tongue, nor my hands worth wearing.’
"The voice of her husband in prayer interrupted
this mental soliloquy; and ardently did he beseech to be preserved from
the wiles of thi fiends, and the snares of Satan; ‘from witches, ghosts,
goblins, elves, fairies, spunkies, and water-kelpies; from the spectre
shaflop of Solway; from spirits visible and invisible; from the Haunted
Ships and their unearthly tenants; from maritime spirits that plotted
against godly men, and fell in love with their wives ‘—"Nay, but
His presence be near us!’ said his wife in a
low tone of dismay. ‘God guide my gudeman’s wits; I never heard such a
prayer from human lips before. But Sandie, my man, Lord’s sake, rise:
what fearful light is this ?—barn, and byre, and stable, maim be in a
blaze; and Hawkie and Hurley,—Doddie, and Cherrie, and Damson Plum will
be smoored with reek, and scorched with flame.’
"And a flood of light, but not so
gross as a common fire, which ascended to heaven and filled all the court
before the house, amply justified the good wife’s suspicions. But, to
the terrors of fire, Sandie was as immovable as he was to the imaginary
groans of the barren wife of Laird Laurie; and he held his wife, and
threatened the weight of his right hand—and it was a heavy one—to all
who ventured abroad, or even unbolted the door. The neighing and prancing
of horses, and the bellowing of cows, augmented the horrors of the night;
and to any one who only heard the din, it seemed that the whole onstead
was in a blaze, and horses and cattle perishing in the flame. All wiles,
common or extraordinary, were put in practice to entice or force the
honest farmer and his wife to open the door; and when the like success
attended every new stratagem, silence for a little while ensued, and a
long, loud, and shrilling laugh wound up the dramatic efforts of the night
In the morning, when Laird Macharg went to the door, he found standing
against one of the pilasters a piece of black ship oak, rudely fashioned
into something like human form, and which skilful people declared would
have been clothed with seeming flesh and blood, and palmed upon him by
elfin adroitness for his wife, had he admitted his visitants. A synod of
wise men and women sat upon the woman of timber, and she was finally
ordered to be devoured by fire, and that in the open air. A fire was soon
made, and into it the elfin sculpture was tossed from the prongs of two
pairs of pitch-forks. The blaze that arose was awful to behold; and
hissings, and burstings, and loud cracklings, and strange noises, were
heard in the midst of the flame; and when the whole sank into ashes, a
drinking cup of some precious metal was found; and this cup, fashioned no
doubt by elfin skill, but rendered harmless by the purification with fire,
the sons and daughters of Sandie Macharg and his wife drink out of to this
very day. Bless all bold men, say I, and obedient wives!"
