thus admonished them--"Gang a' to your beds, sirs, and
dinna put out the wee _grieshoch_ (embers)."]
[Footnote 54: It is told of a Brownie, who haunted a border family,
now extinct, that the lady having fallen unexpectedly in labour, and
the servant, who was ordered to ride to Jedburgh for the _sage femme_,
shewing no great alertness in setting out, the familiar spirit slipt
on the great-coat of the lingering domestic, rode to the town on the
laird's best horse, and returned with the mid-wife _en croupe_. Daring
the short space of his absence, the Tweed, which they must necessarily
ford, rose to a dangerous height. Brownie, who transported his charge
with all the rapidity of the ghostly lover of _Lenore_, was not to be
stopped by this obstacle. He plunged in with the terrified old lady,
and landed her in safety where her services were wanted. Having put
the horse into the stable (where it was afterwards found in a woeful
plight), he proceeded to the room of the servant, whose duty he had
discharged; and, finding him just in the act of drawing on his
boots, he administered to him a most merciless drubbing with his own
horse-whip. Such an important service excited the gratitude of the
laird; who, understanding that Brownie had been heard to express a
wish to have a green coat, ordered a vestment of that colour to be
made, and left in his haunts. Brownie took away the green coat, but
never was seen more. We may suppose, that, tired of his domestic
drudgery, he went in his new livery to join the fairies.--_See
Appendix_, No. VI.
The last Brownie, known in Ettrick forest, resided in Bodsbeck, a wild
and solitary spot, where he exercised his functions undisturbed, till
the scrupulous devotion of an old lady induced her to _hire him away_,
as it was termed, by placing in his haunt a porringer of milk and a
piece of money. After receiving this hint to depart, he was heard the
whole night to howl and cry, "Farewell to bonny Bodsbeck!" which he
was compelled to abandon for ever.]
A being, totally distinct from those hitherto mentioned, is the Bogle,
or Goblin; a freakish spirit, who delights rather to perplex and
frighten mankind; than either to serve, or seriously to hurt, them.
This is the _Esprit Follet_ of the French; and _Puck_, or _Robin
Goodfellow_, though enlisted by Shakespeare among the fairy band of
_Oberon_, properly belongs to this class of phantoms. _Shellycoat_,
a spirit, who resides in the waters, and has gi
|