at the strangest unearthly voice answered back to me, as it had
been some one reading in the Bible and laughing at the same time--a
horrid thing to hear in that still place and so near the defenceless
young lassies in the Bower of the Star.

"The waters of Meribah--the waters of Meribah--for they were bitter!" it
cried in a kind of wail. "Come ben and hae some brose!" And then the
thing laughed again.

I took courage to look within, but because it was dark I saw nothing.
The whole interior was full of the smoor of reek, and strange things
sped round and round, crossing each other and passing the door
continually, like the staves and buckets of a water-mill running round.

"Come awa' ben," again commanded the voice. "Doon, Badrona! Peace,
Grimalkin!" The command was addressed to a number of monstrous black
cats, which had been speeding round the walls of the cot like mad
things, to the music of the unearthly crooning song which I had heard
from within.

I stepped across the threshold and found a red peat fire upon the hearth
and a black pot hanging over it. I looked about for the person who had
addressed me. At first I could see him nowhere. But as my eyes grew
accustomed to the light I saw the queerest being--the sight of whom made
my heart grow cold and my hand steal to the little pocket Bible, bound
in two halves, that was in my inner pocket.

A small square object sat huddled up at the far side of the fire. Upon
its head there was a turban, like those the travellers into the lands of
the False Prophet tell us of. But this turban was of black bull hide,
and the beast's dull eyes looked out underneath with a hellish
suggestion. The figure was squat like a toad, and sitting thus sunk down
upon itself, it seemed to be wholly destitute of feet and legs. But a
great pair of hairy arms lay out upon the hearth and sometimes clawed
together the fiery red peats, as though they had just been casten and
were being fitted for drying upon the moss.

"Come awa' ben. Ye are welcome, honest stranger," again said the thing
of the uncanny look, "I am nane bonny, truth to tell, but I'm nocht to
my mither. It's a braw thing that ye are no' to meet wi' her the nicht.
She has gane ower by to gather the Black Herb by the licht o' the aval
moon. When the moon faas ower on her back like a sheep that canna rise,
then is the time to gather the bonny Wolfs Bane, the Deil's Bit, wi' the
berries by the water-side that nane kens whaur to seek