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 pitchforks. 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!"




THE BROWNIE.


The Scottish Brownie formed a class of being distinct in habit and
disposition from the freakish and mischievous elves. He was meagre,
shaggy, and wild in his appearance. Thus Cleland, in his satire against