Two celebrated ghosts existed, once on a time, in the wilds of
Craig-Aulnaic, a romantic place in the district of Strathdown,
Banffshire. The one was a male and the other a female. The male was
called Fhuna Mhoir Ben Baynac, after one of the mountains of Glenavon,
where at one time he resided; and the female was called Clashnichd
Aulnaic, from her having had her abode in Craig-Aulnaic. But although
the great ghost of Ben Baynac was bound by the common ties of nature and
of honour to protect and cherish his weaker companion, Clashnichd
Aulnaic, yet he often treated her in the most cruel and unfeeling manner.
In the dead of night, when the surrounding hamlets were buried in deep
repose, and when nothing else disturbed the solemn stillness of the
midnight scene, oft would the shrill shrieks of poor Clashnichd burst
upon the slumberer's ears, and awake him to anything but pleasant
reflections.

But of all those who were incommoded by the noisy and unseemly quarrels
of these two ghosts, James Owre or Gray, the tenant of the farm of Balbig
of Delnabo, was the greatest sufferer. From the proximity of his abode
to their haunts, it was the misfortune of himself and family to be the
nightly audience of Clashnichd's cries and lamentations, which they
considered anything but agreeable entertainment.

One day as James Gray was on his rounds looking after his sheep, he
happened to fall in with Clashnichd, the ghost of Aulnaic, with whom he
entered into a long conversation. In the course of it he took occasion
to remonstrate with her on the very disagreeable disturbance she caused
himself and family by her wild and unearthly cries--cries which, he said,
few mortals could relish in the dreary hours of midnight. Poor