Scottish Fairy Tales by Donald A. Mackenzie

Author:Donald A. Mackenzie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486142937
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

In the Kingdom of Seals

THE SEA FAIRIES have grey skin-coverings and resemble seals. They dwell in cave houses on the borders of Land-under-Waves, where they have a kingdom of their own. They love music and dance, like the green land fairies, and when a harpist or bagpiper plays on the beach they come up to listen, their dark black eyes sparkling with joy. On moonlit nights they hear the mermaids singing on the rocks when human beings are fast asleep, and they call to them: “Sing again the old sea songs; sing again!” All night long the sea fairies call out when mermaids cease to sing, and the mermaids sing again and again to them. When the wind whistles loud and free, and the sea leaps and whirls and swings and cries aloud with wintry merriment, the sea fairies dance with the dancing waves, tossing white petals of foam over their heads, and twining pearls of spray about their necks. They love to hunt the silver salmon in the forests of seaweed and in ocean’s deep blue valleys, and far up dark ravines through which flow rivers of sweet mountain waters sparkling with stars.

The sea fairies have a language of their own, and they are also skilled in human speech. When they come ashore they can take the forms of men or women, and turn waves into dark horses with grey manes and long grey tails, and on these they ride over mountain and moor.

There was once a fisherman who visited the palace of the queen of sea fairies, and told on his return all he had seen and all he had heard. He dwelt in a little township near John-o’-Groat’s House, and was accustomed to catch fish and seals. When he found that he could earn much money by hunting seals, whose skins make warm winter clothing, he forgot about catching salmon or cod, and worked constantly as a seal-hunter. He crept among the rocks searching for his prey, and visited lonely seal-haunted islands across the Pentland Firth, where he often found the strange sea-prowlers lying on smooth flat ledges of rock fast asleep in the warm sunshine.

In his house he had great bundles of dried sealskins, and people came from a distance to purchase them from him. His fame as a seal-hunter spread far and wide.

One evening a dark stranger rode up to his house, mounted on a black, spirited mare with grey mane and grey tail. He called to the fisherman who came out, and then said: “Make haste and ride with me towards the east. My master desires to do business with you.”

“I have no horse,” the fisherman answered, “but I shall walk to your master’s house tomorrow.”

Said the stranger: “Come now. Ride with me. My good mare is fleet-footed and strong.”

“As you wish,” answered the fisherman, who at once mounted the mare behind the stranger.

The mare turned round and galloped eastward faster than the wind of March. Beach gravel rose in front of her like

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.