that the classical scholar regards them as equally sacred to poetry with the mythology of the ancients.

The superstitions of the Highlanders seem to have been borrowed from the nature of their scenery. Their rugged mountains, barren heaths, dreadful precipices and widestretched lakes; the habitual contemplation of the grandest scenery in nature; the thunder of heaven reverberating in repeated peals among the mountains; and the pressure of misfortune -had naturally a powerful effect on their imaginations-and led them to ascribe every disaster to the agency of malignant spirits, and to believe in the influence of those spiritual beings "who walk unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep."

The most beautiful creation of their mythology, is that which relates to the Daoine Shi', (men of peace,) who were regarded as a repining set of beings, envying mankind their more complete enjoyments. They are supposed to enjoy, in their invisible dwellings, a sort of unsubstantial bliss, a shadow of earthly splendour, which they consider as inferior to the more solid delights of mortal man. They are believed to be always clothed in-green; and they are supposed to take offence, when any man dares to put on their favourite livery. The famous Viscount of Dundee, (spoken of in Old Mortality,) was clad in green at the battle of Killicrankie; and to this circumstance the Highlanders ascribe his fall on that fatal

day. Near the source of the Forth, there is a place called Coirshi'an, which is imagined to be a favourite haunt of these fairies. It is said

that many of the "children of men" have been entertained in the subterraneous abodes of the Daoine Shi', at this spot. There they have been received, (says Dr. Graham,) into the most splendid apartments, and regaled with the most sumptuous banquets and delicious wines. Their females surpass the daughters of men in beauty; the seemingly happy inhabitants pass their time in festivity, and in daneing to notes of the softest music. But unhappy is the mortal who joins in their joys, or ventures to partake of their dainties. By this indulgence he forfeits for ever the society of men, and is bound down irrevocably to the condition of a Shi'ich, or man of peace!

There is a passage in "Rob Roy" which hints to the Schi'ichs, near the source of the Forth, just spoken of. A beautiful eminence of the most regular round shape, and clothed with copsewood of hazels, mountain-ash and dwarf-oak, intermixed with a few magnificent old trees, which, rising above the underwood, exposed their forked and bared branches to the silver moonshine, seemed to protect the sources from which the river sprung. This hill, so regularly formed, so beautiful, and garlanded with such a beautiful variety of ancient trees and thriving copsewood, was held by the = neighbourhood to contain, within its unseen caverns, the palaces of the fairies, a race of

VOL. I.

airy beings, who formed an intermediate class between men and dæmons, and who, if not positively malignant to humanity, were yet to be avoided and feared, on account of their capricious, vindictive and irritable disposition.

The Highlanders suppose that mortal men cohabit with the female Schi'ichs. By the assistance of their fairy mistresses, they are favoured with a knowledge of many things concealed to other men. The connection with these women was thought to be attended with a pleasure more exquisite and more lasting, than that with “the daughters of Eve." The Schi'ichs are still believed to carry off into their subterraneous retreats, new-born children, and women in child-bed; thus they are guarded with care till the child is baptized, when the power of the fairies with regard to them is thought to be at an end. Finally, the Schi'ichs are supposed present at festivals, weddings, and funerals; and although they are invisible to mortal eye, they are said to carry off the "funeral baked meats" and the best morsels, and to substitute unreal forms in their stead. The more prudent of the guests abstain from the food; probably for fear of suffering the punishment inflicted on the followers of Satan, who, instead of fruit, chewed bitter ashes, and

"With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws
With soot and cinders filled." (Par. Lost.)

It has been conjectured that the popular su

perstition of Daoine Shi, originated in the abolition and proscription of the Druidical order under the Fingalian dynasty.

The ancient Scots believed that the elements were the residence of the spirits of the deceased; and they supposed that storms, whirlwinds. and inundations were created by these aerial beings. Thus Ossian: "The night was stormy. From these hills the groaning oaks came down. The sea darkly tumbled beneath the blast. The roaring waves climbed against our rocks. The lightning came often and showed the blasted fern. I saw the ghost who embroiled the night. Silent he stood on that bank. His robe of mist flew on the wind." Again:-" Wide over Lara's stream is poured the vapour dark and deep: the moon like a dim shield, is swimming through its folds. With this, clothe the spirits of old their sudden gestures on the wind, when they stride, from blast to blast, along the dusky night."

In the tragedy of Douglas, we are presented with a beautiful allusion to this agency of the spirits in producing storms:

"Red came the river down, and loud and oft
The angry spirit of the water shriek’d.”

Every lake had its kelpie, or water horse, which was one of the most malignant spirits in the Highland mythology. This baneful genius was often seen dashing along the surface of the deep, or browsing on the pasture ground near the shore, He was held in great terror by

women and children, whom he was supposed to allure into his caverns and devour. When a traveller was on the verge of the lake, the kelpie would swell the torrent beyond its bed, and thus overwhelm him in its waves.

The Urisks were thought to be a mischievous set of beings, in a condition between mortal men and spirits. They were a sort of lubbary supernaturals, like the satyrs of the ancients; they were not so spiritual as the other beings of the Highland code, but could be gained over to do the drudgery of the farm. The Urisks were supposed to be dispersed over the country, each residing in its own wild recess; but their stated meetings were held in the Goblins' Cave, at the basis of Benvenue.

No omnipotent, no superintending Deity was admitted into this singular mythology: it was a sort of aristocracy of ghosts! These phantoms were believed to "ride in the whirlwind and direct the storm;" to keep the keys of futurity; to possess among them the attributes of Omnipotence. The Celtic nations entertained an idea, that for three nights preceding the death of a warrior of great celebrity, the ghosts of departed bards sang on the spot where his sepulchre was to be erected, and round an aerial figure of his body. The warrior was forewarned of his impending fate by a vision, or by some "unreal mockery" haunting his imagination. In "Waverley," we are presented with a striking instance of this superstition, in the chivalrous Fergus Mac Ivor,