Fairy List
Bauchan
(Irish)
Extracted from "Popular tales of the west Highlands" by John Francis Campbell.
6.
In the neighbourhood of Loch Traig, in Lochaber, Callnm Mohr Macintosh
held a little farm. There were rumours of his having intercourse with a
mysterious personage called a banchan, but of his first acquaintance
with him there are no authentic accounts. One thing, however, is
certain, that on some occasions he was supernaturally aided by this
bauchan, while at others, having in some way excited his displeasure,
Callum was opposed in all his schemes, and on several occasions they
came the length of fighting baud to hand, Callum never suffering much
injury. On one occasion, as Callum was returning from Fort-William
market, he met his friend the bauchan within a short distance of his
own house, and one of these contests took place, during which Callum
lost his pocket-handkerchief, which, having been blessed and presented
to him by the priest, was possessed of a peculiar charm. The fight
being ended, Callum hurried home; but, to his dismay, found that he had
lost his charmed handkerchief, for which he and his wife in vain
sought. Callum felt certain he had to thank the bauchan for this
mishap, and hurried back to the scene of action. The first object that
met his view was the bauchan, busily engaged in rubbing a flat stone
with the identical handkerchief. On seeing Callum, he called out, "Ah!
you are back; it is well for you, for if I had rubbed a hole into this
before your return you were a dead man. No doctor on earth or power
could save you; but you shall never have this handkerchief till you
have won it in a fair fight." "Done," said Callum, and at it they went
again, and Callum recovered his handkerchief. Peats were almost unknown
at that time, and Callum, when the weather grew cold, took his axe, and
felled a large birch tree in the neighbouring forest, the branches
supplied wood for the fire for several days, and Callum did not trouble
himself to lay in a store nearer hand—when, lo! a snow storm came on,
and blocked up the country, so that he was cut off from his supply.
There was no means of access to the tree; and careful as Callum's wife
was, the last branch was almost consumed, and the fire burnt low. Up
started Callum with an exclamation, "Oh! wife, would that we had the
tree I felled in the forest! it would keep us warm this night." Hardly
had he spoken when the house was shaken and the door rattled; a heavy
weighthadfallennearthedoor. Callum rushed to see whatthe cause was, and
there was the wished-for tree, with the Bauchan grinning at him—"Sma am
Bauchan fathast, ged a sgain an Sagrt" —(the Bauchan is still kind,
though the Priest should burst)— said the wife. On another occasion it
happened that Callum left the farm he was in and went to one adjoining
which he had taken carrying with him his wife and all his furniture. In
the nighttime Callum turned to his wife and said, "Well, it is well we
have all with us; only one thing have we forgotten, the hogshead in
which the hides are being barked; that we have forgotten." "No matter
for that," said the wife; "there is no one to occupy the place yet a
while, and we have time to get it home safe enough;" and so the matter
rested; but on going round the end of the house next morning, what did
Callum see but his own identical hogshead, hides and all. It had been
transported the distance of five miles of most rugged, rocky district.
None but a goat could have crossed the place, and in the time it would
have bothered one to do it, but the Bauchan managed it, and saved
Callum a most troublesome journey. If you will go and take a look at
it—the spot is there yet—and I would like to see how soon you would
manage it, let alone the hogshead.
Poor Callum, however, was
obliged, with many of his neighbours, to leave Lochaber; indeed, he was
amongst the first embarking at Arisaig for New York. The passage was a
tedious one, but it ended at last, and without any particular
adventures; but on arriving they had to perform a quarantine of many
days. On getting pratique, Callum was in the first boat which landed,
and happened to have stowed himself in the bows of the boat, and when
she grounded, was the first man to jump on shore. Directly his feet
touched the ground, who should meet him in the shape of a goat but the
Bauchan, "Ha, ha Callum, ha mi sho air Thoseach orst." Ha, Malcolm, I
am here before thee. Here ends our story; but rumour says that Callum
was the better of the Bauchan's help in clearing the lands of his new
settlement, and that, till he was fairly in the way of prosperity, the
Bauchan abstained from teasing and provoking poor Callum.
The next
makes the supernatural beings robbers, and is a farther argument in
favour of the theory that all these traditions are fictions founded on
fact; recollections of wild savages living in mountain fastnesses,
whose power, and strength, and cavern dwellings were enlarged and
distorted into magic arts, gigantic stature, and the under-ground
world. I translate the story from Gaelic, written by Hector MacLean
from the telling of Johanna Maccrihhon in Berneray, August 1859. This
woman is a native of Skye, and descended from the celebrated pipers.
Her father, grandfather, and uncles were pipers. She learnt the story
from her grand-uncle Angus MacCrimmon.
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