The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

562 1 he }iigliland Monthly.
ferrule, which was replaced once a year by a new one made
to special order by the local blacksmith. He was never
seen without being accompanied by his large collie-dog
Caesar, the terror of all the boys in the neighbourhood, a
sagacious brute who seemed to understand every word
spoken in Gaelic to him bv his master. The man would
be indeed rash who di.re attack old Seoras Glas armed
with his heavy staff and accompanied by his trusty ally,
Caesar. Seoras Glas was a retired preventive officer, who
had seen many years' service both in his native Highlands
and in Ireland. He was well educated and was a very
fluent speaker both in English and in Gaelic, but a firm
belief in all Highland superstition was an essential part of
his religion. He was a perfect mine of lore, and many a
night I sat for hours listening in mute astonishment to his
stories of ghosts, wraiths, marriages, funerals, adventures
on sea and land, and any other subject that became the
topic of the hour.
A curious sight it was to see Seoras Glas enter one of
the crofter's houses. He had first to make a profound
bow before he could manage to get his six feet of bone and
flesh through the doorway ; then, having got inside, he
straightened himself, when that part of his body above his
shoulders immediately disappeared in the cloud of smoke
that almost invariably filled the house from the level of the
walls upwards, and those seated round the fire beheld what
seemed to be a headless apparition slowly approaching
them, till from the now troubled volumn of smoke the neck
and head of Seoras Glas appeared as he sat down, and his
long beard and broad Tarn o' Shanter bonnet reeked for
fully five minutes longer.
Then there are several of the young men and young
women of the township, the latter busily knitting stockings
of many bright colours for their fathers, brothers, or sweethearts,
and the former doing nothing beyond smoking
clay pipes and exchanging furtive but eloquent glances
with the coy maidens.