Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

328 MINSTRELSY OF
ciety, and, having prevailed upon her to carry him near
the shore of Colonsay, he escaped to land.
The inhabitants of the Isle of Man have a number of
such stories, which maybe found inWaldron. One bears,
that a very beautiful mermaid fell in love with a young
shepherd, who kept his flocks beside a creek much fre-
quented by these marine people. She frequently caress-
ed him, and brought him presents of coral, fine pearls,
and every valuable production of the ocean. Once upon
a time, as she threw her arms eagerly round him, he sus-
pected her of a design to draw him into the sea, and,
struggling hard, disengaged himself from her embrace,
and ran away. But the mermaid resented either the sus-
picion, or the disappointment, so highly, that she threw
a stone after him, and flung herself into the sea, whence
she never returned. The youth, though but slightly
struck with the pebble, felt, from that moment, the most
excruciating agony, and died at the end of seven days.
—Wald Ron's Works, p. I76.
Another tradition of the same island affirms, that one
of these amphibious damsels was caught in a net, and
brought to land, by some fishers, who had spread a snare
for the denizens of the ocean. She was shaped like the
most beautiful female down to thewaist, but below trail-
ed a voluminous fish's tail, with spreading fins. As she
would neither eat nor speak, (though they knew she had
the power of language,) they became apprehensive that
the island would be visited with some strange calamity,