[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

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THE LAIKD O CHANGUE.
Then up the brae he nimbly scour'd,
And now and then he rested,
And warily around him glower'd
Lest, unawares, molested.
On Craiganraiie's tap at last
His feet he firmly planted,
Within twa rings* he fenced him fast,
Then showed a fj'ont undaunted.
Whiles in the dark he glower'd aroun'
Whiles to the left he glinted
Whiles watch'd their rising through the grun'
Till patience maist he tint it.
At length a rustlin' din he hears
Behind and eke before him
A closing ring of white appears.
Like ghaists wi' grave-claes o'er them.
Then, wi' a wild unearthly yell,
They closely gather'd near him ;
But, ere they wist, the foremost fell
Changue mortally had spear'd him !
The trusty spear, an ell or sae,
Gaed through his body gorin'
An' heels-o'er-head quick doon the brae,
He row'd and tumbl'd roarin'.
* On the conical top of the green hill of Craganrarie, where the indomitable ^
Changue took up his position, are two foot-prints, which tradition asserts to be
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his, indented deeply in the surface, and around which, at about a sword's ;
length from the centre, are the " two rings" or circles which he drew around ;
him, also strongly marked in the sward. Neither on them, nor on the foot- S
prints, does the grass ever grow, although it thrives luxuriantly around the very t
edges of the mysterious markings.
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In bygone times, when it was no uncommon thing to traffic in Satanic influ- S
ence, it was the universal practice to draw a circle of protection around the per- \
son of the conjuror, before summoning his sable majesty to ajjpear, round and
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roiuid which he still kept running so long as he was visible to mortal eyes. \
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