SOME A'ANSIDE GHOSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 239, 6 October 1923, Page 17

SOME A'ANSIDE GHOSTS.

HOW THE GLEN WAS CLEARED. In days of long ago the beautiful green Glen of A'an and its surrounding mountains was the haunt of many a. fearsome ghost, -while fairies danced at midnight in tho leafy glades. Shaw, the historian, tells vs —"Scarce a shepherd but had seen apparitions and ghosts," while Stewart, in his "Highlands and Islands," writes:—"lt is believed they (ghosts) displayed few enviable qualities, for besides their continual depredations on the gooda and chattels of the' adjacent hamlets, they were ill-natured and cruel, and cared not a spittle for woman or child." Among those undesirable were a couple who inhabited the wilds of Aubraic, some miles above Tomintoul. The male was called Tuadh Mhoir Ben Baynac, after one of the giant bens of Glen A'an; the female Clashnichd Aubraic, from her abode. Ben Baynac treated his weaker companion with the grossest cruelty, and night after night her shrieks and cries of distress would at midnight echo among the slumbering mountains and send the eagle from his eyrie. But the greatest sufferer was James Owre of Gray, tenant of the farm of Ballrig of Delnabo. From the nearness of his dwelling to their haunts, it was the misfortune of himself and family to be disturbed night after night by Clashnichd'a cries and lamentation*..

Exterminating the Ghosts. One day, when out on the hills among his sheep, James Oyre happened to meet ■with the female ghost, and at once began to remonstrate with her on the disagreeable disturbances she caused himself and family. The poor ghost gave the farmer a sad account of tlu ill usage sh o received at the hands of Ben Baynac, and the worthy man at once determined to avenge her wrongs. She informed James that her cruel oppressor could not, like many phosts, be destroyed by being shot with a p :n~- sixpence, that his body was quite iTivnlr»«»rable to all the weapons of man, with the exception of a large mole on his left breast. One fine moonlight night a week later James Owre—the best marksman of his age—sallied forth to meet the monster. Ben Baynac rushed forth from his lair, yelling that he would soon make mince meat of the farmer. But catching sight of the mole, James fearlessly raised his bow, the arrow flew, and a yell from Ben Baynac announced that the aim was true and deadly. A hideous howl reechoed from the surrounding mountains, and the mighty Ben Baynac, like the' smoke of a shot, vanished into air. Opposite Ballbig is the haunted knoll of Aldichoish, where Lachlan Dhu Macpherson, a celebrated fiddler, returning to his home in Glen A'an after acting as musician at a ball in Tomintoul, encountered a huge bogle or ghost. Having been severely beaten by the doughty fiddler on a former occasion, the furious ghost burst out upon the fiddler, and after a desperate struggle, pushed him down a steep precipice, which at this spot overhangs the River A'an. But the birches and rowan tree 9 which clothe the banks proved the fiddler's friends. Lying on his back, caught among the branches, Lachlan seized his dirk and plunged it three times into the monster's body. He was fortunate enough to strike a vulnerable part, and so the glen was rid of one of its monsters.

dismasted during fearfully heavy weather. Captain Crowell, who was in command on this occasion, reported leaving London on June 3. All went well until August .4, when westerly gales set in, and on the 6th the ship met a very heavy gale attended by a furious sea, which broke on board, and washed away everything movable on deck. The wind veered to mc N.YV. en August S, and blew with hur-icane force, backing to N.N.E. on the 9th, and rapidly increasing again to a furious gale, accompanied by a most terrific sea. Early on August 10, a portion of her head-gear carried away, while the bowsprit (an iron one) broke off Oft outside the knight-heads, falling under her starboard bow. Shortly after this the wind suddenly shifted to the W.N.W., blowing with the force of a tornado, and attended with