LOCH NESS LEGEND.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12398, 10 November 1934, Page 9

LOCH NESS LEGEND.

MAIDEN’S SPIRIT IMPRISONED

CRUEL QUEEN BEIRA!

. Loch Ness still holds her secret! After years of undisturbed calm beside the great northern highway she is now the centre of attention, says ft writer in the “Sydney Alorning Herald.” One wonders whether this aristocrat of old Scotland is not smiling to herself at the stir she has created by her innocent little ruse, whether in her blue waters she is proudly nursing the “monster” she presents in tantalising glimpses to a curious, world. 'One by one, in twos and threes, they come to “stand and stare” ; in every ripple of her surface lurks the possibility of “something” appearing-—perhaps tlie glimpse of a weird head or the mysterious swish of a tail. This clever old lady of the loch knows well the allure of favours host-owed in small quantities! Tn his book of “Wonder Tales from Scottish Alyths and Legends,” Air. Donald Mackenzie has reawakened for us the fascinating ancient beliefs still lovingly repented in the GaeliosDonking parts of Scotland during ilm long; dark winter nights when friends meet and hold what they call a “ceilidh.” Mon and women who are able to repeat poems and stories handed down from tlie early inhabitants of Scotland are highly thought of by the Gaels. In the crofter’s home the scent of the peat fire fills the room' as the storyteller holds his listeners spellbound with tales of the cruel Queen Beira: “Ab! she was a fearsome body, was Queen Beira,” the voice was saying. “Tn the days of old when the Gaelic people had no calendars to guide them in the seasons, the elements were controlled hv Beira—the Queen of Winter, and Bride—the lovelv ladv of Summer. Everyone loved Bride, but feared the uglv Beira ; she was so toll, so cruel, and so old. Tt was she who. formed the lochs and mountains of Scotland: she had raniiv servants t.o help her in her work, and the maiden Nossn was one of thc-m.

“Beira had several, wells in the bens from which she drew water every day. One of these was in Invernesshire. and Nessa- was given charge* of it. She had to see that if was covered with a slab of stone each day at sunset, and at sunrise she had to uncover it again. One night Nessa was late in going to the well, and when she reached it she was dreadfully frightened because she found the water was rushing out from it. Poor little Nessa! ..She didn’t know what io do. She ran away thinking she would he drowned if she stayed. Nothing escaped the eye of old Beirn ; she was sitting on ten of Ben Nevis and she saw what had happened. She was terribly angry, and called after Nessa : ‘You wretched girl, you have not done your duty, and for punishment I will change you into a river and yon will run for ever and ever.’” The storyteller paused, and sighed. “Her name was Nessa. and so vou see that wasdiow the loch became Loch Ness and the river the River Ness. It flows on and on under the six'll of the Winter Queen, and the spirit of the maiden is imprisoned in its depths. Even now slio is not free of the cruel queen; two of Reira’s sons watch over her.” “How do they do that?” one of the listeners asked.

“Well, there is a mountain on either side of Loch Ness, and on each is a fooar, or giant—both sons of Beira. They are rivals. One loves the daylight, and the other loves the darkness. Kvcry morning at dawn one fooar flings across -Loch Ness ft white boulder. When the boulder goes through the air the sky becomes bright. Every evening the oilufooar flings across the loch a black boulder, and the sky grows dark. The rivals can throw their boulder only once in every twenty-four hours. When the white boulder is flung it strikes the night fooar and he falls down in a. swoon. He docs not recover until evening; then he rises, and, in turn, flings his black boulder and strikes down his ■ brother rival, who then lies unconscious until tlie dawn. . . . And so, dnv and itightcomes to Loch Ness. . . .’

SOLVED AT LAST! REMAINS OF GERMAN AIRSHIPSAYS NON-EXISTENT PAPER. The mystery of Loch Ness has been solved! .The monster is not a monster—but a German airship which fell into the loch during the war. At least, that is the solution of a Glasgow paper published on September 3. Tlie editor was careful to point, out, that what he had published was taken from a Danish paper, which quoted from a. Paris newspaper, which is alleged to'’have'reproduced a statement in the “British Air Force Gazette,” published at. Croydon. No one has ever hoard of the “British Air Force Gazette,” published at Croydon. But that, observed tho “Daily Mail,’’ is a detail, and one that perhaps should not be mentioned—for it ruins a remarkable story. This “Gaz-

otto” is credited with having stated that the British War Office sent a. commission of investigation to Loch Ness. Two divers found the remains of a German airship sunk during the war, with one of its gas containers still full. The divers are reported as saying that they saw a long, roundish, thick form, which rose and fell as the waves came against ’ it. The gondolas,.it is suggested, net as a kind of anchor to the envelope of the airship,, which accordingly keeps “bobbing up and down.” Hence the. monster. Even the staid officials of the War Office were moved to mirth, when their attention was drawn to the story. “The whole thing is ridiculous,” said a responsible official. The War Office has certainly, not sent a commission to Loch Ness, he added. It- is a- thankless task to spoil a good story, but it must be pointed out, as t-lie “Daily Mail” remarks, that the inventor of the tale overlooked one important fact. Everyone who reports having - seen'what they believed to be the monster, say? that it moves with great speed ancJ is not seen'in one spot, as an anchored object would be, but anywhere,up and down the 22 miles length or the) loch,